Few archers warm up or do supplementary exercises
5 studies · 611 archers measured
The summary today
The claim holds two things together, and the studies pull them apart. On warming up, the oldest figure is also the only one in favour: in 1971, of 122 kyudo practitioners, only one in four said they warmed up or did exercises beyond shooting. In recent samples of competitive archers, by contrast, warming up is the rule: 86 per cent of 156 Indian archers do it in 2017, and 88 per cent of 200 young elite archers at the European youth championships in 2024, for about a quarter of an hour; in Korea too, competitive archers warm up for 17 minutes on average, with the time shrinking to 10 or 11 minutes in university and company teams. On supplementary exercise the picture runs the other way and holds: 85 per cent of the Indian archers do no gym work for the shoulder, and among 75 German competitive archers only 22 per cent add strength training related to shooting. Cooling down also remains uncommon, done by fewer than half of the young archers at those European championships. The studies point in opposite directions, then, because they measure two different habits: today almost everyone warms up, and few do strength work. All of them are questionnaires, and they report what archers say they do, not what they do.
Also phrased as: "warming up before shooting"; "supplementary exercise for archers"; "gym work for the shoulder"; "cooling down after shooting"; "physical preparation of archers"
In practice
It is often said that archers arrive at the range, string the bow and start shooting, and that work away from the shot, from shoulder strength to cooling down, is the part nearly everyone skips.
Evidence
-
1971
For Kyudo archers Published later
122 kyudo practitioners aged 18 to 78, by questionnaire: only 25 per cent warm up or do supplementary exercises. The two habits are counted together, and the authors read their scarcity as one of the reasons for the complaints they found, but that is their comment, not a measurement.
An orthopaedical analysis of the kyudo athlete · Masanobu Tomizawa, Hitoshi Furuya, Sadayoshi Toriyama, Tadahiko ONO
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1971
Context Kyudo archers Published later
In the same sample only 25 per cent had seen a specialist: the authors explain this by the fact that these small repeated traumas rarely limit daily life.
An orthopaedical analysis of the kyudo athlete · Masanobu Tomizawa, Hitoshi Furuya, Sadayoshi Toriyama, Tadahiko ONO
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2017
Against Archers Published later
156 Indian competitive archers: only 22, about 14 per cent, skip the warm-up (14 of 85 among those with shoulder pain and 8 of 71 among those without), and 34, about 22 per cent, skip the cool-down. The great majority warm up.
Prevalence of Shoulder Pain in Competitive Archery · Jasleen Kaur Grover, Akhoury Gourang Kumar Sinha
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2017
For Archers Published later
In the same sample 133 of 156 archers, about 85 per cent, do no gym work to strengthen the shoulder (71 of 85 among those with pain and 62 of 71 among those without).
Prevalence of Shoulder Pain in Competitive Archery · Jasleen Kaur Grover, Akhoury Gourang Kumar Sinha
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2021
For Archers Published later
75 German competitive archers (target, 3D and field): 2.4 ± 1.3 sessions and 4.3 ± 2.7 hours of training a week, with 10.4 years of experience on average; only 22 per cent do strength training related to shooting and 7 per cent play another sport that loads the upper limb. 68 per cent have a mainly sedentary job.
Unilateral and bilateral training competitive archers differ in some potentially unhealthy neck-shoulder region movement behaviour characteristics · Mareike Schmitt, Lutz Vogt, Jan Wilke, Daniel Niederer
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2021
Context Archers Published later
58 Korean competitive archers: warm-up of 17.2 ± 12.7 minutes on average, 16.8 in middle school, 28.7 in high school, 10.2 at university and 11.1 in company teams. The warm-up is there, but it gets shorter in adult teams. Regional journal.
Shoulder Pain Caused by Injuries in Korean Elite Archers · Young-Sook Kim, Doo-Sup Kim, Ji-Su Shin, Sung-Hwa Kim, Bum-Seok Lee, Ji-Su Park, Won-Gil Cho
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2024
Against Archers Published later
200 archers aged 13 to 20 at the European youth championships: 88 per cent warm up (176 of 200), for 14.2 ± 11.6 minutes, and 73 per cent stretch before shooting. Only 44 per cent cool down (88 of 200), and 58 per cent stretch after shooting.
Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.
Status history
- 1971 Reported The first figure comes from a questionnaire of 122 kyudo practitioners: only 25 per cent say they warm up or do supplementary exercises, and the same share have seen a doctor about their complaints. One sample, a single discipline, and the two habits counted together: reported.
- 2017 Contested Among 156 Indian competitive archers the two halves of the claim come apart. Only 22, about 14 per cent, skip the warm-up, so the great majority warm up; 133, about 85 per cent, do no gym work for the shoulder at all. The same study runs against the claim on warming up and in its favour on supplementary exercise: contested.
- 2021 Contested Two new samples confirm the split. Among 75 German competitive archers, with just over two sessions and about four hours of training a week, only 22 per cent add strength training related to shooting and 7 per cent another sport that loads the arms. In 58 Korean competitive archers the warm-up lasts 17 minutes on average, but shrinks to 10 or 11 in university and company teams. Supplementary work remains rare, warming up does not: the status holds.
- 2024 Contested The largest sample, 200 young elite archers at the European youth championships, shows 88 per cent warming up, for about 14 minutes, while only 44 per cent cool down. For the warm-up half it is the second study against; for the supplementary-exercise half the 2017 and 2021 data remain in favour: contested.
Related
Related articles
- At what age can you start archery? A child is not a small adultWhen children can start archery, which bow young competitors choose, how much draw weight matters and what the data say about pain in young archers.
- Warming up before shooting: what static stretching, dynamic stretching and foam rolling changeStatic stretching, dynamic stretching or foam rolling before you shoot: what studies on archers measured, how much it moves the score and where the data stop.
- Injuries in archery: where they happen and how to prevent themFew serious injuries, frequent overuse: where archers get hurt, what the studies say about risk, and what can be done to prevent the damage.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Few archers warm up or do supplementary exercises (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/archers-warm-up-supplementary-exercise
@misc{campagna2026_riscaldamentopocopraticato,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Few archers warm up or do supplementary exercises},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/archers-warm-up-supplementary-exercise},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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