More training days a week go with more overuse injuries
5 studies · 715 archers measured
The summary today
The only evidence in favour is a 2016 conference abstract: among 239 archers in Florida, those who train more days a week and more months a year report an injury slightly more often, but the correlation is weak (r between 0.15 and 0.17) and bow type matters just as much. Later studies of archers do not find the link again. Among 156 Indian university archers, those with shoulder pain shoot the same number of arrows a day and train the same hours a month as those without it; among 62 German and European archers, the European-level group trains 5.1 sessions a week against 2.8 and shoots more than twice as many arrows, yet 36.4% of them have had an overuse injury against 71.8% of the national-level group; among 58 Korean competitive archers, shoulder pain does not change with the number of sessions a day or with their length. The studies therefore point in opposite directions, and they all share one limit: they ask about load and injuries from memory, at a single point in time, so they cannot say which came first. Archers who got hurt may have cut back their sessions, and those who cope with heavy loads may have reached European level precisely because they get hurt less.
Also phrased as: "training every day causes tendinopathy"; "too much training and archery injuries"; "training frequency and overuse injuries"; "rest days prevent injuries"
In practice
Archers are told that shooting every day wears out the shoulder, and that rest days are the first defence against tendinopathy and other overuse problems.
Evidence
-
2016
For Archers Published later
239 recurve and compound archers in Florida, surveyed at competitions and in clubs: 43.5% report at least one archery-related injury, and having an injury correlates with training days a week and months a year at r between 0.148 and 0.167 (p < 0.05). A weak correlation, in a conference abstract without the full data.
Prevalence And Characteristics Of Archery-related Injuries In Archers · Bryan Prine, Amanda Prine, Trevor Leavitt, Joseph Wasser, Heather K. Vincent
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2016
Context Archers Published later
In the same sample bow type matters as much as training days (r = 0.186, p = 0.004): 53.9% of recurve archers have been injured against 35.3% of compound archers, and 70.7% of women shooting recurve. Nearly all injuries are overuse ones, mostly at the shoulder, and only seven cases are acute.
Prevalence And Characteristics Of Archery-related Injuries In Archers · Bryan Prine, Amanda Prine, Trevor Leavitt, Joseph Wasser, Heather K. Vincent
-
2017
Against Archers Published later
156 archers at the 2013 All India Inter University tournament, interviewed and with both shoulders examined: those with current shoulder pain shoot 145.2 ± 94.4 arrows a day against 143.5 ± 125.0 for those without (t = 0.09), and train 131.4 ± 67.8 hours a month against 139.6 ± 67.7 (t = 0.75), with no difference in yearly hours either. Pain is linked to previous pain (odds ratio 2.57), not to volume. It measures arrows and hours, not days a week.
Prevalence of Shoulder Pain in Competitive Archery · Jasleen Kaur Grover, Akhoury Gourang Kumar Sinha
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2018
Against Archers Published later
22 archers from the European championships and 40 from the German championships, with a retrospective questionnaire covering their whole career: the European group trains 5.1 ± 1.2 sessions a week against 2.8 ± 0.7 (p < 0.001) and shoots 696.5 arrows a week against 273.7 (p = 0.001), at 42.9 lb against 38.5, yet 36.4% of them have had at least one overuse injury against 71.8% of the national group (p = 0.007). It compares levels, not different loads in the same archer.
Acute and Overuse Injuries in Elite Archers · Claudia K. Niestroj, Volker Schöffl, Thomas Küpper
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2021
Against Archers Published later
58 Korean competitive archers from middle school to company teams, 40 of them with shoulder pain: between those with pain and those without there is no difference in the share training more than three team sessions a day (30.0% against 27.8%, p = 0.863), in the share training over a hundred minutes a day (45.0% against 33.3%, p = 0.404) or in years of practice (7.63 against 7.22, p = 0.793). A national journal, with load asked in broad categories.
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
Context Archers Published later
200 elite archers aged 13 to 20, training five days a week on average for about three hours and 163 arrows a session, half of whom report persistent pain related to shooting: their central sensitisation questionnaire score is not linked to weekly training frequency (r = 0.20, p = 0.775) or to session length. It measures persistent pain rather than injuries, and some of the reported coefficients do not match their p values.
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
- 2016 Reported The first data on archers arrive in a conference abstract: among 239 archers in Florida, those who train more days a week and more months a year report an injury slightly more often, nearly always an overuse one. The correlation is weak, r between 0.15 and 0.17, bow type matters just as much, and the full data have not been published. There is one association, captured at a single point in time: reported.
- 2017 Contested Among 156 Indian university archers examined during a championship, those with shoulder pain shoot the same number of arrows a day and train the same hours a month as those without it: 145 arrows against 144, 131 hours against 140. The study does not count days, but it measures the load that more days should bring, and finds no difference. One study in favour and one against: contested.
- 2018 Contested Among 62 German and European archers, the European-level group trains almost twice as many sessions a week (5.1 against 2.8) and shoots more than twice as many arrows, yet 36.4% of them have had an overuse injury against 71.8% of the national-level group. The comparison goes against the idea, but it is between different levels: archers who cope with heavy loads may have reached the top precisely because they get hurt less. The status stays contested.
- 2021 Contested Fifty-eight Korean competitive archers add another null result: between those with shoulder pain and those without, the number of sessions a day, their length and years of practice do not differ, with p values between 0.40 and 0.86. The evidence in favour is still a single weak result and the evidence against now comes from three studies, but all of them capture one moment and ask about load from memory: the status stays contested.
- 2024 Contested Two hundred young elite archers, training five days a week on average, show that persistent pain is common, with half of them reporting it, but their central sensitisation score does not follow weekly training frequency or session length. The study measures pain rather than injuries, so it does not change the count: the status stays contested, and nobody has yet recorded load as it happens.
Related
Related articles
- How many arrows per week: what the research says about training volumeHow many arrows archers really shoot, from club to elite, and what research says about hours and score, fatigue after 100 arrows, injury and load progression.
- Specific strength for archers: 8 exercises and why they matterEight specific strength exercises for archers, with the numbers behind them: which muscles work in the shot, which equipment to use, how to plan the week.
- 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). More training days a week go with more overuse injuries (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/training-days-overuse-injuries
@misc{campagna2026_giorniallenamentoinfortuni,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {More training days a week go with more overuse injuries},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/training-days-overuse-injuries},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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