A relaxation programme lowers an archer's resting arousal
1 study · 13 archers measured
The summary today
There is a single study, of thirteen good-level Korean university women archers who practised progressive muscle relaxation for twelve weeks, three sessions a week of fifteen to twenty minutes, with no comparison group. The resting measures point in different directions. Diastolic pressure falls slightly, from 69.8 to 67.5 millimetres of mercury, and slow electrical activity in the brain rises by one to three hundredths at four of eight sites, the frontal ones and one temporal. Heart rate, on the other hand, does not change significantly (from 73.8 to 69.7 beats), and neither do systolic pressure or beta activity, at any of the eight sites. With half the indices moving and half standing still, no control group and eight comparisons made without correction, it cannot be said that the programme lowers arousal; and none of the measures concerns shooting.
Also phrased as: "jacobson's progressive relaxation"; "muscle relaxation for archers"; "lowering arousal"; "relaxation techniques in archery"
In practice
Archers are advised to fit progressive relaxation into their training week, on the idea that a body used to letting go of tension arrives at competitions less aroused.
Evidence
-
2014
For Archers Published later
13 Korean university women archers, twelve weeks of progressive relaxation, three sessions a week of 15 to 20 minutes: resting diastolic pressure falls from 69.83 to 67.5 millimetres of mercury (p=0.03), while systolic pressure does not change significantly (from 116.66 to 113.00, p=0.82). No control group.
The Effect of EEG And Physiological Changes To Participation in Progressive Relaxation Technique Of The University Archery players · Sang-Nam Nam, Soo-Woong Park
-
2014
For Archers Published later
In the same study the relative power of slow electrical activity, which the paper calls alpha but defines as 0.5 to 3.99 Hz, rises at four of eight sites: Fp1 from 0.36 to 0.39, F3 from 0.38 to 0.39, F4 from 0.37 to 0.39, T3 from 0.45 to 0.47, all with p=0.04 and no correction for multiple comparisons. Fp2, T4, P3 and P4 do not change, and the parietal sites started from the highest values (0.62).
The Effect of EEG And Physiological Changes To Participation in Progressive Relaxation Technique Of The University Archery players · Sang-Nam Nam, Soo-Woong Park
-
2014
Against Archers Published later
After the twelve weeks resting heart rate does not change significantly: from 73.83 to 69.66 beats per minute, p=0.18.
The Effect of EEG And Physiological Changes To Participation in Progressive Relaxation Technique Of The University Archery players · Sang-Nam Nam, Soo-Woong Park
-
2014
Context Archers Published later
Resting beta activity does not change at any of the eight recorded sites either, with p between 0.28 and 0.92: values rise slightly almost everywhere, but never significantly.
The Effect of EEG And Physiological Changes To Participation in Progressive Relaxation Technique Of The University Archery players · Sang-Nam Nam, Soo-Woong Park
Status history
- 1999 Not studied Relaxation enters the research on archers with the flotation tank, but measured during shooting and after a single session. What a programme lasting weeks leaves in an archer at rest nobody has yet measured: there is no evidence on the question.
- 2014 Contested The first and only study arrives: thirteen Korean university women archers, twelve weeks of progressive relaxation, three sessions a week. Diastolic pressure falls from 69.8 to 67.5 millimetres of mercury and slow electrical activity rises slightly at four of eight sites. The rest does not move: resting heart rate stays where it was, as do systolic pressure and beta activity at all eight sites, and the rise in slow activity leaves out the parietal sites altogether. It is a before-and-after design with no control group, and its indices of arousal point two ways: contested.
Related
Related articles
- How fired up you need to be to shoot well: individual bands, distance and relaxationIs there a right level of arousal for shooting well? What the studies say about individual bands, shooting distance and relaxing before an end.
- Meditation, mindfulness and yoga in archers: what moves and what does notWhat meditation, mindfulness and yoga change in archers: the studies find more effect on attention and on how archers feel than on the score.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). A relaxation programme lowers an archer's resting arousal (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/progressive-relaxation-resting-arousal
@misc{campagna2026_rilassamentoattivazioneriposo,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {A relaxation programme lowers an archer's resting arousal},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/progressive-relaxation-resting-arousal},
note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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