More pounds raise the energy cost of each arrow

The summary today

The direct evidence comes from a single Japanese experiment from 1984, and it is clean. Ten university archers, five men and five women, shot with three draw weights each while their energy expenditure was measured: each arrow cost the men 0.47, 0.59 and 0.73 kcal at 32, 42 and 51 pounds, and the women 0.27, 0.33 and 0.40 kcal at 25, 35 and 45 pounds, with correlations between cost and draw weight of 0.70 in men and 0.84 in women. Twenty-four arrows in a row cost a man between 20 and 27 kcal: even with the heaviest bow, shooting remains a low-intensity activity, and heart rate returns to resting level a couple of minutes after the end of the series. In 1990 four elite archers point the same way with a different measure: when shooting, heart rate rises by about 3 beats per minute with the compound, which holds 30 pounds at full draw, and by 6 to 25 with the recurves, and the authors link the rise to the load held at full draw, without testing that link. That is still ten people and four, with draw weights in absolute terms rather than in proportion to each archer's strength, and estimating the cost of a session from the number of arrows works in men but overestimates it by 16 to 28 per cent in women.

Also phrased as: "more pounds, more fatigue"; "how much energy an arrow costs"; "energy expenditure in archery"; "calories burned in an archery session"; "heavy bow and fatigue"

Evidence

• 1984
  For Archers Published later

  10 Japanese university archers aged 19 to 22 (5 men, 5 women), three draw weights each, with and without retrieving the arrows. Cost per arrow: men 0.47, 0.59 and 0.73 kcal at 32, 42 and 51 pounds; women 0.27, 0.33 and 0.40 kcal at 25, 35 and 45 pounds; correlation with draw weight r=0.70 in men and r=0.84 in women. Twenty-four arrows in a row without retrieval: 20.3, 23.8 and 27.3 kcal in men, 14.2, 15.4 and 17.1 in women. Relative metabolic rate with arrow retrieval from 2.3 to 2.9 in men and from 1.8 to 2.3 in women: low intensity that rises with draw weight. Heart rate rises at once and returns to rest about two minutes after the end. Estimating a session as arrows times cost per arrow plus resting metabolism gives 98 to 99 per cent of the measured value in men and 116 to 123 per cent in women.

  Physical Fitness and Energy Metabolism of the Archers (Part 2) · Koji Tsuji, Takatsune Tsumiyama, Yoshiho Katayama

• 1990
  For Archers Published later

  4 elite archers (one male compound archer, one man and two women shooting recurve, one of whom also shot barebow), two sessions up to 100 days apart, 240 arrows. Heart rate rises significantly when shooting (p<0.05): about 3 beats per minute in the compound archer, whose bow drops from 60 to 30 pounds at full draw, and 6 to 25 in the recurve archers, with bows of 30 to 36 pounds. The authors write that the rise is linked to the load held at full draw, without a statistical test of that link. It is heart rate, not energy expenditure.

  Fine Body Movements and the Cardiac Cycle in Archery · David Keast, Bruce Elliott

Status history

1. 1984 Reported Ten university archers shoot with three draw weights each, and the cost of each arrow rises with the load: 0.47, 0.59 and 0.73 kcal in men at 32, 42 and 51 pounds, 0.27, 0.33 and 0.40 in women at 25, 35 and 45, with correlations of 0.70 in men and 0.84 in women. Twenty-four arrows in a row cost a man between 20 and 27 kcal, and even with the heaviest bow the intensity stays low. Draw weight changes within the same archer, so the design is sound, but it is ten people and a single study: reported.
2. 1990 Reported In four elite archers heart rate rises when shooting, by about three beats per minute with the compound, which holds 30 pounds at full draw, and by six to twenty-five with the recurve, and the authors link the rise to the load held at full draw. It is a second independent study pointing the same way, but with four people and an indirect measure of cost, so the status stays reported.

Related

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• How many calories does archery burn, from one arrow to a competition dayWhat one arrow costs at different draw weights, what a tournament day costs, and what the studies say about the intensity of shooting and body weight.
• What draw weight to choose: how to find it and when to change itWhat draw weight to choose and when to change it: marked versus actual poundage, how much strength to use, three criteria, young archers and each division.

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• 48 studiesThe heartbeat and the shot: heart rate and HRV since 1981
• 22 studiesThe archer's body: metabolism, energy cost and body weight since 1981

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