Strengthening the lower trapezius brings the draw closer to the line of force

The summary today

Two lower trapezius programmes have been tested on archers, and they do not point the same way. The first, randomised, followed thirty-one elite Korean recurve archers through eight weeks of four prone exercises with progressively heavier loads. At full draw the line running from the bow hand through the wrist and elbow of the drawing arm is not aligned with the arrow but deviates by about ten degrees, and in the trained group the deviation falls from 10.1 to 7.9 degrees, while in the control group it rises from 9.2 to 9.7, with a clear difference between the two groups; over the same period the shoulder blade on the drawing side drops by two and a half degrees. The result comes from a regional journal, though, the line is measured on video in a single plane, the trained group started almost a degree further from the arrow than the control group, and the score over fifteen arrows at seventy metres stays at 132 in those who trained. The second programme, twelve weeks in fourteen Taiwanese university archers assigned by preference, does not measure the line of force but the angles of the drawing shoulder in three dimensions, and sees no change in them: the arm stays where it was. It is a different measure and a weaker study, but it is the only other result, and it points the other way.

Also phrased as: "elbow in line with the arrow"; "training the line of force"; "lower trapezius and draw alignment"; "keeping the drawing shoulder down"; "draw force line exercises"

Evidence

• 2020
  For Archers Published later

  31 elite Korean recurve archers, university and high-school athletes in training, randomised with stratification by sex and experience into 16 exercising and 15 controls: eight weeks of four prone exercises, three times a week, with the load rising from 50-60 to 60-70 per cent of one-repetition maximum. The angle between the arrow and the line running from the bow hand through the wrist and elbow of the drawing arm, measured at full draw on high-speed video in a single plane, goes from 10.06 ± 1.18 to 7.94 ± 0.44 degrees in the exercise group and from 9.20 ± 1.26 to 9.67 ± 1.18 in the control group (time effect F = 17.40, p = 0.001; interaction F = 42.50, p = 0.001). At the start the exercise group was almost a degree further from the arrow, 10.06 against 9.20, and the paper does not compare the two groups at baseline on their own. The athletes were not selected for shoulder pain, although at the start they reported an average of 4.6 and 3.2 out of 10. A regional journal.

  Effects of Lower Trapezius Strengthening Exercise on Shoulder Pain, Function and Archery Performance in Elite Archers · Eunkuk Kim, Jinho Kim, Jinyoung You

• 2020
  Context Archers Published later

  The same study, the piece that would make the mechanism plausible: at full draw the scapular elevation angle falls from 81.50 ± 2.00 to 78.94 ± 2.79 degrees in the exercise group, while in the control group it goes from 80.00 ± 2.67 to 80.60 ± 3.50 (interaction F = 9.96, p = 0.004). Shoulder abduction, on the other hand, does not change, from 101.00 to 102.19 against 101.87 to 102.53 (interaction F = 0.31, p = 0.585): the shoulder drops, but the arm does not open further.

  Effects of Lower Trapezius Strengthening Exercise on Shoulder Pain, Function and Archery Performance in Elite Archers · Eunkuk Kim, Jinho Kim, Jinyoung You

• 2020
  Context Archers Published later

  The same study, where it stops: the score over 15 arrows at 70 m stays where it was, from 132.13 to 132.06 in the exercise group against 132.87 to 129.80 in the control group (interaction F = 1.40, p = 0.247). The line of force moves two degrees closer to the arrow and the target does not notice, at least over fifteen arrows.

  Effects of Lower Trapezius Strengthening Exercise on Shoulder Pain, Function and Archery Performance in Elite Archers · Eunkuk Kim, Jinho Kim, Jinyoung You

• 2022
  Against Archers Published later

  14 recurve archers from a Taiwanese university team, 7 exercising and 7 controls assigned by preference, twelve weeks of exercises centred on the lower trapezius; shoulder angles at release recorded with eight cameras at 100 Hz, six arrows at 5 m in a laboratory. On the drawing side abduction stays at 120 ± 4 degrees and horizontal extension goes from 147 ± 5 to 146 ± 5, and the two groups do not differ. The study does not measure the line of force, so it cannot say whether the elbow came closer to the arrow, but horizontal extension measures how far the drawing elbow goes round behind the arrow, and after the programme it does not move: it is a null result on the position of the arm, and it counts here as contrary. It is weaker than Kim 2020 (assignment by preference, seven per group). At one point the paper's discussion states that horizontal extension increases, contrary to its own table and to what it says a few lines earlier: the table is followed here.

  Twelve-Week Lower Trapezius-Centred Muscular Training Regimen in University Archers · Chien-Nan Liao, Chun-Hao Fan, Wei-Hsiu Hsu, Chia-Fang Chang, Pei-An Yu, Liang-Tseng Kuo, et al.

Status history

1. 1990 Not studied No one in the registry's bibliography had yet measured whether a shoulder exercise changes how well the drawing arm lines up with the line of force.
2. 2020 Reported The first study arrives, and it is randomised: thirty-one elite Korean recurve archers, stratified by sex and experience, eight weeks of lower trapezius strengthening. At full draw the line of force deviates from the arrow by about ten degrees, and in the trained group the deviation falls from 10.1 to 7.9 degrees while in the control group it goes from 9.2 to 9.7 (interaction F = 42.5, p = 0.001); the drawing-side shoulder blade drops in the same group. The result is clear but stands alone, the journal is regional, the line is measured on video in a single plane and the score in the same study does not change: a single study in favour, reported.
3. 2022 Contested A second lower trapezius programme arrives, twelve weeks in fourteen Taiwanese university archers assigned by preference, measuring the drawing shoulder in three dimensions rather than the line of force: abduction stays at 120 degrees and horizontal extension goes from 147 to 146, so the elbow goes no further round behind the arrow than before. It is a different measure from the Korean study's, and a weaker study, but it is a null result on the position of the arm, and with one study on each side the picture becomes contested.

Related

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• Exercises, tape and massage for the archer's shoulder: what has been testedLower trapezius work, scapular stabilisation, bands, kinesiology tape and massage: what they change in archers' shoulders and in the score.
• The string elbow: where it sits and what changes when it risesWhere the string elbow sits in strong archers, whether aligning it with the line of force earns more points, and what changes when it rises.

Research lines

• 39 studiesPhysical training interventions: what has been tested
• 28 studiesThe archer's shoulder: pain, injury and recovery

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