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One upper-body weights session leaves young archers sore two days later

1 study · 20 archers measured

ForContextAgainst2022202420262022, for, n = 202022, context, n = 20
Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

There is a single study, and the result is clear. Twenty young male archers at an Indonesian archery school, aged 12 to 16 according to the methods (13 to 16 in the study's abstract), did one session of lat pulldown, bench press and shoulder press, three sets of twelve with 60 to 90 seconds of rest: at forty-eight hours none was free of pain, half marked it at the top of the 0 to 10 scale and another quarter between 7 and 9, while only two boys out of twenty reported mild pain. It is, however, a single measurement, reported by the boys themselves, with no comparison against archers who only shot and no indication of how used to weights they were; and nobody looked at whether that soreness changed their arrows in the days that followed. It says that in boys of that age one weights session can leave its mark for two days, not that regular gym work does the same, nor that it applies to adult archers or to girls.

Also phrased as: "muscle soreness after the gym"; "delayed onset muscle soreness in archers"; "doms after weights"; "how long to recover after the gym before shooting"

In practice

Archers are advised not to put a gym session the day before an important technical session or a competition, because sore muscles change how the shot feels.

Evidence

  • 2022
    For Archers Published later

    20 male archers aged 12 to 16 at an Indonesian archery school, free of injury, one session of lat pulldown, bench press and shoulder press, 3 sets of 12: on a 0 to 10 visual scale at 48 hours, maximum pain (10) in 10 out of 20, severe (7-9) in 5, moderate (4-6) in 3, mild (1-3) in 2, none pain-free. Descriptive analysis only; a regional journal.

    Analisis Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (Doms) Pasca Latihan Beban Pada Atlet Panahan Science Archery School · Roy Try Putra, Yadi Jayadilaga, Bagus Aryatama

  • 2022
    Context Archers Published later

    Same study, the limits of the measurement: a single reading at 48 hours, with no value before the session, no group that only shot, no load in kilos and nothing on how used to weights the boys were; rest between sets was 60 to 90 seconds. That half the group picks the extreme value of the scale suggests it was used more as a mark than as a measurement. The age range is 12 to 16 in the text and 13 to 16 in the abstract.

    Analisis Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (Doms) Pasca Latihan Beban Pada Atlet Panahan Science Archery School · Roy Try Putra, Yadi Jayadilaga, Bagus Aryatama

Status history

  1. 1990 Not studied No one in the registry's bibliography had measured how sore archers are after a weights session.
  2. 2022 Reported A single study, but with a clear result: twenty young male Indonesian archers, one session of lat pulldown, bench press and shoulder press at three sets of twelve, and at forty-eight hours none is free of pain. Half report the top of the scale, another quarter severe pain, and only two out of twenty mild pain. It is a single self-reported measurement, with no comparison against a session of shooting only: reported.

Related

Related articles

Studies describe groups of archers, and your own numbers show how far the finding applies to your shooting.

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Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). One upper-body weights session leaves young archers sore two days later (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/soreness-after-weights

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_indolenzimentodopopesi,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {One upper-body weights session leaves young archers sore two days later},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/soreness-after-weights},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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