A strength programme lowers the archer's heart rate under exertion

1 study · 30 archers measured

A single study says so, small and in a questionable venue. Thirty Turkish archers aged 18 to 20: fifteen added three hours of strength work a week for twelve weeks, with machines, weights, grip exercises and bodyweight work, and fifteen did not, in groups formed without randomisation. In the training group heart rate measured right after an exertion fell from 130.6 to 126.5 beats per minute (p = 0.022), and resting heart rate from 77.6 to 74.4 without reaching significance (p = 0.070); in the control group nothing changed. Heart rate was counted with a stethoscope over fifteen seconds, the paper does not describe the exertion it follows, and each group is compared with itself rather than with the other. Four fewer beats in fifteen people may also come from getting used to the test, and heart rate while shooting was not measured. Because of the venue, the registry reports the study but does not use it to decide the status, which remains not studied.

Also phrased as: "strength and heart rate in archers"; "gym work and heart rate in archery"; "physical preparation lowers heart rate"; "exercise heart rate and strength training"

In practice

It is said that physical preparation also helps archers reach the end of a competition with a calmer heart, because a trained body works less hard to hold the bow for hundreds of arrows.

Evidence

2017
Context Archers Published later

Venue with questionable editorial standards: this result does not count towards the status. 30 male archers aged 18 to 20 from the youth sports team in Elazığ, Turkey: 15 did strength work three times a week for an hour over twelve weeks (machines, weights, grip exercises, pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups) and 15 were controls, in groups not randomised. Heart rate after exertion from 130.62 to 126.47 beats per minute (-4.15; p = 0.022), against 132.38 and 132.00 in the control group (p = 0.927). Heart rate was counted with a stethoscope over 15 seconds right after an exertion that is not described, and each group is compared only with itself.

The Impact of Hand Grip Strength Exercises on the Target Shooting Accuracy Score for Archers Questionable venue · Süreyya Yonca Sezer
2017
Context Archers Published later

In the same study resting heart rate falls from 77.62 to 74.43 beats per minute without significance (p = 0.070), and body weight does not change (p = 0.448). The score over 12 arrows rises in the training group from 68.10 to 89.71, against 64.42 and 67.66 in the control group: that is the outcome the study was after, and heart rate is a side measure.

The Impact of Hand Grip Strength Exercises on the Target Shooting Accuracy Score for Archers Questionable venue · Süreyya Yonca Sezer

Status history

2017 Not studied The first and only study on the question: in 30 Turkish archers, fifteen doing twelve weeks of strength work and fifteen non-randomised controls, heart rate measured after an exertion falls by four beats per minute in the training group and stays put in the other, while resting heart rate does not change significantly. The exertion is not described, the groups are not compared with each other and the journal has questionable editorial standards, which by rule never decide a status: the registry reports the study, and the status remains not studied.

Research lines

Where there are no studies on archers, every decision starts from a written hypothesis and is checked against the data over time.

See the programme

Cite

APA

Campagna, M. (2026). A strength programme lowers the archer's heart rate under exertion (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/strength-training-exercise-heart-rate

BibTeX

@misc{campagna2026_forzafrequenzacardiacasforzo,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {A strength programme lowers the archer's heart rate under exertion},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/strength-training-exercise-heart-rate},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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