Hypothetical workout tailored for shooters?

Preparation, Preparedness & Prevention Fitness and Nutrition
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Anyone ever thought about designing a workout around building an ideal body type for shooters?

I know that we require alot of explosive leg strength, a VERY solid core and a stupidly strong back.

Sure, a specially designed workout for just shooters would be somewhat stupid since ANY good workout that promotes strength, speed and lean body mass would be ideal but im really looking for some specific routines that i can jump into, routines that have worked for some of you guys.

Anyone got anything that has worked for them where they’ve noticed an improvement in ability on the range?

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I can recommend 30/60’s or 60/120’s for the legs. Flutter kicks and sit ups for the core. Holding the push up position for as long as possible did wonders for my back.

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When I was still doing it regularly, I tried to tailor my workouts to shooting. Among other things I think that endurance is more important that brute strength and so I tended to work lighter weights for more reps rather than the opposite.

One thing that I think gets missed alot is shoulder-area strength endurance. Go to a class and watch people’s low-ready on TD1 vs. TD3.

I use exercises like these and these and these as well as tricep work.

Squats are good for general getting up and down.

I’m generally looking more to prevent soreness from a long class as well as keep my endurance up for the duration so that I can focus on the learning/training. If I was training for a competitive advantage I would probably change things up and work more towards short bursts.

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Low weight high rep shoulders and sustained shoulder weight always seemed to work for me. I can tell a big difference in my performance when I am in shape versus when I have let myself slide for a while. Hand/forearm and grip strength are also things that will increase performance. On these I think that constant flex ability makes the most difference.

I agree with the other opinons as far as core strength and explosive leg strength. However, I also think that legs should be high endurance.

I don’t view it as a shooter’s workout as much as a workout for fighters that fight with guns.

Just my opinon based off of my experience.

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Good response!

For me, i phrased the question this way because im not a gunfighter and never will be. Im simply a recreational shooter with an interest in self defense. Magpul Dynamics has instilled a desire in me to climb that ladder of excellence every day and part of that progression is physical training. I started the thread to get some feedback from the guys that do this far more often than i and depend on their physical prowess to save their lives.

Rob, without singling anyone out i wonder if we could design a drills night around physical fitness and how it translates into personal performance?

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LOL, don’t get me started! :stuck_out_tongue:

FWIW, I have a stage designed where you leave your magazine at the 0 yard line and you and your rifle begin at the 75. At the signal you are required to retrieve your magazine and finish the stage. Every time I have proposed using this stage it’s gone over like a fart in church.

Similarly, we once did a stage where the shooter was required to “fight” their way forward, retrieve the tool box that holds all the stakes and sledges (at least 25 lbs, probably more) and “fight” their way back to cover, shooting the carbine one-handed. People cried like you kicked their mothers in the nuts.

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That sounds AWESOME.

So when are we running that? Seriously…

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Great thread.

I’m currently in the camp of “just had surgery and getting myself back in the groove.”
Prior to surgery I was doing light weights with quite a few reps to try and build endurance. The doc cleared me for exercise a week ago so it’s back to work.

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Now that you mention it, I think we’ll do the tool box stage this coming Tuesday…

(hope I don’t blow my own back out doing it!)

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From experience I have seen the greatest results in increasing core strength, leg strength, speed, explosiveness, endurance, and slight increase in flexibility through plyometric exercises.

If exercises are done correctly, after a workout your core and legs should feel like jello :smiley:

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The one thing I would be tempted to look at is training what you want to do.

There are a certain number of positions etc, so make a kata and do it every morning.

Train your muscle memory.

Thing about your footing etc, so how to move, or face different directions.

Also what about doing all this training with a heavy fake gun.

A lot of martial artists do stuff like this, to make themselves smoother, and faster.

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I can definitely tell you’ve had some formal martial arts training. What areas have you studied?

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Take it to PM.

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TKD, Aikido, a lot of Judo, and Silat.

In the South East Asian styles, they do a lot of for want of a better description Heavy training. The argument being for almost all training, that the only way to train something is to do it, but if you train with something heavier, you get stronger, and more importantly faster.

They also are big into base, or foot work, and flow training. So it is really worth thinking about were your feet are, and how you plan to move them. Also how you move from one stance to another.

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I think an often overlooked aspect is controlling your heart rate.

Take a look at the biathlons, which are basically a norwegian drive by:D Cross country ski for a total of 20K:eek: and shoot at multiple targets using rifles at a distance of 50-250:eek:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHVhQOa6HH4

Cross country skiing is hard enough, but add in the factor of trying to take a shot with your heart at about 170bpm makes it interesting. I’d think this would be useful in longer stages in competion perhaps:confused:

Good prep for getting your heart rate down quickly would be sprints, burpees, jumping jacks, anything that gets the heart going,and after say, 2 min of burpees, rest one minute, repeat.

UFC fighter Forest Griffin used this technique to significantly drop his heart rate down during the 1min rest you get between fights. I can’t remember what his improvement was, but it was enough to make it totally worth it

Oh, and I also forgot! Forearms, shoulders, and back like you guys have been mentioning so far. for forearms, tie a piece of string around a weight plate or anything, attach the other end to a tube or cylinder that fits in your hands ( like, the same diameter as a TP roll) but strong enough to hold the weight up.
Give yourself about 4 feet of line, and then, with the cylinder/tube horizontal, line between your hands, palms down, rotate the tube, wrapping the line around, bringing the weight up. go all the way in with the line, and then let it out. BURNS BURNS BURNS:D

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I have wondered about taking some blue guns and filling them with lead(not that kind silly!). Would this be possible?

This way I could add them to my workout as dead weight.

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I was reading a thing to do with the new Steven Seagal show, and he was saying stuff about this. One thing to remember, they practice to do this. A lot of Martial arts do as well, you should be controlling your breathing, nightmare to get right.

The whole point of Kata which seems to get lost is to improve this stuff. It should not be about speed, but about getting the smallest little detail right. If you look at Tai Chi done at full speed, all of the breathing etc works to increase the power of the blow, and protect you from counter attacks.

The first time it all comes together can surprise the hell out of you. Someone distracted me once, and we had to fetch my partner from the other side of the room.

I wonder if you could just have a lead filled magazine?

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A good general program like this will get anyone into great condition and hits the essentials:

https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=28226&highlight=suspension+trainer

It’s general vs task/sports specific, but efficient and effective.