Anyone who has ever participated in any form of archery is well aware of the joys that the sport has to offer. Social interaction with fellow archers, competition among peers, and satisfaction with gradual self-improvement are just a few reasons for the sport’s tremendous popularity. However, there is a critical benefit of archery that many often overlook.
Perhaps archery's most valuable benefit is its numerous health benefits. Those who regularly participate in the sport often find themselves with an overall healthier lifestyle as a result. Running for a calculator for your arrows and comparing every time shows your improvement in health and archery.
The following are a number of the most critical health benefits presented to those who jump headlong into the sport of archery.
Increased Strength
One of the most significant and easily recognized of all archery-related health benefits is that related to increased physical strength. Drawing a compound bow, especially repetitively, can be pretty strenuous to many of the body’s muscle groups. Over some time, this results in an increase in muscle mass, strength, and stamina.
The most significantly impacted muscle groups are those in your arms, back, and chest. In much the same way that using workout equipment at your local gym forces these muscle groups to adapt to the demands placed upon them, shooting a bow forces them to do so.
The muscle groups strengthened during regular archery practice are also used at many points throughout a typical day. Regular exercise of this nature can also keep you limber as the aging process takes its toll.
Cardiovascular Exercise
Archery is a beautiful way of exercising your body’s most vital muscle, the heart. Every time you draw a bow, your heart rate increases, and calories are burned. In turn, this facilitates weight loss and maintains heart health.
Archers often walk more than they realize during a single practice session as they retrieve their arrows. Additionally, those interested in bowhunting gain secondary exercise as they travel to and from their hunting destinations.
Contrary to when running or using a treadmill, the sport of archery provides its participants with a form of exercise that is passive in nature. While you are not conscientiously making an effort to exercise, you are indeed doing so and finding vast enjoyment along the way.
Stress Relief
For many archers, shooting their bow is a fantastic stress reliever. Archery provides an individual with the tranquillity of being outdoors while allowing them to focus solely on the task, enabling most to forget the day's problems and leave their worries behind.
This is of immense value, as the effects of stress on the body can be far direr than one might realize. Excess stress has been linked to such health conditions as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, all of which can wreak havoc if left unchecked.
By shooting your bow for one hour several days a week, you can not only put your mind at ease but potentially prevent future health issues. In a sense, you might say that the sport of archery can save its participants from an early demise in some instances.
Improved Hand-Eye Coordination
Another benefit of archery is the positive effect that it has on one’s hand-eye coordination. When shooting a bow, your eyes provide feedback to the brain, telling the rest of your body how it must react. The perception of distance, reactionary timing, and decision-making are heavily ingrained in archery and become honed with every shot.
The more an archer shoots, the better their hand-eye coordination becomes. With years of practice, this unique sensory function becomes relatively refined. This helps you become a better archer and ultimately benefits you when completing other daily tasks.
Hand-eye coordination comes into play far more frequently than we realize. From simple tasks like tying your shoe to multi-faceted processes such as driving a car, little in life does not rely upon it for success. In more ways than one, proficiency in archery also leads to ability in other areas of life.
Enhanced Focal Ability
Archery is more about focus than it is physical ability. Sometimes, you think so deeply about making a particular shot or how best to improve your form that all other thought falls by the wayside. In a world where multi-tasking is nearly a 24-hour occurrence, we seldom are allowed to put this level of deep thinking into one particular task at any given time.
Those who find consistent success as an archer learn to master this ability and remain laser-focused while at the range. This also typically bleeds over into many other segments of an archer’s life, making them more efficient at completing a particular task they have focused on.
The ability to thoroughly focus on the task one faces enhances problem-solving and cognitive thinking. As a result, archers, in many cases, are well-equipped to handle stressful situations when they present themselves.
Shooting Your Way To A Healthier Lifestyle
Though the reasons for the popularity of archery are almost too numerous, few are as essential or far-reaching as the health benefits of the sport. By simply practicing in your backyard a few times a week, your body and mind are given the stimulation they need to perform at their utmost under the vast majority of life’s circumstances.
Most importantly, this physical and mental conditioning is achieved while participating in an activity that is so undeniably fun that you cannot help but long for the next available chance to head to the range. After all, an exercise program that you enjoy is one that you are likely to stick to for the long haul.
If you have yet to join the millions of archers worldwide in experiencing all that is offered by taking a bow in hand, consider trying the wonderful sport of archery.
