You may not realize it but the hidden health benefits of archery are numerous including improved mobility, strength and balance. Doctors often recommend archery for people with health problems such as osteoarthritis or neurodegenerative diseases.
The health benefits of archery have been well-documented.
It is a sport that can be done indoors or outdoors, and the shooting of an arrow can be beneficial for both mental and physical health.
It also improves your hand-eye coordination and the muscles required for shooting.
Studies have found that, over time, children who are involved in archery are more likely to develop improved cardiovascular and fitness levels as well as a stronger grip. There’s no doubt about it, children who engage with archery will lead happier and healthier lives.
The Top 10 Hidden Health Benefits of Archery
1. Improves Heart Health
Archery is highly aerobic exercise that can be done by almost every member of the family. If you’re an older person you can do it without any problem, and for younger people it gives them the ability to grow muscles and get strong while having fun.
Archery also places less stress on the joints than some other sports like running or basketball because it is based more on important muscle control such as when drawing a bow.
2. Reduces Pain and Inflammation
Archery is a great way to get in shape as it can be done by people who may not enjoy running or may have some other physical problem that prevents them from running. Archery forces you to use muscles in your body that might not normally be used if, for example, you’re an average person who enjoys walking for exercise.
This includes your legs, for example, since you’re holding and using a bow, drawing the string back and shooting. By using this muscle group more regularly, you’ll actually benefit more as time goes on due to increased strength and flexibility.
3. Boosts Immunity and Reduces Stress Levels
Archery is a fun way for your body to enhance its immune system by pumping stress hormones and adrenal hormone (epinephrine, norepinephrine) for extended periods of time.
Just like working out on a treadmill can cause your cortisol levels to spike, archery forces you to increase the work you’re doing in order to pull back the string of the bow.
This can put more stress on your body because you’re essentially forcing yourself to work harder than you would normally if you were just walking through the park.
Nevertheless, it will make you stronger and healthier.
Archery is also an excellent way to boost your cardiovascular system. The muscle work that you’re doing in archery will force your heart to pump harder than normal. This will help you lose weight as well as keep you healthy and fit.
4. Improves Steadfastness and Confidence
Archery can enhance confidence for children who may not feel very confident because of their lack of coordination or their limited motor skills, for older people who need to focus on maintaining balance, and for athletic people who want a way to improve their overall health without being able to participate in physical activities such as running or basketball.
5. Improves Posture and Improves Strength
Archery involves a lot of balance, drawing back the bow, and then releasing the arrow or shot. All of these areas are important for maintaining good posture because you become more coordinated, steady, and stable through archery.
It also develops muscle strength and endurance as well as improves grip strength, all of which are important for injury prevention in future years.
Additionally, having good posture helps prevent health problems such as back injuries due to poor back support or fatigue from strain over time. Incorporating archery into your daily routine can help you improve your posture in a natural way without forcing you to do exercises that you may not enjoy due to their monotony.
6. Improves Your Flexibility
Archery does involve pulling back the bow which can be tough for people with arthritis.
However, even with soreness or pain, it’s important to keep trying because archery will strengthen your muscles around the joints which is essential in reducing pain and stiffness over time.
It also provides a great cardio workout by increasing your heart rate, respiration rate, and blood flow as you become more involved in the sport. It’s also a fun way to maintain flexibility as well as improve it so you can get into better physical shape along the way too.
7. Improves Vision by Increasing Hand-Eye Coordination
Archery can help improve your vision by increasing hand-eye coordination. This means that you’re able to develop more balance and control when it comes to aiming, shooting and pulling back the bow string.
For children who have had trouble with their coordination, archery is also an excellent way to enhance hand-eye coordination as well as help kids learn how to focus at the same time while increasing their motor skills movement and ability.
8. Improves Balance for Children and Adults
Archery also has an advantage because it only uses one hand while most sports force you to use both hands. This can help you develop your balance by forcing you to focus on what your body is doing instead of using both hands. Archery is also a nice way to build on coordination as well as overall motor skills for children who have special needs such as ADHD or autism spectrum disorders.
9. Great Fun for the Entire Family
Archery and bow hunting are great ways to spend time with your family, especially the kids and grandkids who probably don’t enjoy sitting in front of the TV or playing video games all day. Archery provides an excellent way to get the family together for some friendly competition, or simply enjoy spending quality time together.
This is especially true when all of you are engaged in a healthy activity that doesn’t involve sitting in front of the TV or playing video games. Being outside and enjoying nature while working on your skills at the same time is always a good thing for your health too.
10. Bows and Archery Equipment is Readily Available and Easy to Store
There are archery ranges located in many cities, towns and even local parks these days so it’s very easy to locate a place where you can shoot a bow or take an archery class.
There are also many retailers that carry the different types of bows and accessories you may need for archery. It’s a great way to get out into the open and enjoy nature, but also provides a chance to meet up with your friends and family too.
Conclusion
Archery is a great sport to add to your exercise regime because it gently exercises all of your major muscles simultaneously while improving posture, balance and coordination along the way. It’s fun, easy to do, and you don’t require a lot of equipment to get involved.
Why Does Exercise Make You Happy?
In some regard, archery is just like every sport, being healthy in body and mind results in more bullseyes. More and more people are realising that mental health is just as important as physical health in sport.
Maybe even more so!
We’ve all witnessed top level sports people going through their ‘mind setting’ routine before they commence, or between serves.
Just like other health problems, mental health issues can result in a minor affliction to life threatening.
They can have a devastating affect on our social confidence, our emotional stability and our psychological prosperity.
The most common forms of mental illness are the disorders –
- Mood disorders
- Anxiety disorders
- Eating disorders
- Personality disorders
Even though evidence of mental illness varies based on its form and gravity, general indicators of a mental health problem can incorporate a change in sleeping and eating routine, anger, withdrawing socially, a perception of hopelessness, protracted feelings of sorrow, suicidal thoughts, and alcohol and drug abuse.
It was approximated in 2019 that 30% of Americans between the ages of 18 years and 25 years and 26% of Americans between the ages of 26 years and 49 years were affected by mental illness of some sort.
A Healthy Archer is a Happy Archer
Exercise is the natural enemy of mental health problems. Exercise benefits those with anxiety through the relief of tension and stress, it increases mental and physical stamina, and reinforces the feeling of happiness by releasing of endorphins.
Exercise is a double whammy, it gives our mind a break from the negative thinking roundabout and it releases good things into our body.
How Does Exercise Affect Mood?
Archery is exercise, within minutes of completing a cardiovascular exercise, you’ll feel better even though you may be out of breath!
Once you start, serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine are released by your brain. These give you a positive and uplifting feeling so, on the days that you feel like doing nothing, grab the dog and take him for a spin down to the park and back, you’ll feel better.
According to studies, only a small percentage of us exercise on a regular basis to deal with stress. As already mentioned, it only takes a short time for exercise to make you feel better and it doesn’t need to gruelling.
In fact, low level exercise such as archery is more beneficial for stress reduction than high-intensity exercise.
Improve Your Archery Mental Resilience
When you’re doing tough exercise in a way that pushes you physically, you build on your archery mental resilience and if you have a higher mental resilience, you’re able to deal with higher levels of stress.
Having the ability to deal with more stress will make you a better archer.
For some, the idea of having increased mental strength is seductive, when you hit the level you’re shooting for you’ll start researching your next challenge.
In archery and sport in general, the serious contenders develop their own mental training regime, or their trainer does, so they can achieve more.
Increased mental resilience will help you in just about every facet of your life, you’ll have the ability to manage more of everything.
There’s solid data that suggests people who are more active do not suffer from depression as much as those who are less active.
And here’s a shocker… those folks people who were more active than most but quit ended up with higher levels of depression than folks who still exercise or start an exercise regime.
Not only is exercise a great treatment for depression, it’s becoming apparent that it will also prevent relapse.
So… there it is!
Cut the lame excuses. Go for a walk around your neighborhood, take up Tai Chi, try archery and be healthier and happier!
Is Archery a Good Hobby?
Archery is a fun activity that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. It is a great way to get outdoors and enjoy the fresh air.
Archery helps you Stay healthy and is also low impact, so it can be enjoyed by people with limited mobility. It also promotes focus and self-control and is a great way to bond with friends and family members.
Archery can be a spectator sport or an activity that anyone can enjoy. It can be done in the wilderness, in a backyard or with friends in a park.
Many archers who tinkered with archery earlier in life have ended up lifelong enthusiasts.
How to start archery?
You can start archery by simply buying a bow and some arrows. You don’t have to sell an arm and a leg to get started, a low end bow will do just fine.
If you want to get serious about it from the get go, buy yourself a good bow and some decent arrows first up!
You will get better performance from good quality equipment and it will last much longer. Bows are like cars – they are all made out of similar materials but vary in price according to what features you want and what brand you buy.
Archery is a great way to get in shape.
While you are shooting, your body and mind will bear working work hard evaluating the target, holding the bow, drawing back the string and finally releasing it.
However, if you don’t practice properly, your muscles usually tighten up. But even if you don’t stay in shape, archery is still a healthy activity to participate in. It improves your balance, strength and agility which all come in handy as you get older.
Archery also reduces stress.
Many people have found that archery can reduce stress levels. It has been described as a form of meditation and many people practice archery as a form of therapy. If you think about it, you’re concentrating on something else besides your daily problems when you are involved in archery.
How Hard is Archery?
It’s not hard to learn archery. Strap on a bow, pull back an arrow and let fly at your target. That’s the easy part, but the hard part is getting good enough to compete with your friends and possibly fellow club members.
in high-level competitions split-second decisions and razor-sharp accuracy separate the winners from the losers.
So why do so many people give up… is archery hard to learn?
Some people think that if they don’t pick up a bow and arrow and shoot straight right away that it’s just beyond their ability but it’s not out of their realm there simply haven’t learnt the basics yet.
Learning archery can be frustrating and at times, you may think you’re never going to be good enough and feel like giving up, I know I did!
If you practice by shooting close to the target, which is a good way to begin, you’ll hit it more often which will spur you on. Around 10 to 12 feet is an ideal distance to start off with.
It’s like hitting a great shot in golf, it keeps you coming back.
You can learn basic technique within the first few weeks and the majority of archers improve their accuracy quite quickly.
To compete in archery competitions, you need to be accurate and consistent and it can take quite some tine to get to that level.
And, if you aren’t utilising correct techniques, it will be difficult for you to maintain consistency.
Archery is a sport the relies heavily on technique more than many other sports so focus on that and you will be heading in the right direction.