So, I've been shooting my PVC "youth bow" for a little over a week.  I straightened out the limbs a bit and now it shoots quite well.   Went to Walmart and bought one of their cheap foam targets and a few cheapie carbon arrows.
Nice little bow!
So, I decided to dig out my "real" longbow, the osage orange job I made in 2007 ( I didn't think it had been that long but I dated the thing...)
Strung 'er up.... Could not draw it.  About halfway was the best I could manage.   This bow only draws about 45 pounds.  
I have not done much shooting if any at all for several years, but age creeps up and my shoulders have gotten worse... Looks like I need to get back on the Bowflex!

Exercise like a man! Do pullups from a tree, and pushups with a delightful tea candle below your chest! HOORAH! D8<

(For more intensity, use a lilac-scented candle to MAX YOUR PUMP!)

I used to be hardcore about pushups. Maxed out at 250 in a set. Did that for a while and then did nothing for a 3 months. Next time I tried to do pushups I barely scratched 100....It goes away really fast.

I never was all that big on them either. I've always favored [proper] crunches and squats, because they've always been a bit easier for me to see progress with.
I used to do push-ups the normal way (within a rep or two of failure for two or three sets with 1-2 minutes of rest, every other day) and it did little after the first week.

3 weeks ago, I started to take a third of my "reps to failure" rate, and do that many per set until I reach 100. Right now it's 5 pushups per set, for 20 sets. 7 times a week. (30 seconds of rest.) After two days, there was zero fatigue. I was as fresh as if I skipped a day, yet I was making significant increases.


Although I've been slacking lately. I'll go and exercise now that it's fresh in my mind  8-)

It does go quickly.  I was working out with a 65 pound bow and was at the point where I could have easily moved up to 75 pounds but I started slinging more and the whole bow thing went right out of my mind.  Kind of afraid to even draw it now as I don't want to see how far back my break has set me.

Get a book called "convict conditioning" . Real  training, real wor, NO gear, just bodyweigh results.

Regardless of waht you can do now, start at step 1 for all exersises.

Best program i have seen in 30 years, except for boot. And most of that was bodyweight.

I'm a big fan of do-it-yourself gear;  A way long time ago I read Jack LaLane's book and he had a great deal of stuff you could do with nothing, or with a few improvised items.  Chairs are very handy.
There's plenty of good "bodyweight" stuff to do.
However, that particular motion, the "drawing a bow" motion.... Rather hard to work those particular muscles without resorting to some sort of gear.
About as close as you could get would be some sort of supine pull-up, say with a bar across two chairs.
Doesn't quite give you the right range of motion.
Another would be the bent-over "rowing" motion with a weight.

This is sufficiently problematic that archery buffs have specific training tools for the purpose.   I've used elastic band exercisers in the past.  Now, I have this keen used Bowflex which you can set up to duplicate nearly any motion.
I can do an exact analog of the drawing motion with that.
Or you could just work on drawing the bow....  But if you're really down in terms of strength it's hard to complete the range of motion.

Draw the bow 1/3 of the way, hold for 10 seconds, 2/3s-10 seconds, full draw 10 seconds, let down in reverse, 2/3s, 1/3.  Repeat 10 times if possible.  If you can't get to full draw, as much as you can for 10 seconds.  Do this once a night for a week.  You should be able to get to full draw in about 3-5 days.  When you get to full draw, try to do two sets of 10.  When you can do it twice, you shouldn't have a problem shooting your bow.  If you want to go up in poundage, increase the number of sets.

You are right about the various exercises not working the muscles, the only exercise that duplicates drawing a bow is drawing a bow.  The various bands on the market are pretty much a bow, the bands flex instead of the limbs bending.  

perpetualstudent wrote on Aug 15^th, 2012 at 3:43pm:

I used to be hardcore about pushups. Maxed out at 250 in a set. Did that for a while and then did nothing for a 3 months. Next time I tried to do pushups I barely scratched 100....It goes away really fast.

:o I'd love to know what you did to get to 250.

I knew this real skinny guy who could do 200 in 2 minutes.

Oh I wasn't nearly that fast. To do all 250 took me about 10 minutes. So that's about 2-3 seconds per pushup. But I made sure that they were full pushups with as good form as possible.

I started just doing as many as I could with the goal of getting to 56 (which was one of the benchmarks I read in a book about the military). So everymorning before breakfast I did the pushups. This was in addition to my regular workout.  And then I just kept building. 56-60. 60 to 66. 66- 70. 70-75. And I wouldn't let myself lose pushups. Once I hit 60, that was my new minimum. Then I just picked the next interesting number and jumped. A lot of it is mental. Once I was at 200 and doing that for while then I jumped to 225.  It took a few months to build it up. And when I lost it it took me a couple to get back.

Now I don't do sets that long. Right now I'm doing sets of 25, with 10 sets of different types of pushups. Headstand pushups, diamond pushups, knuckle pushups, clapping pushups, burpees, 8 count body builders...etc. I wrote down the various types of pushups I know (also did research and got a couple of books from the library about bodyweight conditioning) and now I randomly select a mixture to pushup types and get to it. I need to start doing double sets some days, but I think I'm done with climbing that high in one set. 50 in a set is plenty for me. I've also been toying with bumping up to 12 sets. With sets it's much easier to add more.

Once you can push a particular exercise like pushups past a certain number of reps, you've arguably moved beyond strength-building and int the realm of endurance or even aerobics.
That's the rationale behind resistance for strength training.  Fewer, harder reps.

Last I did any serious reading in the field, serious strength training involves very few reps over several sets, each with increased weight and fewer reps, and each set done to failure point.
Note that this does not equate to ”body building" or huge muscle mass... It's the sort of thing serious athletes in almost all disciplines engage in.

There is a point at which it certainly becomes a matter of endurance strength rather than burst strength. And then you can get into the whole debate of slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers, aerobic vs anaerobic muscle action but I've read enough exercise guides from various eras that I really have no inclination to looking too deeply into those debates. They change every few years.

I would say that the type of training they engage in varies sport to sport. Boxers and MMA guys train for 3 or 5 minute rounds. Football players train for short intense bursts of energy followed by a recovery period. Soccer guys have to be able to run...forever basically  ;)

It does tie back though. Everyone does some strength training and some aerobic conditioning and some endurance. I remember I went to my university's nominal fee body makeup test and was told what my fat percentage was and all those stats. And asked the guy if I was in good shape, if I was fit, and he said "well, what's fit?" and this is a guy who did training as his job. It all depends on what you're looking to do with your body.

Exactly.  Look at some of the pro cycling "mountain goats".   Scrawny looking individuals... Yet they probably have resting heart rates in the 40s and can climb an alp or two before they start getting into distress...
These guys talk about things like "VO2 max" and "Lactic acid threshhold" and various other esoterica of advanced fitness.

Likewise long-distance runners.

Highly specialized training, that.

Most folks would do better with a mix of exercises; enough aerobic work to keep the heart/lungs happy, some strength training to keep muscle mass in the ballpark into old age.. Enough weight-bearing exercise to keep the bones healthy...

When I was in my late teens/early twenties I used to be able to do 500 sit ups.  I'd do them every other day.  A nurse asked me how the heck I ever got up to that number.  It's like ps says.  At first I had to strain to get to 50.  By the time I hit 70 adding more reps became easy.  After 100 you can add like 20 or more each time.  Please don't ask how many sit ups I can do now....  
  It is a shame how fast your muscles atrophy, especially when you get a bit older.  In that I've been slinging for almost three years my regular throwing, which I've totally ignored, has become beyond pathetic.  

Mind accepts,body adapts.
I guess if that much muscle is not needed,it goes away,because it's wasteful,not needed.

I've always loved giving orders to recruits; "DROP AN' GIVE ME TWENTY!"
I may not be able to do even one pushup myself but I can have a thousand men do them for me.

I can still draw a #50 bow but I can also draw a sketch of a trebuchet that throws #10 pumpkins over 2,000 feet.
Or I could just draw my 45. so I can rock~on. How's that work for ya?
::)