Rotator cuff strengthening prevents shoulder injuries in archers

The summary today

No study of archers has counted injuries after a strengthening programme, and it is the authors of the most recent systematic review who say so: across the 15 exercise studies in archers published between 2015 and 2025 there is no incidence, severity or time lost, and the preventive benefits are inferred from balance, strength and postural control. What does exist comes close but answers a different question. A randomised trial in 31 elite Korean archers reduced shoulder pain with eight weeks of lower trapezius strengthening (pain scale from 4.56 to 2.88 against 3.20 to 3.67 in controls, interaction p = 0.002): it is the soundest result we have, but it concerns the trapezius rather than the cuff, and it treats pain already present instead of preventing it. Six weeks of core work, in 30 amateur Iranian archers, raised internal rotator strength without measuring any complaint. Until somebody follows two groups of archers through a season and counts the episodes, this stays a reasonable and untested recommendation.

Also phrased as: "rotator cuff exercises for archers"; "preventing shoulder pain in archery"; "band external rotations for injury prevention"; "shoulder strengthening for archers"

Evidence

• 2018
  Context Archers Published later

  15 national-level archers compared with 30 non-athletes: in the bow shoulder they are stronger in adduction and internal rotation, and in both shoulders the flexion to extension ratio is lower; the external to internal rotation ratio is lower only at 180°/s, a speed the authors consider unrepresentative. Archers with shoulder pain or previous shoulder injury were excluded and there are no injury data.

  The Characteristics of Shoulder Muscles in Archery Athletes · Ri Na Kim, Jin-Hyuck Lee, Seok Ha Hong, Jin Ho Jeon, Woong Kyo Jeong

• 2018
  Context Archers Published later

  It recommends strength and technique to prevent overuse injuries, but the data come from a retrospective questionnaire and do not compare archers with and without a strengthening programme.

  Acute and Overuse Injuries in Elite Archers · Claudia K. Niestroj, Volker Schöffl, Thomas Küpper

• 2020
  Context Archers Published later

  31 Korean national-level recurve archers (university and high school, mean age 18.9) randomised with stratification by sex and experience, 16 in exercise and 15 in control, three sessions a week for eight weeks on the lower trapezius: shoulder pain falls from 4.56 to 2.88 in the exercise group and rises from 3.20 to 3.67 in the controls, with a group by time interaction of F = 11.43, p = 0.002. It is the best design in the bibliography on archers and the shoulder, but it measures the reduction of pain already present, not the prevention of injury, and the muscle is not the cuff.

  Effects of Lower Trapezius Strengthening Exercise on Shoulder Pain, Function and Archery Performance in Elite Archers · Eunkuk Kim, Jinho Kim, Jinyoung You

• 2022
  Context Archers Published later

  30 male Iranian amateur archers aged 18 to 24, split into 15 and 15 with allocation stated as random, six weeks of core exercises: internal rotator strength at the shoulder on hand-held dynamometry rises by an average of 2.56 in the exercise group and 0.25 in the controls, with a final difference of 2.43 (p = 0.001). It is interesting that trunk work reaches the shoulder, but the strengthening is not of the cuff, the units in the text are unclear and pain was not measured.

  The Role of Core Stability Exercises on Internal Rotator Cuff Muscles Strength and its Motor Function in Amateur Archers · Farhad Safari Zanjani, Ali Haghani, Seyyed Hossein Mousavi, Hooman Safari Zanjani, Surhat Muniroglu

• 2022
  Context Archers Published later

  14 university recurve archers, allocated to groups by preference (7 and 7): after 12 weeks on the lower trapezius the intervention group improves strength and simulated-match score, from 628 to 639 out of 720, but the final comparison with the controls is not significant (p = 0.062). Archers with shoulder impingement were excluded and injuries were not recorded.

  Twelve-Week Lower Trapezius-Centred Muscular Training Regimen in University Archers · Chien-Nan Liao, Chun-Hao Fan, Wei-Hsiu Hsu, Chia-Fang Chang, Pei-An Yu, Liang-Tseng Kuo, et al.

• 2024
  Context Archers Published later

  Among 200 elite youth archers, 84.5% report doing upper-body strengthening, and nearly half report shoulder pain; the study does not relate the type of training to the pain, so the two figures together tell us nothing.

  Injuries and Persistent Pain in Elite Adolescent Archery Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Epidemiological Study · Nikolaos Vasilis, Athanasios Kyriakides, George Vasilopoulos, Maria Chatzitimotheou, Grigorios Gonidakis, Athanasios Kotsakis, et al.

• 2026
  Context Review Published later

  Systematic review of 15 exercise studies in archers published between 2015 and 2025: most target performance and measure accuracy, balance or strength, and the authors write that those studies report no incidence, severity or time lost through injury, so the preventive benefits remain inferred. They call for controlled trials with injury outcomes. It is the evidence that keeps the claim at not studied, and the authors say so themselves.

  Systematic Review of Exercise Interventions in Archery: Injury Management and Performance Outcomes · Ambusam Subramaniam, Fairus Fariza Zainudin, Mon Redee Sut Txi

Status history

1. 2018 Not studied The first epidemiological study of archers in the bibliography recommends strength training, shoulder included, as prevention, but no study in the bibliography has measured its effect on injuries. In the same year a comparison of fifteen national-level archers with thirty non-athletes describes how an archer's shoulder is built, while excluding anyone with pain or previous injury: it says what a healthy shoulder looks like, not what protects it.
2. 2020 Not studied The first randomised trial in archers that touches the shoulder arrives: eight weeks of lower trapezius strengthening reduce pain in 31 elite athletes. The status does not change because the outcome measured is pain in those who already had it, the muscle trained is not the cuff and nobody counted injuries.
3. 2022 Not studied Two interventions in the same year come close and miss the same target. Six weeks of trunk work in thirty amateur archers raise the strength of the shoulder's internal rotators, and twelve weeks on the lower trapezius in fourteen university archers raise strength and score. Neither trains the cuff, neither records pain or injury, and the second excluded anyone with shoulder impingement from the start: the status stays where it is.
4. 2024 Not studied The first figure on how many archers actually do strength work comes from two hundred elite youngsters: 84.5 per cent say they train the upper body and nearly half report shoulder pain. The two figures sit in the same questionnaire but are never related to each other, so they say nothing about whether the strengthening protects, and the status does not move.
5. 2026 Not studied It is now the authors of a systematic review who say the gap is there: across the fifteen exercise studies in archers published between 2015 and 2025, injury incidence never appears, nor severity, nor time lost, and the preventive benefits remain inferred from balance, strength and postural control. They call for controlled trials with injury outcomes. The status stays not studied, and this time the literature says so itself.

Related

Related articles

• Shoulder pain when you shoot: what the numbers say about archersHow many archers have shoulder pain, how bad it is and on which side, and what turns up in those who hurt: what the studies measured and where they stop.
• Exercises, tape and massage for the archer's shoulder: what has been testedLower trapezius work, scapular stabilisation, bands, kinesiology tape and massage: what they change in archers' shoulders and in the score.
• At what age can you start archery? A child is not a small adultWhen children can start archery, which bow young competitors choose, how much draw weight matters and what the data say about pain in young archers.

Research lines

• 28 studiesThe archer's shoulder: pain, injury and recovery
• 25 studiesShooting and asymmetry: fifty years of measurements

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