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Elastic band exercises improve the score

7 studies · 194 archers measured

ForContextAgainst20102015202020252023, for, n = 602008, for, n = 452021, for, n = 402026, against, n = 242019, for, n = 122025, context, n = 122025, for, n = 1
Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

The first study, in 2008, was already randomised: forty-five Indian archers of national level split at random into three groups, and after four weeks those who had added thera-band exercises and respiratory muscle work shot better than the other two groups over twelve arrows at ten and twenty yards, although the paper does not report the means and does not separate the bands from the breathing work. Up to 2025 the four studies that followed all point the same way, with gains of between eight and twenty-five points, but none of them allocates the archers at random: two are before-and-after studies without a control group, one of them on a single archer, and in the other two the bands are either compared with other strength work, which on its own brings two thirds of the gain, or sit inside a wider package. In 2026 came the second randomised trial, the first to isolate the bands from everything else: in twenty-four traditional archers followed for eight weeks the scores of both groups improved alike, and those who had added the bands were not ahead of those who had only shot. The same study shows that the bands do their job, since grip, thumb pinch and back and leg strength all rise more than in the control group, while on shoulder proprioception and mobility the two groups cannot be told apart. The picture reads like this: the physical gain is real, while on the target the two randomised trials disagree, and the one that separates the bands from everything else finds no difference from shooting itself.

Also phrased as: "thera-band for archers"; "resistance bands and accuracy"; "dry training with a band"; "elastic resistance in archery"; "band exercises for the archer's shoulder"

In practice

The band is the piece of kit in every field quiver: archers use it to warm the shoulder up, to repeat the drawing movement without arrows and to add work when the bow cannot be shot, on the idea that the work comes back as points.

Evidence

  • 2008
    For Archers Published later

    45 Indian archers of national level aged 16 to 28, 31 men and 14 women, randomly split into three groups for four weeks: thera-band work for the shoulder and arm (flexion, abduction, rotations, shrugs, rowing, elbow; three sets of ten, three sessions a week) followed by fifteen minutes of respiratory muscle training; a herbal preparation, jatamansi; or usual training alone, which all three groups continue. On the AAPHER test, twelve arrows at ten and twenty yards, the band group beats both the jatamansi group (t = 3.41) and the controls (t = 3.26, p < 0.005) after the intervention, while those two do not differ; the analysis of variance gives F = 6.53 (p = 0.01 in the table). The groups started with no differences, but the paper does not report the mean scores, the bands cannot be separated from the breathing work and the venue is a regional pharmacology journal.

    Effects of Strength Training and Jatamansi on reducing Hand Tremor amongst archers · Delhila Laishram, Rajender Kumar, Jaspal S. Sandhu

  • 2019
    For Archers Published later

    12 club archers from the Banyumas regency, 5 sets of 15 to 20 repetitions with a 15 to 30 second hold at anchor, no control group: over 36 arrows at 30 m the mean goes from 288.33 to 299.33 (+11 points out of 360, +3.8%, t = 9.869, p < 0.001) and the isometric hold from 21.87 to 27.87 seconds (+27.4%, t = 8.812). The relative gain in holding strength is about seven times the gain in the score.

    Pengaruh latihan dumbell-thera band terhadap daya tahan otot lengan dan akurasi memanah pada atlet panahan · Betrix Teofa Perkasa Wibafied Billy Yachsie

  • 2021
    For Archers Published later

    40 beginner archers aged 13 to 15 from a club in Depok, 20 on a programme of band exercises matched to the shooting movement and 20 on the club's usual strength work, tested at 30 m: mean gain 12.250 points (SD 3.82) against 8.550 (SD 2.80), a 3.70-point difference tested between groups (t = 3.492, df 38, p = 0.001; Levene F = 3.108, p = 0.086). Allocation was not random and the control group also gains about two thirds of what the other gains, so the share attributable to the band is small.

    Development of resistance-based archery training models for athletes aged 13-15 years · Devi Syah Putra, Ramdan Pelana, Hernawan

  • 2023
    For Archers Published later

    60 Indian national-level archers with at least 3 years' practice, four non-randomised groups and 12 weeks, score over 72 arrows analysed with ANCOVA: the specific strength group, working with holds at full draw, bands and a strap, goes from 535.33 ± 12.97 to 557.93 ± 10.07 and beats the control group by 24.75 adjusted points (p = 0.00015). The bands are one component of the programme and their contribution cannot be separated from the rest.

    Isolated and Combined Effect of Strength Training and Specific Strength Training on Performance Levels Among Archers · Arun Kumar Chatla, K Venkata Narasimha Rao, Deepak Pandey, Laishram Shila Devi, Vaddepalley Satyanarayana

  • 2025
    For Archers Published later

    A single 21-year-old archer with one year's practice in an Indonesian university club, 12 sessions over 6 weeks with a 15 lb thera-band, ten repetitions for one or two sets with a 10 second hold: over 36 arrows at 15 m the score goes from 116 to 124, grip strength from 20 to 21.5 kg in the dominant hand and from 17 to 18 in the other, and combined shoulder elevation from 20 to 22.3 cm. Within the test the score falls end after end both before (31, 22, 22, 14, 10, 17) and after (40, 33, 23, 10, 13, 5), and the archer reported that her arrows start to miss from the third end on. No control and no statistics.

    Resistance Band Shoulder Training and 15 Meter Archery Gains · Khumairo Hardiyanti Rukmana, Widi Arti

  • 2025
    Context Archers Published later

    12 club archers aged 13 to 17, the whole membership, split into two groups of six by pairing their baseline scores, 16 sessions over 8 weeks and no untrained group: the hold goes from 31.83 ± 4.71 to 41.17 ± 4.45 seconds with the bands (+9.34 s) and from 32.17 ± 4.62 to 45.67 ± 4.32 with the plank (+13.50 s). The outcome measured is the hold and not the score, and the Holding Bow Test used to measure it is named and not described: one cannot read whether the bow is held at full draw or merely supported, at what draw weight, or by what criterion the stopwatch stops. The comparison between the two groups is declared significant on the final values, but those values give t = 1.777 on ten degrees of freedom, that is p = 0.106; the comparison on the gains, which the article does not run, gives p = 0.0055 in favour of the plank. The two «correlations» with which the abstract supports that superiority, 0.938 and 0.876, are the correlations between the baseline and the final measurement inside each group: they do not change if the same quantity is added to every final value, so they measure no improvement.

    Differences in the effects of resistance band and plank exercises on arm muscle endurance in archers at the blora archery club · Rachelino Wira Purnama, Arif Pangestu, Frederico Rifqi, Lavaya Yuri Andjani, Danendra Luhung Saskara, Dhany Diva Pradana

  • 2026
    Against Archers Published later

    24 male Turkish traditional archers aged 18 to 30 with at least 6 months' practice, 12 per group, 8 weeks at 3 sessions a week of postural mobility exercises with bands added to their shooting: after the intervention the score does not differ between groups (U = 51.0, p = 0.221), while both improve on their starting values (p = 0.001 and p = 0.002). The bands do raise grip strength (U = 23.5, p = 0.005), thumb pinch (U = 35.5, p = 0.032) and back and leg strength (U = 2.5, p < 0.001), while on proprioception (U = 54.5, p = 0.299) and shoulder mobility (U = 49.0, p = 0.181) the groups do not differ. In the results section the final comparisons between groups are labelled as comparisons between elite and amateur archers, while the discussion reads them as intervention against control: the registry reads them as the discussion does, which is also the declared design.

    The Effect of Postural Mobility Exercises on the Athletic Performance Success, Proprioceptive Sense and Various Strength Parameters of Traditional Archers · Murat Kul, Emre Berk Hazar, Emre Boz, Muhammed Salih Uçal

Status history

  1. 1990 Not studied No study of archers in the registry's bibliography had yet measured the score after work with elastic bands.
  2. 2008 Reported The first study is already a randomised comparison: forty-five Indian archers of national level split at random into three groups, and after four weeks those who add thera-band exercises for the shoulder and arm to their usual training, followed by respiratory muscle work, score higher over twelve arrows at ten and twenty yards than both those taking a herbal preparation and those who only follow their usual training. The paper does not report the means, though, the bands cannot be separated from the breathing work and the venue is a regional pharmacology journal: a single study in favour, so reported.
  3. 2019 Reported Eleven years later a second study of archers arrives: twelve club archers work with a dumbbell and a band imitating the drawing movement, and the score over thirty-six arrows at 30 metres rises by eleven points. There is no control group, and the relative gain in the isometric hold is seven times the gain in the score, a sign that the transfer to shooting is small. Two studies in favour, one randomised but with the bands mixed with breathing work and one without a control group: the status stays reported.
  4. 2021 Reported Forty young archers split into two groups: with the bands the mean gain is 12.25 points, with the club's usual strength work 8.55, and this time the 3.7-point difference is tested (p = 0.001). It remains a non-randomised comparison in a regional journal, and the control group also improves by two thirds as much as the other: three agreeing but weak studies do not change the status.
  5. 2023 Reported For the first time since 2008 a comparison again includes a group that adds nothing: inside an Indian four-group study, the specific strength programme built from holds at full draw, bands and a strap gains 24.75 points on the control group over seventy-two arrows. The bands, though, are one part of the package and their contribution cannot be isolated, just as in 2008 it could not be separated from the breathing work: the supporting evidence grows but stays indirect, and the status reported.
  6. 2025 Reported A single case is added: a beginner archer gains eight points over thirty-six arrows at 15 metres after twelve sessions with a thera-band, with grip and shoulder flexibility slightly up. One person does not move the status, and within that same case the score keeps collapsing end after end both before and after the programme. A second study measures how long the bow is held, with a test the paper does not describe, rather than the arrows.
  7. 2026 Contested The second randomised trial on the question, and the first to isolate the bands from everything else: in twenty-four traditional archers followed for eight weeks the score does not differ between those who add the bands and those who simply shoot, even though the bands raise grip, thumb pinch and back and leg strength, while on shoulder proprioception and mobility the two groups cannot be told apart. Studies of archers point in opposite directions, and the two randomised trials split as well: the 2008 one mixes the bands with respiratory muscle work and does not publish the means, while this one reports the comparison between the groups and finds no difference. The status falls to contested.

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Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Elastic band exercises improve the score (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/elastic-bands-and-score

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_elasticipunteggio,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Elastic band exercises improve the score},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/physical-training/elastic-bands-and-score},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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