Exercise / Diet for High Power

[Sven]

Multi-part question:

1) Do you do any special non-shooting exercises to help strengthen yourself - specifically for highpower competition?

2) What do you guys drink/eat on match day?

-sven 'must quit coffee'

 

[TrapperReady]

I don't do any Highpower-specific exercises (unless you count dry-firing in the offhand position). However, I do lift weights 3-4 times per week for 1.5 hours per session. Upper body strength isn't much of an issue.

As far as diet goes, most matches I've shot are in the AM. I usually have a bowl of cereal and some coffee. I try to keep the coffee in the "not enough to cause jitters, but enough to stop caffeine-withdrawal headaches" amount (2-3 shots of espresso). I also make sure that I drink this at least 1 to 2 hours before I shoot.

During the match, I keep a water bottle handy, and drink small amounts almost constantly.

I'd give up the coffee, but frankly I don't see that it affects me much. Perhaps when I finally plateau, I'll try cutting back.

 

[Jon Coppenbarger]

exercise? thats TWO four letter words to me if I spelled it right.
if you are way out of shape it will make it hard for you to last out a whole day of pits and shooting and wreck those long three day shoots and lets not talk about two straight weeks of shooting at someplace like camp perry.

I walk alot at work but do not hike, jog, lift weights or much of anthing else.
about the only thing I have found that gets me is the pulse rate as if it was alot lower I would not get as much sight bounce but thats something than can be worked around all most all of the time.

all of my positions are built on having a very solid shooting position and no way do I ever use muscle to hold the rifle up other than actually getting it in position. its all built on position and bone support.

I do believe you need to stay in shape and the more better shape the better but at my age I do not have enough hours in a day to get to a gym for a hour or two.

get up at 5 get to work at 7, get off at 5, now I'am down to about 4 hours that have to fit everything else into.
loading or prepping brass is a year long adventure and at least one night a week in devoted to that.
dry firing is given several hours a week after work and thats almost 1/4 of my time in the evening.
then theirs dinner or anything else around the house that needs to be taken care of and if I can get a few hours a week of good tv watching man I'am set as a man needs to relax once in awhile.
the weekends well I compete and I will give you a wxample of my weekend shooting so you see most everthing else has to get down during the week.

this thursday evening its off to the range to set up camp
friday all day practice
sat. state team match to determine 4 and 6 man teams for perry
sunday state team rattle battle practice
monday-thursday work
thursday evening its of to the nra whittington center
friday its the n.m. state 4 man team match
sat. its the 80 regional championships
sunday its the eic leg match
mon., tue.,wed. its work
wed evening it off to bailey to practice with the marines
thursday a 80 shot practice match with the marines
friday 80 shot co. state service rifle championship
sat. 80 shot co. regional match
sunday 4 man team match
sunday eic leg match
then I get a break for 5 day at work and thn its two more matches that next weekend followed by 4 days of work and then its off for two days of state championships on that weekend.
followed by 4 days of work then its 3 days of state team matches followed by the slection for positions for the national champioships.
then the next weekend is spent in travel to camp perry ohio for two solid weeks of shooting then my matches start to wind down to only one or two matches a weekend till elk season starts and all winter weather permiting I plan on shooting about 2 matches a month and lots of weekend range practice.

well what do you think, I know alot of you are going to say get a real life.
I have a few guys come up to me and ask how long it would to get to a national level and I really can not get them a answer on that other than to say just work on the next level because if I really told them I think 99% would really give up and I hope they do not and just try to dotheir best n the time allotted for them .

food: I love food back when I first started I would not drink soda's or coffee a few days before a match and eat right.
but now as I look around I see guys guzzling red bull or soda's before a match and trust me they are very good.
I might have a cup of coffee or not it just depends on what I want.
I do start a few days before a big weekend by making sure I start to load up on lots of water in my system and eat good balanced meals and nothing that might send me sitting on the toilet the night before a match.
during a match I will drink water even if its snowing and if its hot lots of water. I will have a dencent but not heavy breakfast followed by snacks like fruit or chips and other items during the pit changes.
for lunch either a sandwich or mre.

 

[Steve Smith]

I'm going to start hitting the gym in the mornings. I keep saying that, maybe one day it'll come true.

I think that some cardio could really help. That's what I'm going to go for. Also, lots of stretching. During the sitting clinic that Jon and I coached last month, I heard more guys complaining of the position than I could stand. SO, before you get your shiny new rifle, start streching. While watching TV, sit on the floor, cross your legs "Indian style" as tight as you can (to get more stretch) and fold yourupper body over on top of your legs. If you can cross your arms and put your elbows on the ground in front of your knees, you're doing great. At least get them TO your knees. Hold that position for at least a minute at a time, and remember to breathe. If you get to the point that this is easy for you, it will make a huge difference when you asume a sitting position. Some guys never get comfortable because they don't stretch. I'm stretching as I type this...legs folded in my chair, back strectched over my legs.

I was doing some Yoga last year...might start that up again.

Oh, forgot about the diet part...

For matches, I'm hypo-glycemic, so I want a good slow release high energy meal. If I eat a candy bar I go nuts...steady energy without peaks or dips is my friend. Supposedly potassium lowers your heart rate, so a lot of folks will eat a bannana before the slow fire event.

There was a time in my cycling days when I'd pop half a nitro on a sprint to a finish line, but that's not healthy nor recommended!

 

[ACP230]

Back before I "outgrew" high power coffee or tea never bothered me.
Even taking Albuteral for asthma after puffing my way down to 200 yards to score targets and limping back didn't seem to matter.
Getting fat and out of shape killed HP for me though.

 

[sasnofear]

i really agree with trapperReady here:

but if u dont want to properly train do one set of pressups in the morning and night. so about 5min a day. u may only b able 2 do 10 each time. but it will increase and so will ur shooting stability. keep a record of how many u can do, it will boost ur confidence. after 6months u'll be flying!

 

[BlindRat]

Here's the sure secret to success;
Eat lots of Oatmeal the week prior to your match and make sure you do your "duty" before you leave the house in the morning. There's nothing worse than getting the urge to go while you're focusing on breaking good shots in standing.

 

[Jon Coppenbarger]

here's what I ate for friday,sat, and sunday and shot all 3 days

friday:
sausage,eggs,biscuts, gravy,milk, lots of coffee
soda , candy bar, complete mre, another soda, barbequed chicken, shrimp, beer, beer, beer ,beer.
and a late night snack.
sat.
sausage, eggs,biscut, gravy,milk. lots of coffee
soda,candy, a couple of andwiches and lots of beans, soda, prime rib 9oz, baked potato with all the fixins, salad, and a double scope of chocolate ice cream, beer,beer.
today:
biscuts and eggs with gravy, milk lots of coffee,
two sandwiches, several sodas and chips and 1 beer and a trip to mcdonalds on the way home.

exersize.put the tent up and took it down and did my duty in the pits.
did not shoot so well as friday
of 96
of 91
rs 97
rs 99
rp 99
rp99
600 sp 100
sp95 dang rain.

sat. well lets not talk about my off hand as my coach was trying to change a few things
rs 98
300 rp 99
600 sp 95 coach cost me 4 points on his calls.
oh rattle battle practice at 600 yards. coach missed the wind and had everybody out to the right, he got the wind right on the second 30 rounds and only managed 28 out of 30.

today helped a few new shooters
so only shot 600 in a bad wind and light.
shot a 192 I know it was bad but it did not count.
then two more strings of rattle battle at 600 yards.
I called my own wind and shot a 26 out of 30 and the second string was 29 out of 30. the 29 shots that were in on the last string was 8" wide by 12" high dead center in the chest with the one miss about 1 foot out of the torso, I new I jerked the trigger bad boy. the orther 6 that were out over the other two good stings were out by about 1" outside the torso.

excerzise helps noth my shooting and spelling also/

 

[Steve Smith]

I think I had more beer than Jon. I didn't shoot too badly either...think I finished with a 194ish at 600 yesterday evening. Not my greatest, but I'm learning center hold. Wasn't keeping score (practice) but that X ring took a beating.

BTW, it should be stated that no one drinks until the guns are put away.

 

[gixxersixxer]

I had a chance to meet with Eric Buhljung the pistol coach for the Olympics pistol athletes. He said exercise and diet should be kept the same as your daily rituals. Everyday I wake up, do 20 push-up and 50 sit-ups. I drink soda's and eat junk food. The night before a match I will carb load with either pizza, or pasta. Arnie Vitarbo, he used to coach the Olympic Athletes, says that you training time should be one and a half matches. If your matches are 60 shots like mine then you need to shoot 90 shots during training. Also warming up before shooting is a good idea. When you first started out did you notice how about 20 shots after the first record shot you calmed down and shot better? That's because your muscles were cold but after some shooting they warmed up and you relaxed.