Physical fitness level

[johniac7078]

Shooting is a hobby for me, not a lifestyle. I have a shape. My shape is round. I didn't claw my way to the top of the food chain to give up burbon and barbecue.

YOU sir, are a BOSS!!! Stay thirsty my friend.

[frag316]

*shrugs* Like I said before, I lost about 20 pounds two years or so ago and have kept it off, with a 1-2 pound fluctuation either way for short periods. I love food, I eat ice cream or donuts just about every day of the week. I drink on occasion. Just keep track of it and exercise.

I have friends who see me eating crap (usually Pop Tarts or donuts for breakfast) and they say "You work out so hard and you eat like THAT?" I tell them "I work out like that so I can eat like this." It's just payback for enjoying life.

[shtr3]

There is no doubt that our bodies are better able to focus and handle stress if they are physically fit. I injured my foot last spring and have just recently begun to get back into shape. I know I focus more on shooting if I'm not worrying about being out breath, hurting,or wondering if I'll actually get stopped without my inertia forcing me over the faultline.

+11111111111

Highly agree

[John Thompson]

I don't think being in shape helps my shooting but it helps keep me sane. I was turned on to the emwave biofeedback device by my sports psychologist, he's worked with gold medal Olympians, and it has helped me from being near suicidal to being able to perform on demand even in the most stressful situations.

[Morgan Patrick]

Time to re-up my gym membership!

[Twoyellowlabs]

I Crossfit about 4 times a week. I know that the Crossfit thread is pretty long on this forum. It helps for the stamina needed for a long day in the heat but if I don't dry fire and practice, I still stink it up on match day. It definitely helps with 3 gun competitions. As others have stated, strength = confidence and that all translates into better performance. But it is only part of the equation.

[Ultimo-Hombre]

Crossfit+over 40 = torn rotator cuff

Not a matter of if but when.

For me when I invest in myself (good diet and excersize) life is just sweeter. I feel agile, alert and motivated to excel.

Those times when I've let myself go it is a negative feedback loop of excuses and pain.

Life hurts, out of shape it hurts more.

[yellowfin]

I too am all in this year on getting into better shape to improve my shooting and pretty much everything else in life. The last match I shot in November hammered home what I was lacking, that I hadn't been to the gym in over a year. I need my arms, chest, shoulders, back, abs, and legs stronger--all of them hurt severely when I was running my rifle with a can on it, so badly I was rushing shots to try to just get through the stages to get it over with. I ached for two days after that. I strongly suspect that the same deficiency of strength was compromising stability in all of my pistol shooting in other matches of the year. With the cold weather out I can do a lot more in the gym than outside, and if I'm less tired from everything else in life then I'll have more energy and drive at my command to put towards shooting than before.

[ZoomZoom]

Shooting?

Forget shooting.

Being an overweight person who can't move sucks PERIOD. Being fit and healthy is just, well...HEALTHY, regardless of the activity.

There are no cons to being in shape, whatsoever. NONE.

I vow to never again have my stomach hanging over my belt. Eff that.

Take care of yourself. Eat right. Move your body.

Every time at a major match I have some RO tell me "Boy, I wish I was lean and fit like you are. It all changes when you get married and have kids."

Bullshit. You got lazy. You let yourself go. Period. If you want it bad enough you can do it. If you can make time to get to the range, you can make time to plan your meals and do some physically exhausting exercise a few times a week. It's a choice.

+1 x 100

Every time I see some Crossfit hating going on I see people that don't really understand CF, have made up their mind based on asymmetrical information and have never done it. Granted a lot of CF participants "difficult" to deal with but if you look to what CF is REALLY about, past the You Tube/Games face, it's probably the best way for people of all ages and levels of current condition to improve all aspects of health/fitness/mobility.

And for the kipping pull-ups....they're properly done for a good reason but strict pull-ups are a foundation of CF. If someone get injured in CF it's their own fault. Movement is dangerous when done incorrectly or over zealously.

As someone that climbed up out of the primordial ooze, I have no desire to treat my body like crap, short my life span, not enjoy my bodies ability to it's fullest extent because I'm addicted to sugar laden processed food and tasty but useless carbohydrates.

De-conditioned people can be successful at many sport in spite of their condition not because of it.

People keep lowering the health/fitness bar so much because they can't even step over it and that's a shame.

At 57 I can't run as fast, jump as high and lift as much as I could when I was 30 but that doesn't mean I don't want to run as fast, jump as high and lift as much as I can at whatever age I'm at.

Edited December 8, 2014 by ZoomZoom

[Nimitz]

i'm still amazed by the number of people who still think that the path to shooting greatness lies in their ability to run faster, jump higher and leap tall buildings in a single bound when in fact it has almost nothing to do with that. Anyone who is in even remotely reasonable shape can be a top tier shooter ....

And before those of you who are non believers post anything, do the following simple test ....

go out to the range tomorrow and set up and shoot El Pres and report back your results. If you can' shoot that (or any other typical stand & shoot classifier) at 90% or better exactly what will getting in better shape do for you to shoot El Pres better?

To become a better shooter, you need to learn to shoot better .... not run faster or bench press more ...

Of course having said that, as someone already pointed out, there is nothing bad that happens by getting into better shape ....

Edited December 9, 2014 by Nimitz

[Corey]

How many times do you see a stage like El Pres at a match though? Rarely do we stand and shoot any more. In fact, people get upset when they see stand and shoot stages at a match these days. I totally agree, that working out all the time and never actually practicing your shooting won't help you much. BUT, if you can shoot a gun pretty well, why wouldn't you want to be in better shape to go along with it.

Stages have lots of movement in them. why would you not want to be able to move better? I said it a couple years ago and I still believe it. If there are two shooters of equal skill (transitions, trigger speed, accuracy, etc) but one is 30# overweight and can't move as well he will lose every time.

JJ Racaza is one of the best shooters in the world and has never been out of shape by anyone's standards. He swears that workouts like Crossfit has made him a better shooter. Who am I to argue with JJ?

[BillD]

overweight and can't move as well he will lose every time.

JJ Racaza is one of the best shooters in the world and has never been out of shape by anyone's standards. He swears that workouts like Crossfit has made him a better shooter. Who am I to argue with JJ?

Who are we to argue with Taran?

[Corey]

Taran is a beast of a shooter though. What he lacks in foot speed/agility, he can make up for with shooting skills. Imagine how he'd do at 3-gun matches if he was 30# lighter. There is a reason he never shoots matches like Blue Ridge or Iron Man. Because he's not physically fit enough to do it competitively.

I don't have the time/money to shoot the tens of thousands of rounds per year he does to hone my skill, so I do what I can. For now, I try to make up for the rest with agility. I've seen numerous places on here people asking how to get better and the answer is always something to the tune of "shoot as fast/slow as you can/need to get the hits, then do everything else (draws, movement, reloads, etc) fast." My shooting speed won't pick up much, my footspeed might as well pick up some and if I can to get me to the next position faster, my stage times should be lower and my finishes should be higher.

Again, this is assuming I don't disregard my shooting enough to the point that it drops and I hurt myself by shooting worse.

[ZoomZoom]

i'm still amazed by the number of people who still think that the path to shooting greatness lies in their ability to run faster, jump higher and leap tall buildings in a single bound when in fact it has almost nothing to do with that. Anyone who is in even remotely reasonable shape can be a top tier shooter ....

And before those of you who are non believers post anything, do the following simple test ....

go out to the range tomorrow and set up and shoot El Pres and report back your results. If you can' shoot that (or any other typical stand & shoot classifier) at 90% or better exactly what will getting in better shape do for you to shoot El Pres better?

To become a better shooter, you need to learn to shoot better .... not run faster or bench press more ...

Of course having said that, as someone already pointed out, there is nothing bad that happens by getting into better shape ....

I don't think anyone is saying the single path to shooting wonderfulnessing is fitness. By the same token anyone that thinks "fitness" is running and bench pressing needs to get a bit more current on a decent definition of fitness. I'm actually happy a lot of people I compete against [in a variety of different sport are fat and lack fitness] because if they were actually "fit" [defined as the ability to produce power over distance/time] I'd have more people out preforming me of those that do by a wider margin. OTOH I feel bad for those same ones sucking wind, sweating bullets and looking for a shady place to sit because by mid afternoon they're pooch.

Anyone that doesn't think fitness [defined as the ability to produce power over distance/time] sigh level of physical sounds like someone that's never been at a very high level of physical conditioning in their given sport.

Who doesn't get tired during a long day in the heat?

Who doesn't get tired during a long match dealing with the mental aspect [pressure].

Who can watch a fit vs de-conditioned person shoot a stage with a lot of movement and think "wow, I bet that's easier if your overweight!]

Again, many people can perform at a high level despite being de-conditioned not because of being so.

Clearly fitness isn't going to get a ton of play in a sport where I friends wife once said on her first trip to a big match "it looks like the fat Olympics." Finding justification for things is easy.

Apologies to those of you that struggle with weight and fitness, I understand it can be quite a demon.

Edited December 10, 2014 by ZoomZoom

[Nimitz]

maybe its just a relative thing but i know for me, dropping 18 lbs to get to my idea weight and doing aerobic exercise 3-4 times a week will have much less impact on improving my shooting than continuing to live fire 3x/week and dry fir 5x/week ... if i was already a great shooter then maybe the reverse would be true. if we're talking significant weight issues then that's a different story ...

not saying losing that weight isn't a good idea and i have started to address it but if i was forced to choose only one or the other path i'd pick shooting over weight loss/more running to meet my shooting goals ...

[RangerTrace]

i'm still amazed by the number of people who still think that the path to shooting greatness lies in their ability to run faster, jump higher and leap tall buildings in a single bound when in fact it has almost nothing to do with that. Anyone who is in even remotely reasonable shape can be a top tier shooter ....

And before those of you who are non believers post anything, do the following simple test ....

go out to the range tomorrow and set up and shoot El Pres and report back your results. If you can' shoot that (or any other typical stand & shoot classifier) at 90% or better exactly what will getting in better shape do for you to shoot El Pres better?

To become a better shooter, you need to learn to shoot better .... not run faster or bench press more ...

Of course having said that, as someone already pointed out, there is nothing bad that happens by getting into better shape ....

Yes, but I think you are being a bit narrow minded. I spent 7+ hours on the range today working with high-level special forces instructors (who also work with TGO) and I was thankful that I'm in good physical condition. Spending lots of time in awkward shooting positions was work and being more fit helped it suck less. While I agree that a certain fitness level won't help much with the El Prez, I do think if you spend hours of your feet, gripping your pistol, shooting, etc, being fit has it's advantages. And when it comes to shooting actual matches, I will always believe those who can move faster from Point A to Point B have an advantage if everything else is equal.

[BillD]

Taran is a beast of a shooter though. What he lacks in foot speed/agility, he can make up for with shooting skills. Imagine how he'd do at 3-gun matches if he was 30# lighter. There is a reason he never shoots matches like Blue Ridge or Iron Man. Because he's not physically fit enough to do it competitively.

As long as we are imagining, imagine if JJ had Taran's shooting skills. Now, should JJ be working on Crossfit or the ability to shoot like Taran?

I'm just pulling your chain Corey. I've lost 40# myself this year and am feeling pretty good about it. Still would like to shoot better/faster though.

And in the immortal words of Paul and Art, "Still, a man hears what he hear and disregards the rest...." Happy Holidays to you

Edited December 10, 2014 by BillD

[motosapiens]

If hoping to shoot better provides someone the motivation to get off their azz and work out, then that's a good thing.

For sure I don't get tired during long hot days the way most people do, but I still get my butt kicked in shooting by people that are not in good shape at all. Perhaps I could get some of them to come on a mtn bike ride, or on the ice to play some hockey.

BTW, I would probably rather be fat than do crossfit or any other boringazz indoor dance routine. Thank god for hockey and ultimate frisbee and soccer and bicycling.

[Nimitz]

agree completely. when i analyse who beats me at competitions i have never been able to find a correlation to anything related to physical fitness ... in the 3 years i've been at this i get beat by both men and women, who are older and younger than me, heavier than me, skinnyier than me, faster than me and even slower than me (not lately).

however, the one constant everyone who does still beat me consistently have in common is that they are all better shooters than i currently am. it doesn't matter if its a 12 HF or 3 HF stage, the better shooters beat me, regardless of thier physical fitness level compared to mine ...

while physical fitness is always a good thing, my experience has been that on a relative basis it is fairly far down on the list of things required to be a great shooter ...

Edited December 10, 2014 by Nimitz