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Need advice on increasing draw strength

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Badger:
   I discovered something today, I think it is my bow arm that is weak and not my pulling arm. I switched hands and drew left handed and could draw 80# easily. About 20 year ago I had neck surgery for a piched nerve in my neck that had paralized a good part of my left arm, mostly the tricep and parts of my hand. After surgery the feeling came back and the muscle came back but it never regained full strength. I might just have to learn to shoot left handed if I can't build it back up.

mikekeswick:
I was going to say that it is also very important to train left handed as well.
Injuries generally happen when there are muscle imbalances. I do a lot of rock climbing and know only too well about training the antagonists and doing things opposite to normal so not only certain muscles get better.
Also most people don't seem to know this but when you start doing something new (heavier bow) then the muscles involved DON'T actually get stronger for a long time all that happens is your brain basically gets wired up better! Eg. the muscle you already have actually just starts working and the neurological conections to that muscle 'wake up'. So be posistive and keep in mind that it's all there you just have to awaken it.

Del the cat:
I reckon my 'leaning back into an open doorway' exercise is pretty good.
Elbows out pressing against the door frame, lean back, shuffle the feet* forward a foot or two then lever yourself forward and back by using yourback muscles. You can really feel it working the right groups of muscles. It's a bit awkward, but in some ways thats good because it make you do it in a slow controlled manner.
The equipment involved is readilly available and cheap too...just don't try clapping half way through ::)
Del
Obviously beware of slippy floors, inappropriate footware etc.
Please sign the attached disclaimer before attempting this at home.  ;)

Goose Fletch:
adb, just shooting bows is one way that  will indeed help you pull back heavier bows as your progress though your archery ..umm..career...for want of a better term. however, in the case of warbow archery, pulling a bow like a warbow is a different compound movement from target archery. compound strength is the net strength of all moving parts, so it will also help if you use bungee ropes to develop other muscles that contribute to the bow drawing movement (specifically bungee because unlike weights, bungee chords more accurately replicate the power curve of a bow which we would see if looking at a graph). that being said, it is important individually develop the forearms, elbow flexors, biceps, triceps, back muscles, rotator cuff, trunk, and even your butt. all those muscles work to pull the bow but there are many as well that need to "hold things in place" and stabilize the ones that carry the most load. constantly shooting is one way to do it, but if we dont use low poundage bows, some areas will not be worked and larger muscles take over, prevent those weak muscles from developing. im pretty certain thats why when the op switched to a lower poundage bow he felt a better pump where there was no pump before.

the ancients would have been working hard anyway, therefore working those smaller muscles in a number of ways, if (from what little i know) there was indeed a movement of yeomen who were trained as archers and employed by the government, there would have been some element of hard work that helped them develop the strength to use those legendary bows. they probably didnt have the same labour reducing technology that we have (whoohoo john deere tractors!)

mike made a good point, you need to sort of train everywhere to get stronger and prevent injury.

btw adb, is that the arms of the canadian warbow society on your shirt?

adb:
Yes

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