Recommended Exercises to Sharpen Your Handgun Shooting

Handling a handgun requires a certain amount of skill, strength, and practice. Whether you use a shotgun, a piston, or a rifle, you will need to have adequate physical strength and capability to have complete firing accuracy. 

Holding a firearm properly generally involves utilizing the muscles in your chest, shoulders, core, hands, arms, and forearms to their fullest. Therefore, other than just skill, you will need to enhance your loading and holding power through various exercises. Consider the exercises explained in this article to enhance your shooting.

Strengthening your grip to handgun shooting accuracy is one of those things that seem very obvious but is often overseen by people. Until you have to hold two bottles of water in each hand and walk for 2 miles, you will not know how much your grip needs working. Below are some exercises to improve grip strength. 

Hand Grippers

Hand grippers are readily available at any sports or drugs store, and you can buy one for varied weights. We recommend you getting a gripper that seems challenging to you. 

The best exercise for strength building is to perform four to five sets of nine or ten each. However, if you’re looking for endurance building, you can perform three to four sets of 13 to 15 each every day. 

Using hand grippers will obviously hurt and leave soreness. However, after about a month’s work, you will see better stability in your hands.

Plate Pinches

To perform plate pinches, you will have to find two weight plates that you can pinch together in your hand. Put the plates together and grip them with your hand. You will have to start with less weight because no matter how simple it sounds, plate pinches are the absolute muscle killers. Holding plates for about 30 seconds in three or four sets should be enough in a day. 

Plate pinches are the absolute game-changers. They influence the way your grip works and determine your forearm strength important for a stable grip and accurate shot.

Farmer’s Carry

Farmer’s carry is perfect for arm strength. However, the exercise is also great for other muscle groups such as the arms, shoulders, core, and back. What you have to do is carry a heavy dumbbell, kettlebell, or even sandbags and walk while holding them for as long as you can. 

Walking for about 30 feet a day should be a good start. You can keep increasing the distance and weight as and when you progress. Make sure that you only carry and do not pull anything. Pulling can create undue pressure on your shoulders and forearms while not really engaging your grip and core.

Training your Fast Twitch Muscles is essentially the same as performing HIIT, i.e., High-Intensity Interval Training. AN hour of HIIT cardio once a week is enough to help you achieve the overall endurance and strength your body needs to handle and get the perfect shots with any handgun. 

You could also follow a 10–20-minute routine on a daily basis and be done. HIIT is great because of the explosive energy it requires you to run from target-to-target with the best of your body’s capability. However, you time to rest, allowing your body the agility and endurance it requires to handle a handgun. HIIT is also a great way of combating fatigue.

Back and Shoulders

Firearm handling requires your entire body to be strong and full of agility. Your back and shoulder strength will determine how stable your entire hand will be while holding a handgun properly. Moreover, your primary physical lifeline is your spine. Therefore, strengthening it is a no-brainer; below are some exercises you can follow to strengthen your back and shoulders.

Back Extensions

 Back extensions involve holding weight on your chest and leaning forward with your back straight. The aim is to keep your back as straight as possible to strengthen it under the weight it has to endure. Even when you are on the top, allow your back to be in a straight position for a while before leaning back completely straight. 

If you are practicing this exercise with a 10-pound weight plate, we suggest you do eight to ten reps for four rounds in a day.

Pull Ups

Pull-Ups are the best way to strengthen your core, arms, shoulder, and back, all at once. They are perfect for allowing you to have the strength to lift your own body. Therefore, lifting a handgun should not be an issue. To make things even more challenging, you can start at the end position, and slowly lower yourself to perform pull-up negatives.

Investing in a pull-up assist machine is not too much of a drag. You must do three sets of at least 15 pull-ups a day to achieve the best endurance and strength for your body.

No matter what you’re training for, without core strength, you will never have the overall strength you might require. Your core is the muscle group that holds all your strength together to make you a holistic whole. Below are some exercises you can follow to strengthen your core for accurate handgun handling.

Leg Raises or Reverse Crunches

Leg raises are extremely versatile and can be performed in so many ways that you will be surprised.  You can do a circuit of about 30 seconds of each leg raise exercise for at least 15 reps for the perfect strengthening of your core muscles.

Another thing about reverse crunches or leg raises its optional nature for weight and other equipment. You can perform leg raises in your room on a mat or could get more extensive with some weight and chairs or exercise balls.

Push-Ups

Just like pull-ups, push-ups are a great way to strengthen the specific muscle groups in your body. Push-ups are great for overall body strength but are especially wonderful for your core fitness. The strength required to pull your body up with a straight back from a relaxed position is necessary for handgun handling. 

Being able to do push-ups correctly also helps in maintaining abs and giving your body the shredding looks almost everyone desires.

Final Words

There are several exercises you can perform to make your body feel shredded and improve your handgun handling experience. Working on your overall strength, grip, and endurance is very important to maintain the perfect shots.

You need to follow certain routines, eat healthy, practice, and perform the exercises you need to get the most out of your shooting regime. Holding and handling a handgun takes a lot of practice, and you should exercise and train accordingly.