Doing gym with air rifle in mind

[Rlyeh]

Hello. I found myself doing some gym and weight excersises lately. I'm finishing the "oh, it's ok, I didn't hurt myself" period, and now it's time for doing something with more sense. However, I failed in searching what exactly excersises, on which muscles groups, could be useful in regard of rifle shooting.
Any thoughts?

[David Levene]

I don't know if there's anything specific there but it might be worth you looking through the ISSF Academy Library.

[ProdigalSon]

My experience has been this:
1) If you’re unsure about new exercises, get a trainer or buddy up with someone with experience. Doesn’t need to be everyday, but once or twice a month until you’re comfortable
2) Endurance. Endurance. Endurance. If you’re training for shooting, it’s much better to do more reps/more sets than more weight. Bill Pullum specifically warns against bodybuilding in his book.
3) Rifle shooting engages most of your muscle groups to a greater or lesser degree, so you should plan to work different muscle groups on different days - don’t get too caught up in one or the other. I usually do an upper body day, a leg day, and a running+core day, and sometimes a fourth of a little bit of everything.
4) One of the more difficult muscle groups to target in your exercise is your forearms, but they’re actually reasonably involved in your support hand stability. Don’t forget about them. If they’re not in shape, you can give yourself a minor strain injury (learned this the hard way).
5) Don’t do squats any closer to a match than 3 days before. You’ll regret your choices if you do.

Now, to answer your specific questions about exercises. These are my favorites. YMMV.

Core:
PLANK. All day every day.
Side plank. Good for working the obliques, which will help you hold your posture. It’s a little easier on your elbows and upper arms, too.
Crunches can be a good choice if your lower back is in good condition, but if it’s not, avoid these as they could aggravate preexisting problems.
I don’t remember the official name, but if you hold a bar or wooden rod across your shoulders to keep your arms up and back, slowly lean your torso to the side, keeping your legs straight and everything facing straight forward. Slowly lift back to center. SLOWLY. This works your obliques and is also a good stretch.

Upper Body:
Military Press (Overhead press). Can be done with a barbell or dumbbells, either works. Barbell is easier to maintain form, dumbbells prevent you from biases to a strong side that can occur with bars. This is a good all-around, working deltoids, triceps, traps, lats, and a little bit of biceps and forearms. You can sit or stand.
Shoulder Flys. Use dumbbells, and start with very small ones. This is deceptively hard. Standing straight, one dumbbell in each hand. Slowly raise each arm outward (can also raise forward, but that shifts some weight to your chest) until they are just below parallel with the floor. Don’t pop your shoulders - if you do, you went too far. Slowly lower your arms back to your sides.
Reverse Flys. Best done on a cable machine that lets you sit straight, but can be done lying facedown on a bench. With the handles (or dumbbells) extended straight out from your chest, spread them apart until they are parallel with your chest. Slowly close your arms again. This works traps, rhomboids, and deltoids.
Forearms Curls. This is a good way to work this important muscle group. Hold a bar (start light - this one is hard too) palms down, arms at rest. Keeping your upper arms mostly motionless, curl the bar upward. The palms down instead of up on the bar is what shifts the load away from your biceps to your forearms.

Legs:
Squats. Never a bad choice, but be careful with these. If you try too much weight too fast, you WILL hurt yourself. This is an exercise where the endurance, not power, advice is particularly important for shooting. You’re not holding a lot of extra weight with the rifle, but you’re holding it a long time.
Calf Raises. Can be done seated with a machine, or standing under body weight or with additional weight. Pretty simple, you rest the balls of your feet on a ledge, then with your calf muscles, raise your legs up to the top of your range of motion, then lower below horizontal to the bottom of your range. You’ll find that your range of motion on this will grow slightly as you train.
Most leg-exercises and machines will help, so I won’t call out any more specially. One warning, though, is that while deadlifts are good for many things, they’re another easy way to hurt yourself, particularly your back. Get a trainer if you’re going to do them.

[Rlyeh]

Now that's a thing! Thank you!

[Pat McCoy]

Good weight training advice above, but remember rifle shooting is an endurance sport. Add in some running, bicycling, swimming, cross country skiing, or roller skating a couple time a week.

[Pandp2000]

My son has found core training has helped. Posture takes muscle and in a 60shot international stand fatigue can have serious consequences. He is only 17but he also controls his diet match week with limited caffeine and protein over high glucose carbs.

[Twdmar]

Your age will factor in how your train. I am nearly 40 have learned the hard way. If something hurts, don't do it. If it doesn't hurt, it may still not be advisable. Most trainers I have watched at various gyms are clueless and often certified in an 8 hr seminar.
I would avoid any shoulder fly movements where the arms are extended, it puts unnecessary stress on the shoulder joint which is actually pretty fragile. If it doesnt hurt now, it will in 15 yrs. Military press is a better exercise. Bench press is also bad for the shoulders.
Planks are better replaced with other exercises, crunches not being one. If you want to do planks, do Russian planks. If you want to do crunches, use a band to pull your heels away from your butt to take your hip flexors out of the exercise.
Squats and deadlifts are great if you know how to do them but as stated above, they're great ways to hurt yourself.
Most people have weak glutes and overly tight hip flexors from sitting in front of a computer. This comes into play for me for offhand and sitting positions.
Finally, if you are older, avoid working to failure. Research is showing the recovery time needed increases drastically and improvement is decreased. Be smart, find workouts you enjoy and avoid crossfit like the plague. Dan John and Jeff cavaliere are worth looking into.

[atomicgale]

Lift the rifle.
Shoot the rifle.
Set the rifle down.
Repeat.

[samg]

Lift the rifle.
Shoot the rifle.
Set the rifle down.
Repeat.

Great advice! How many reps and how often?

[atomicgale]

Typically 60 reps.

Wax on.
Wax off.
Sand floor.
Paint fence.
Repeat until win Karate tournament.

[Twdmar]

Typically 60 reps.

Wax on.
Wax off.
Sand floor.
Paint fence.
Repeat until win Karate tournament.

Awesome!