What is Endurance?
Endurance is the ability to sustain a physical and mental performance over an extended period of time. Endurance depends on other factors, such as general health, cardiovascular system, metabolism, and current physical and mental condition.
Endurance training can’t only help you in building up muscles but will also let your body to undergo several different physiological changes, including but not limited to the following:
Lowers your heart rate
If you train with a focus on endurance, you will notice that it will take a lot more physical exertion to even get your heart rate up compared to before. This means that your heart muscles have gotten a lot stronger than before. You will also be less prone to heart diseases because of this.
Produces more red blood cells
If you improve your endurance through proper training, your body can also benefit from producing more red blood cells in preparation for strengthening your heart muscles. Having more red blood cells means more oxygen and nutrients can get to the different parts of your body.
It also means that your muscles will be receiving more red blood cells, which can prevent it from getting fatigued fast.
Increases capillarization in the muscles
This means that as the muscles receive more blood, they also develop a more extensive network of blood vessels, also known as capillaries, within themselves. Having more blood vessels means that more blood can get inside the muscles. It is like a never-ending cycle.
How to Train to Improve Your Endurance
Basically, you should not focus too much on the intensity of your workout when trying to build and strengthen your endurance. What you should focus on should be the length and number of repetitions.
For instance, if you want to build up your muscles, you will need to increase the weights that you lift gradually. However, if you want to increase your endurance, you need to concentrate more on increasing the number of repetitions that you can make. This means you will be lifting lighter weights, but you will be doing a lot of repetitions.
If you are thinking of improving your overall health, and you are not just focused on getting ripped, then you need to train your endurance more than your strength.
Endurance FAQ
What is Endurance?
Endurance, which is also linked to resilience, hardiness, fortitude, and sufferance, refers to your ability to stay active for a prolonged period. It is also what will help you resist, recover from, withstand, and develop immunity to wounds, fatigue, and trauma.
Endurance is also a vital part of most anaerobic and aerobic exercises. You can train for endurance to lessen your ability to exert too much strength. Endurance is also all about a muscle’s ability to go through repeated contractions from a designated resistance for a specific period.
What is Endurance Training?
Endurance training refers to a form of exercise, which aims to boost your endurance. Most of the exercises that form part of endurance training focus on increasing your breathing and heart rate. Some examples are jogging, jumping rope, biking, swimming, and walking.
Endurance exercises and activities are good for you as they can improve the health of your lungs, circulatory system, and heart, as well as your overall fitness. This results in a lower risk of developing certain diseases, like stroke, heart disease, and diabetes.
How Much Endurance Training Do You Need?
Improving your endurance promotes ease in carrying out your daily activities. If you are still a beginner in doing some exercise routines, like those meant to build your endurance, then avoid rushing things. Start small at first. The best starting duration is ten to fifteen minutes. You can then build up slowly from there.
Once you are already familiar with the routine, you can start following the recommendation for adults to perform at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activities every week. A wise tip is to set aside half an hour a day for five days every week for endurance training.
What are the Benefits of Endurance Training?
Here are just some of the benefits that you can get from training to improve your endurance:
- Strengthens bones – Endurance exercises done regularly can help maintain good bone density. This form of training can strengthen your bones. The fact that growth hormones are released to your bloodstream while training also helps in bolstering bone density.
- Improves your cardiovascular health – Endurance training improves the ability of your heart to pump blood with every beat. You can also strengthen your heart as you let your body adapt and adjust to the increased levels and intensity of your physical activities. Moreover, it can significantly boost blood circulation as you notice your blood vessels getting less constricted while forming new capillaries for the optimization of the delivery of nutrients.
- Strengthens immunity – Endurance training can also contribute to boosting your immunity. It can develop extra proteins that are essential in producing antibodies and white blood cells. Note, though, that excessive exercising may actually produce opposite results as far as your immune system is concerned as it may only produce more inflammation.
- Improves your quality of sleep and mental health – Regular endurance exercises can also improve blood circulation, which is a big help in the delivery of more nutrients and oxygen to your brain. It works in boosting mental clarity while preventing sudden dips in your mood. You will be much better at handling stress, which is also a good thing as it lets you sleep better.
Apart from the ones mentioned, you can also increase your stamina for your daily activities, improve your energy level, boost your metabolism, and improve your cognitive function as you continue training for endurance.
