Muscular endurance training may just be what you need if you find your muscles giving out before your gym session is over or if you are struggling in the gym.
I would say you are thinking about muscular endurance, if you are looking forward to sculpting your body into the perfect shape of your dream.
You have likely heard that muscular endurance helps in cutting down on excess fat and result in smaller muscle mass. Improving muscular endurance can be beneficial for marathon runners and weightlifters alike.
What is Muscular Endurance?
Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to perform repetitive contractions against a force for a longer period of time, as well as the ability to resist, withstand, recover from and have impunity to fatigue. The greater your muscular endurance the higher the number of repetitions you could complete.
Many competitive sports demand a high level of muscular endurance, such as cycling, running, rowing and swimming. Muscular endurance can have many benefits for both your gym sessions and your overall health.
Do You Need Muscular Endurance?
Building muscular endurance will aid in performing a physical task for a long period of time. Strength allows you to lift a force, while endurance allows you to continue doing this over time. So consider building muscular endurance.
10 Exercises for Muscular Endurance
Here is a list of exercises used to train for muscular endurance just by doing several high repetition sets at lighter weights. Such exercises require few or no equipment, and you can do them at home.
1. Deadlift
Deadlift is a weight training exercise in which a loaded barbell is lifted off the ground to the level of the hips, torso perpendicular to the floor, before being placed back on the ground.
It is also known as one of the core lifts along with the squat and bench press. There are two variations of deadlifts, which are the sumo deadlift and the standard deadlift.
but for the purpose of this article I will be discussing the basic, shoulder-width stance of a standard deadlift.
2. Lunges
A lunge is a powerful leg strengthening exercise, where one leg is positioned forward with the knee bent and foot flat on the ground while the other leg is positioned behind. This technique allows you to shape and strengthen almost every muscle in the lower body.
3. Plank
Plank is an excellent abdominal and core exercise. This exercise involves maintaining a position similar to a push-up for the maximum possible time and also ensures that your core is kept strong and stable.
4. Pull-up
A pull-up is an upper-body strengthening exercise. This exercise allows you to grip an overhead bar and lift your body, hanging by just your hands until your chin is above the bar.
5. Push-up
Push-up is an exercise which strengthens your arms and chest muscles. They are done by lying with your face towards the floor and pushing with your hands to raise your body until your arms are straight.
6. Running
Running and jogging are both forms of aerobic exercise that involves the action of rapidly propelling yourself forward on foot. It can boost your mood, memory and focus, energy levels, and improve your cardiovascular health, respiratory function, and bone density.
7. Sit-up
Sit up is a classic abdominal exercise done by lying on your back and lifting your torso. It is similar to crunch, but sit up uses the body weight to tighten and tone the core-stabilizing abdominal muscles.
8. Squat
Squat is a vital exercise for increasing strength and size of the lower body muscles as well as developing core strength. The exerciser lowers their hips from a standing position and then stands back up. Squat also boosts your calorie burn, helps prevent injuries, strengthens your core, and improves your balance and posture when performed correctly.
9. Swimming
Swimming is a sport or activity that requires the propulsion of the body through water by combined arm and leg motions and the natural flotation of the body.
10. Crunches
Crunch is an abdominal exercise that works the rectus abdominis muscle. It tighten the belly and enables building “six-pack” abs.
Benefits of Muscular Endurance Training
Engaging in muscle endurance activities has a lot of benefits in addition to the ability to use your muscles over long periods of time. These are a few amazing benefits of muscle endurance training:
- Reduced fatigue when exercising
- Increase the presence of slow-twitch muscle fibers
- Help maintain good posture
- Lengthen lifespan
- Fewer injuries
- Gives a healthy heart
- Little or no back problems due to built endurance of trunk muscles
- Better sporting performance
- Increased metabolism as physical tasks can be completed for longer
- Helps in weight lose
- Refined training techniques for many exercises
How to Increase Muscular Endurance?
Increasing muscle endurance involves increasing the total time a muscle is contracted during an exercise. The increase processes includes:
- Challenging the Body: When comfortable performing repetitions of an exercise, do one of the following: increase weight used, number of reps, number of sets or reduce the length of the rest period.
- Exercising Slowly and Controlled: Lower the resistance slowly when training through the complete range of motion.
- Moving Better: Muscle endurance is better increased by an efficient movement. For beginners it is important to start with simple movements when performing resistance training.
- Regular Exercise: If you want to improve muscular endurance, you need to train on a regular basis. Work on completing a minimum of 12 reps, before taking a short break and then repeating for at least 3 sets on each major muscle group.
- Weight Training: You can use either machines or free-weights to improve your muscles.
