Muscular endurance: what is it, its importance and how to increase it with simple exercises
For anyone interested in a healthy lifestyle or who is ageing and wanting a better quality of life, muscular resistance is is essential.
Having greater physical endurance can provide several health benefits and it is not just related to exercising.
Even to climb stairs and walk requires muscular endurance, they are simple, every day tasks but without muscular endurance it is difficult.
For those who play sports, muscular endurance is directly associated with good performance.
For anyone who wants to know how to improve physical resistance and which exercises can help, please keep reading.
What is Muscular Endurance?
Muscular endurance is the ability to make movement, often exerting force, repetitively and constantly for a predetermined period of time.
In other words, muscular endurance or physical endurance, as one could also call it, is one’s ability to overcome fatigue.
A person with good resistance can perform an exercise for as long as possible, without reducing the quality of execution.
In the case of a professional runner for example, who needs to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. In order to do this, the runner will need to be agile, without slowing down.
Muscular endurance is what allows the runner to perform the same movements repeatedly, without getting injured or experiencing muscle fatigue.
What is the difference between muscular strength and muscular endurance?
Now that you know what muscular endurance is, it's time to understand the concept of strength.
After all, both concepts are often confused but they are not the same thing.
Muscular strength is the maximum amount of tension you can exert to perform a movement.
Endurance, as we saw, is how long you can keep doing the same movement or in the same position without getting tired easily.
Let's look at an example: imagine that you are doing a squat with a barbell.
The amount of weight you can hold during the exercise is your strength and how many times you can squat while holding that weight is your endurance.
It may be that you are a strong person but have low endurance or vice versa. The good news is that both skills are trainable and can be improved.
Why should I care about having more physical endurance?
After understanding more about what physical endurance and strength are, you're probably wondering why it's important.
Especially if you don't practice sports or physical activities, this topic may seem unimportant.
However, physical endurance is important for physical health and well being.
Even if you are not an athlete, increasing your muscular resistance is essential to be healthier and do simple everyday things.
Think about how many flights of stairs you can climb without getting tired or needing to stop.
Many? Or is it enough to climb a few steps to make you feel exhausted? And hold your children in your arms? Can you spend hours holding your baby?
These are just simple examples of how muscular endurance matters.
Going further, it is fundamental for healthy aging and more autonomy. Muscles help everything from maintaining an upright posture to making simple movements like walking.
When you have good resistance and muscular strength it is easier to carry out activities whether they are in daily life or related to sports.
Having strong and resistant muscles protects the body from fractures, injuries, falls and even the onset of diseases, such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.
How to gain muscle strength and endurance?
It is now evident that physical strangth and endurance is important for health but how can we achieve increased strength and endurance?
There is no other way to improve these skills if you are not training. You can only become stronger and more resilient with practice and effort.
It would be good if we could increase these points by eating or drinking something, wouldn't it? But unfortunately, this is not the case.
Therefore, the first step to gaining strength and endurance is to start physical activity or sport.
To increase strength, you must choose exercises that require strength and have the load gradually increase. This is the case with bodybuilding, for example.
Endurance can be worked on both in weight training and in freer activities, such as running and cycling.
In this case, you can work in two ways:
- Increase in repetitions: instead of doing 3 sets of 12 repetitions in squats, for example, you can do 2 sets of 30 squats.
- Increased muscle contraction time: instead of doing several repetitions of sit-ups, you can exchange a series for plank sit-ups, staying there for as long as you can.
Best muscular endurance exercises
Since you have to exercise to improve endurance, here are some exercises and physical activities that you can start doing.
When performing them, don't forget to gradually increase the number of repetition, this is inevitably what is going to increase your endurance.
And also remember that the secret to muscular endurance is to do the activity for longer but without losing the quality of the execution.
Some exercises that can help you get better results in increasing physical endurance are:
- Running
- Cycling
- Jump rope
- Climb stairs
- Abdominal Exercises
- Squats
- Pilates
- Body Building
Muscular endurance training if you are over 50 years old
After the age of 50, it is normal to have low muscular resistance and endurance, as over time our body loses strength and resistance.
The good news is that you can improve this! It's never too late to start taking care of yourself and improving your health.
Some exercises and sports that may be interesting for people over 50 are:
- Water aerobics
- Swimming
- Localised gymnastics
- Pilates
- Body Building
Before you start practising, be sure to talk to your doctor to understand which exercise is best for you.
Especially for those who already have health problems, guidance is essential to avoid complications and injuries. After all, that's not the goal!
Did you enjoy learning more about muscle endurance? Now you know what muscular endurance is and how you can increase it.
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In another blog post you can find out more about how to RELIEVE TIRED MUSCLES AFTER TRAINING: FIND OUT THE CAUSES AND HOW TO ALLEVIATE THE MUSCLES
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