When we exercise, we often hear about building endurance, but what does that actually mean and how do we do it? This blog will provide a brief overview of exactly what endurance training is, the different types of endurance training and what exercises help. We’ll also run through some of the benefits that enhancing your endurance can provide. So, let’s jump right in.
What is Endurance Training?
Endurance training is a form of workout that builds your ability to perform a specific exercise at a high-level over an extended period of time. Many people use stamina and endurance as interchangeable words, but it is important to note that stamina is the ability to resist fatigue while maintaining physical exertion over a sustained period of time whereas endurance refers to ability to maintain a level of effort over a prolonged period. There are many similarities and essentially building both is a great thing to include in your fitness routine. With that in mind let’s move on to common types of endurance training.
Cardiovascular Endurance Training
Cardiovascular or aerobic endurance training is probably the most well-known type of endurance training. This type of endurance training enhances the ability of the heart, lungs and circulatory system to provide our body with the oxygen along with other key nutrients. Activities such as long-distance walking or running, cycling and swimming are all ways to build this form of endurance. The most important thing when you’re upping your cardiovascular endurance is to remain consistent in your workout routine and to slowly build up.
Muscular Endurance Training
While cardiovascular endurance training focuses on the cardio system, muscular endurance training targets the body’s ability to perform repetitive tasks while resisting fatigue over a sustained period of time. Essentially this is how you ensure your muscles are ready for long-distance, sustained bouts of exercise such as running by working specific muscle groups. This form of endurance training would include weight and strength training, with exercises such as push-ups, weightlifting, squats, etc being useful in building your muscles endurance. This is where consistency, tempo, and a regular routine can come in handy as you work particular muscle groups on specific days to prevent fatigue as well as increase your ability over time.
Anaerobic Endurance Training
Anaerobic endurance training entails the ability of your muscles when performing high-intensity exercises over an extended period of time without getting fatigued. While aerobic exercise uses oxygen to help your muscles endure, anaerobic exercises use the stored energy in your body such as glucose and glycogen. However, this process can only be sustained over shorter periods of time as opposed to those longer forms of exercise when going on far runs or cycles for example, meaning the likes of HIIT training or specific fitness classes are ideal in building this as they combine intense exercises over shorter periods followed by small resting times. Increasing this ability can be a fantastic benefit when performing the other two types of endurance training.
Benefits
These are the three main forms of endurance training, and each one has its own benefits. Starting with cardiovascular endurance training, which by improving in this department you not only enhance your ability to more easily perform daily activities, but you also reduce your risk of many diseases related to the heart and lungs. Meanwhile, muscular endurance training is of major benefit to reducing your risk of exercise as it strengthens your muscles, enhances your joint-health and improves your posture. Lastly, anaerobic endurance training is another way of reducing injury as well as increasing your body’s power output, strength and agility, all of which is hugely important in building your overall fitness levels.
Final Thoughts
There you have it our quick guide on endurance training. As you can see having a combination of these three types of endurance training can be massively beneficial for not only your workout performance but also your overall health. An important thing to note is that when you’re starting off in any form of endurance training, we recommend you slowly build in all departments including tempo and the regularity with which you work out. Building your physical endurance also increases your mental endurance as you push through barriers to reach your next goal.
How Aura Leisure Can Help
At Aura Leisure, our team of fitness experts are here to help you reach your goals whether that’s in the gym or the pool. If you’re kickstarting your fitness journey and looking to build endurance we’ve got our personalised fitness programme Aura Fit for Life, while for those of you at a more advanced stage there’s Aura Lean3. While if you’re looking to the pool for exercise, we’ve got adult swim lessons for people of all abilities, which will help you perfect your swimming techniques before building your endurance in the pool. Members at Aura Leisure get access to our gym, swimming pool, fitness programmes, fitness classes and much more for free to help you reach your fitness goals.