Gone are the days when sporting ripped 8-pack abs and peaked biceps were considered to be the ideal fitness standards. Fitness nowadays is not only confined to lifting weights. Instead, being strong and aesthetic along with having decent levels of endurance and stamina are considered to be the ideal fitness standards.
Nowadays, most people are getting inspired by personalities like Greg Plitt, CT Fletcher, David Goggins who exhibit God-like fitness levels. They are strong, athletic, and have great levels of endurance.
If you too are looking to up your endurance game, rest assured that you are at the right place. This post is going to guide you pretty well in that regard.
How can I increase my stamina and endurance?
If increasing your stamina and endurance is your next fitness goal, you would have to make certain changes to your existing training program. You would have to train your muscles in a manner that can enhance their work capacity. The following tips will aid you in that matter. According to Dr Workout, even David Goggins relies on these tips to take his endurance to extraordinary levels. Let’s have a look at them:-
Reducing amount of rest between sets
If you have been familiar with lifting weights, you would surely have been taking a rest of around 60-90 seconds in between your sets. But if you want to work on enhancing your endurance, you would have to reduce your rest intervals in between your sets. We would recommend you to take as little rest as possible between the sets. Incorporating drop sets and supersets in your training program can also serve you pretty well.
Combining strength and cardio workouts
If you want to take your stamina and endurance to the next level, combining your strength and cardio workouts can fetch you great results. This approach will allow your body to get the benefits of performing both strength training and cardiovascular exercises. A good example of implementing this approach could be performing skipping ropes for 60 seconds, followed by performing squats, bench press, and 30 seconds of planks. You can repeat the circuit 2-3 times.
Switching is the key
If your prime fitness goal is to increase your stamina and endurance, don’t stick to a particular workout routine. Keep on switching it from time to time. This will allow your body to not get familiar with a particular workout protocol. Keep on challenging your limits by incorporating new training methods and exercises into your workout routine.
Best Exercises for Endurance
There are numerous exercises that you can perform to increase your overall endurance and stamina. But to ease out the things for you we are presenting before you a few of the exercises that can give you the best bang for your bucks. You can get an idea about the effectiveness of these exercises from the fact that almost all of them are performed by David Goggins. Those exercises are:-
Running
Undoubtedly, running is one of the most recommended exercises when it comes to boosting one’s endurance. Running is an exercise that has a plethora of benefits. If you incorporate running in your training program, you can certainly see drastic improvements in your levels of endurance in a very short period. Running also keeps your cardiovascular health in check along with helping you in burning off excess calories.
Cycling
Cycling is another great exercise that can take your endurance levels to newer heights. When you cycle for a longer period of time, your heart and muscles persist continuously to keep you going. This provides your cardiovascular system with a great workout. To get the most out of your cycling sessions, we would recommend you try out the polarised training model. This workout model requires the rider to spend a greater proportion (around 80%) of the training time to cycle at a moderate intensity. Afterward, the rider switches on to cycle at a high intensity that is for around 20% of the training time.
Walking
If you are just starting out with your endurance training, walking can be a great exercise for that purpose. Without being excessively taxing on your system, unlike running and cycling, it can provide you with a great stamina-building workout. Walking is also a great exercise that aids in building up your leg strength and increasing your lung capacity. Over time, if you find covering long distances through walking too easy, you can switch on to walk on inclines. Inclines will provide you with the resistance that will make walking more challenging for you. This will further translate into significant improvements in your levels of endurance.
Swimming
Swimming is an exercise that tends to work on improving both your endurance and strength levels. Swimming requires your body to perform repeated submaximal contractions over time. If you are quite familiar with swimming and you want to make it more challenging, you can tie small weights to your wrists and ankles while swimming. Doing so will require your body to put in more effort while swimming. It will further aid in taking your endurance to the next level.
Stair Climbing
Stair climbing is something which most of us usually avoid doing. With the presence of escalators and elevators, people don’t find the need to climb stairs. Undoubtedly, using escalators and elevators saves a lot of time, but if you are looking to up your endurance levels, stair climbing can serve you pretty well in that regard. If the gymnasium in which you train has a stair climber, it’s time you must spend some decent amount of time working out on it. Apart from increasing the levels of your stamina, stair climbing can also help in toning your lower body muscles. It assists in burning fat and can also aid you in getting rid of those love handles.
Fast-Paced High-Intensity Lifting
If you have been familiar with lifting heavy weights, you would have been used to performing slow and controlled reps. This approach is pretty good for muscle gains. But if you want to improve your endurance levels, you must try out fast-paced high-intensity lifting. Apart from improving strength, this training approach will also aid in enhancing your overall endurance.
Plyometrics/Explosive Movements
Performing explosive movements like jump squats, clapping push-ups, burpees, knee tucks, box jumps, etc. can help you a lot in increasing your levels of endurance. Those movements not only work on improving your stamina but you can also experience improvements in your overall athleticism.
Conclusion
We expect that this post would have guided you well about how you can increase the levels of your stamina and endurance. You can implement the tips suggested by us to experience the endurance-related gains you are looking for. We are sure you will be greatly rewarded by them.
