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How do I Choose the Best Endurance Exercises?
If you want to increase endurance — whether for sport or personal health — then choosing the right endurance exercises is important. To choose an endurance exercise you first need to know which type of endurance you want to increase. Cardiovascular endurance focuses on the body’s ability to provide oxygen to the muscles during a prolonged exercise routine. Muscle endurance focuses on the ability of a particular muscle to perform repetitions against resistance for a period of time. To choose the best exercise for you it’s important to think about your current fitness level, which exercises you enjoy and how likely an injury is when using a particular exercise.
The only way to improve cardiovascular endurance is to perform a cardiovascular exercise regularly over a period of time. Cardiovascular exercise is any type of fitness routine that increases the heart rate. For example, running, swimming and cycling are all cardiovascular exercises. In order to achieve the maximum benefit from cardiovascular workouts it’s important to vary a routine to prevent the body becoming used to a certain exercise.
There is no such thing as the best cardiovascular endurance exercise for everyone. Even so, due to the fact that cardiovascular exercises needs to be performed regularly to increase endurance it’s important to choose endurance exercises that are easily available. For example, jogging requires little equipment apart from a good set of jogging shoes and can be performed at any time. Team sports can be a good way of increasing endurance but require more organization and effort.
The best endurance exercises for you will also minimize the risk of getting an injury. Low-intensity workouts such as those achieved using a cross trainer will allow you to exercise regularly without putting your body under excess strain. Some exercises, such as running, put a lot of stress on the body’s joints and hence need to be approached with more caution.
Choosing the best muscular endurance exercises is often simpler than cardiovascular exercises. This is due to the fact that if you want to increase the endurance of a particular muscle then there are often not many choices when it comes to exercises. For example, if you want to increase the endurance of your quadriceps muscles then squats or pistol squats may be a good option.
Other factors that you should consider when choosing endurance exercises include how often you can perform a type of exercise, whether it can be performed in all weather and how difficult you find it. It’s usually a good idea to pick several different endurance exercises, not only for your body’s sake but also to avoid getting bored.
Discussion Comments
I have a friend who is in good general health, but she recently had a series of tests run in the hospital. The tests showed that the oxygen levels in her body were low. There was no apparent cause of the low oxygen levels. Her doctor has suggested that she start some type of endurance training to see whether this type of exercise helps her situation.
For most of my life I have been in decent to very good physical condition. When I was younger, I could slack up and not exercise for a while and then get right back in the gym or on the track and hardly miss a beat. A few years ago, I realized that I was gaining a lot of extra weight, and I wasn't very active at all.
So one day I decided to go for a run. I thought I would run three miles since I was a bit out of shape. I used to run five miles without much difficulty. Well, about a half mile into my run, I felt like my sides were going to rupture and my legs felt like they were burning from the inside out.
I say this to make the point that the key to building up your endurance at anything is to stick with it on a regular basis. You can't expect to work hard for a couple of weeks and then take a week off and see any significant improvement in your endurance. This is true of muscle endurance exercises and exercises to improve the condition of your heart and lungs.
The best exercise I have found for building my cardio endurance is a combination of distance running and wind sprints. About three days a week I run a couple of miles and I alternate between an all out run and a slow paced trot. The key to this being really effective is that I never stop.
When I am moving at a slower place, I am able to regain my energy. Then the sprints push my endurance. My heart rate never slows to its normal rate while I am doing this workout. This is also a good muscle endurance exercise for my leg muscles.
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