People often use endurance and stamina interchangeably, and rightly so. The two words have strong similarities, but there are a few differences, according to health experts.
Stamina is the capacity of a person to perform a workout at top performance, so it is focused more on high intensity. Endurance is how long a person can perform a specific workout in total without quitting, per Healthline.
Repeating the same workouts week after week without pushing yourself further or changing exercises could cause you to feel like you’ve hit a plateau in your fitness performance. Here are ways to strengthen endurance and stamina.
Add intervals
Interval training consists of multiple types of exercises and includes sets of high- and low-intensity workouts. This type of training demands quick bursts energy over short periods of time, and involves taking breaks in between sets.
“It’s thought that by performing high-intensity intervals that produce lactic acid during practice, the body adapts and burns lactic acid more efficiently during exercise,” according to Verywell Fit. “This means athletes can exercise at a higher intensity for a longer period of time before fatigue or pain slows them down.”
A good example of how to embrace this type of exercise would be if you are training for a half-marathon, rather than running long miles every day, take a few days out of the week to run repeated sprints or timed 800s.
“Too often, endurance is sacrificed for simple, heavy strength training or steady-state cardio,” Ben Wegman, a trainer at The Fhitting Room, told Byrdie.
Wegman added that to be a better athlete, “he suggests adding endurance work to your everyday fitness routine, as studies show that sessions of sprint interval training increase aerobic performance and endurance capacity.”
Incorporate plyometrics
Plyometrics is a form of exercise that requires a person to use quick bursts of energy to do things like jump on or over a box.
“Plyometrics training helps them improve specific functionalities for their sport. This is particularly true of sports requiring explosiveness, which is the ability to generate power quickly and in short bursts,” per Medical News Today.
Plyometrics training is beneficial, according to fitness experts, because it:
- Increases muscle strength.
- Increases muscle power while wasting little energy.
- Increases the rate at which muscles react.
- Improves agility.
Work on strength training
Stronger muscles lead to more muscular endurance and stamina. When you are reaching the end of your workout and quitting is sounding nicer than finishing those last couple miles, that’s when muscles need endurance to kick in.
“Muscles must repeatedly contract to propel the athlete along the course, all while resisting fatigue. Strength training, when performed properly, dramatically increases the amount of force that all muscle fibers can produce. Stronger muscles mean greater force production,” per Applied Fitness Solutions.
Eating Well shared some standard strength training workouts to use to build strength:
- Pullups.
- Pushups.
- Glute bridges.
- Squats.
- Deadlifts.
- Bicep curls.
- Walking lunges.
- Planks.
Manage your stress
According to Nike, when working on enhancing stamina, how a person deals with stress, whether physical or emotional, can affect performance.
When you’re stressed, “Your body isn’t able to focus on repairing damaged tissue because it’s in fight-or-flight mode. All the other processes are on pause,” per Nike.
A study published in Pain Reports found that stress can exacerbate muscle pain, prolonging the time it takes to recover. “Chronic psychological stress also impairs recovery from muscle soreness and produces increased fatigue,” researchers found.
Exercises such as meditative yoga or a nature hike can be grounding and alleviate stress levels, benefitting your physical and emotional health.