Have you ever wondered what keeps you going in your sport of choice when others are dropping by the sidelines? Or, perhaps you’re the one who is finding it difficult to keep up with a physical activity for any period of time and you don’t understand why. The answer may lie in your level of endurance fitness.
Endurance Fitness defined
Endurance fitness is the ability to sustain a physical activity for a lengthened period of time. For example, it’s being able to stay on the treadmill or elliptical for an hour versus just five or ten minutes. It’s having the energy and stamina to stay in the game instead of huffing and puffing on the sidelines.
Think of long distance runners or professional sports players. They have to push their bodies for extensive periods of time. Therefore, they must keep a high endurance fitness level as opposed to someone that runs a 100 meter dash or doesn’t play sports at all.
Benefits of Endurance Fitness
There are many advantages of having a high endurance fitness level. You have a lower resting heart rate because your heart works more effectively and your muscles are more efficient and stronger for longer periods of time. You also experience less fatigue and you’re able to sustain greater demands on your body.
How to Improve Your Endurance Fitness
There are a few things you can do to achieve a greater level of endurance fitness. You can perform your activity of choice at a slower rate for a longer period of time. Just keep adding a few minutes a week to your current schedule to get your body used to sustaining activity for longer durations.
You can also perform interval training. This is where you alternate between hard and light intensities, thereby increasing your body’s endurance levels. So, if you work out on a treadmill, for instance, you may want to alternate running and walking for several minutes at a time. Do this for one or two exercise sessions a week and you’ll notice that you can sustain longer bouts of exercise with less fatigue.