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When we talk about endurance and exercises, most people refer to them as cardiovascular endurance exercises more than muscular endurance exercises.
Cardiovascular endurance is the heart’s ability to how long it can function until we run out of breath. Muscular endurance refers to how long the muscles can sustain a repetitive amount of force against resistance before getting fatigued.
Athletes often ignore muscular endurance exercise. They keep focusing on their cardiovascular endurance and end up having fatigued muscles and muscle pain throughout. When we perform a strength exercise with resistance training for several repetitions – the gradual increase in repetitions causes the muscle to get tired and causes a buildup of lactic acid.
This is when we feel the muscles burn. Muscle endurance is when this burn is felt after a long time of exercise.
A person with good muscle endurance will feel the burn after a much-extended period of time compared to a person who will have weaker muscle endurance.
1. Why Do We Need Muscular Endurance Exercises?
We perform various physical activities with repetitive motions every day – be it racking the leaves, Lifting things, or anything else. We need muscle endurance to keep doing those tasks, and hence we need muscular endurance exercises.
Decreased muscle endurance will cause a decrease in work output and make you feel tired easily.
2. Muscular Endurance Exercises – What It Does to your Body?
- Muscle endurance helps prevent overuse injuries.
- It makes bones and joints stronger.
- Help keep the heart healthy and young.
- Aids body weight control
- Improves mood and sleep
- Prevents all age-related decline
3. How to Build Muscular Endurance?
Using a muscle group repeatedly increases muscle strength and, in turn, helps increase muscle endurance. Making the muscles work for a longer amount of time by increasing the number of repetitions of your strength training exercise will also help you gain muscular endurance.
One should do more than 15 reps of an exercise to see changes in muscular endurance. You could also start with a lighter weight first, but the repetitions should be more. Holding a position is also said to increase muscular endurance.
To increase muscular endurance, one must have proper base strength. This means you should have proper strength training before training for muscular endurance. There are many muscular endurance exercises that you could perform to increase your muscular endurance.
Mentioned below are a few muscular endurance exercises that you should start trying if you aim to have high muscular endurance.
4. Top Muscular Endurance Exercises
4.1. Triceps Dips
Sit on a chair for the start position. Slowly move your hip off the chair with your hands holding the chair’s edge. Lower your body up and down with the support of your arms. Keep your elbows at 90 degrees while bending down.
This is one of the upper-body muscular endurance exercises. Try to do 3 sets of 16 reps.
4.2. Pushups
Lay prone on the ground. Lift your body from the ground with your arms. Your body should be tight while going up and down, drawing your shoulder blades in and out.
This exercise works best for the chest, shoulders, triceps, back, and legs. Carry out 3 sets of 16 reps.
4.3. Plank
Lie on the floor with your forearms on the ground and waist up in the air such that you are parallel to the ground. Lift your body with only your toes and forearm in contact with the ground. The forearms should be at shoulder width and level. Hold this position for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Relax and then repeat thrice. You can increase the hold gradually as you master this exercise. This one of the muscular endurance exercises strengthens the abdomen, back, and shoulders.
4.4. Abdominal Crunches
Lie on your back with your knees bent 90 degrees and your feet flat on the ground. Stretch your arms forward, or you could interlock them at the back of your head. Using your abdominal muscles, lift your upper body off the ground. Hold it for a few seconds and slowly return. This exercise is good for your abdominal muscles.
Carry out this one of the muscular training exercises for abs 15 times, thrice.
4.5. Russian Twists
Sit on the floor with your knees together and feet on the ground. Now lift your feet a little and tilt a bit backward. Hold some weight, or just clasp your hands together and twist your torso from side to side.
This one is good for the abs and obliques of our abdominal muscles. Carry out 3 sets of 20 repetitions.
4.6. Straight Leg Raises
Lie on your back and place your hands on your chest or by your sides. Place your hands at the sides of your body with the palms facing up.
Lift both your legs slowly off the ground together. Use your abdominal muscles while doing so. Lift your legs to 90 degrees and hold for a few seconds, and then slowly lower them back. Make sure you don’t lower them very forcefully as you can injure your heels.
Perform 15 reps in 3 sets if you can do this one of the muscular training exercises. This exercise helps in strengthening abs and leg muscles.
4.7. V- Up
Lie on your back with your legs extended – palms facing downwards. Make sure your legs are tightly bound together. Raise your body and legs together. Use your arms to touch your toes.
Make sure to keep your legs and hands straight while doing so. This exercise is great for abs as well. Perform 3 sets of 20 reputations for better results.
4.8. Bicycle Crunches
Lie on the floor with your hands interlocked behind your head. Draw your right knee to your chest, and bring your left elbow near it in a cross manner. Repeat on the other side.
You can keep your feet off the ground to increase the intensity of the exercise. Avoid sudden jerky movements around the neck. This exercise is effective for abs.
Carry out 3 sets of 25 repetitions.
4.9. Flutter Kicks
Lie supine with your arms at your side. Lift your head, neck, shoulder, and legs off the ground a bit. Keeping this position maintained and toes pointed out, start lowering one leg without touching it to the ground.
Raise the leg back up and start lowering the other leg, and bring it back up. Repeat with alternate legs and make a fluttering motion to engage your core. This exercise like all the other muscular training exercises is good for your abs as well as legs.
Perform 3 sets of 20 reps.
4.10. Lunges
Start with standing up such that your legs have shoulder-width distance and your hands are on your hips. Stepping on your right leg, lower your right thigh to make a 90-degree angle with the floor, keeping your back straight. Return and switch the leg.
You could also walk forward with the help of these lunges if you are in a bigger room. Don’t touch your knee to the ground while bending, and make sure you use your toes while bending the knees. This exercise comes under lower body muscular endurance exercises.
It strengthens the quads, glutes, and hams. Perform 3 sets of 16 reps.
4.11. Squats
The starting position would be the same as that of the lunges. You could stretch your arms forward if you want. Lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Make sure that your knees should not cross your toes while lowering your body. Your knees should be extended in the same direction as your toes.
Bring your body up and do the next squat. This works on the thighs, hips, buttocks, hamstrings, and lower body.
Make sure your back is straight at all times while doing this exercise. Squat as low as you can.
4.12. Wall Sit
Place your back against the wall. Keep your feet shoulder-width and 2 feet away from the wall. Using your core muscles, slowly slide down the wall with your back in full contact. Go down until your thighs form a 90-degree angle in correspondence to the ground.
Make sure your knees should be directly above your ankles and should not cross your toes. Hold this position for 30 seconds to 1 minute while keeping your back tight. Relax and repeat thrice. Increase the hold of this position as you progress.
This particular exercise is good for your quads, glutes, and calves.
5. Some Things to Keep in Mind for Muscular Endurance Exercises
There are many more muscular endurance exercises that will help you improve muscular endurance. Muscular endurance exercises are for strength trainers and athletes and non-athletes as they can help build up muscle health.
Make sure to perform stretching before and after the exercises to avoid DOMS and cramping of muscles. These muscular endurance exercises are part of a calisthenics workout – bodyweight exercises can be done by anyone, anywhere, without any equipment.
You could also increase the intensity of these exercises by increasing the repetitions or by adding weight. We think everyone can practice these muscular endurance exercises and circuit training, and aerobic exercises to maintain their overall general fitness.
6. Frequently Asked Questions
6.1. What is muscular endurance?
Muscular endurance refers to how long the muscles can sustain a repetitive amount of force against resistance before getting fatigued. This term is used in increasing the performance of muscles.
6.2. What can be the exercise for muscular endurance to start with?
The most common and basic exercise for muscular endurance to start with is push-ups. people who are not used to exercise starts generally with push-ups. However, one can start with any exercise that suits them according to their pace and capacity.
6.3. Can I lose belly fat with muscular endurance exercises?
Yes, absolutely! Several abdominal and abs exercises can help in losing weight in general, as well as belly fat.
6.4. Can people with arthritis do muscular endurance exercises?
Yes! Muscle development is an important part of improving or managing arthritis condition. Muscular exercises can help with joint pain, posture, muscle, and bone strengthening. Therefore, these exercises are good for people with arthritis. However, avoid exercising too much and seek professional help before starting any exercise regarding this.
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Last Updated on by Aditi Gautam
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