How to Boost Stamina and Endurance

Stamina and endurance are instrumental in fitness and sports, more so if you are shooting to become a professional athlete. Stamina is defined as the ability to maintain physical and mental exertion for a long period of time. And it takes a certain level of willpower, lung capacity, and muscle power to maintain physical performance for a sustained period.

The good news is, you can train your body and mind to achieve peak performance and boost endurance. It won’t happen overnight but if you are patient and you train hard every day, you too can achieve better stamina. In today’s post, we are listing down ways to help boost endurance:

Reducing Recovery Time

To boost stamina, you need to develop stronger muscles that can take on extreme physical exertion. You can do just that by limiting your recovery period between 30 to 90 seconds. When the body is continuously in motion, it becomes accustomed to more physical exertion.

To take your fitness to a different level, take both recovery time and weight down a notch. If the body is exposed to less resistance, more reps, and shorter resting time of about 30 seconds or less, it becomes stronger. A study published in the Journal of Strength Conditioning and Research found that cutting down the recovery time and weight during workout helps boost stamina exponentially.

Balanced Workout

Just like anything in life, your fitness routine should be balanced if you want to achieve longevity. Do not try to push yourself too hard because you are risking injuries. If you train too lightly, the body becomes accustomed to the routines faster. Eventually, your workout becomes inefficient in building stamina. So how do you find balance in your routine?

Train hard, do not forget to rest, and keep the intensity. Training every day might seem like a great idea, but it could backfire on you. Again, the body becomes accustomed to whatever physical efforts it does every day. Even the highest intensity workout will become ineffective in building stamina over time. Just train hard but do not overlook the importance of rest and pacing yourself.

Challenge Your Body

A steady pace is not ideal if you want to increase stamina. That’s why you need to challenge your body to boost endurance. You can do that by pushing the intensity of your workout gradually. Doing short intervals at a sprint pace is a great way to do just that. You could combine running, biking, or rowing, with squats, burpees, pushups, and planks. If you are starting to feel the burn in your muscles and your heart is pounding, then you are heading to the right direction.

Try not to Go “All Out”

Make sure you do not go all out each week that you train. Ideally, you want to train three to four times per week, each day for 20+ minutes. Exceeding this recommended time frame may affect the body negatively. Spend your breaks resting to keep the muscles strong.

Boosting Mental Performance

Great stamina is not just product of physical efforts, but of mental power as well. If you believe that you can achieve something, there is no power in this world that can stop you. That is the power of the mind. Boosting stamina means pushing the envelope, physically and mentally. If you are determined to become better, you will.