Whether you’re a serious athlete or you just want to get more out of life, you could benefit from being able to do more and go farther. Here are 7 ways to increase your stamina and endurance.
- Fast-paced lifting
Sometimes endurance training that is done for long duration at low intensity can reduce your metabolism because it can actually reduce your muscle mass. Lifting weights at a rapid pace is a very intense exercise that will push your endurance to the limit in a relatively short amount of time. This is also one of the best exercises to boost your metabolism.
- Don’t limit training to cardio only
You won’t reach your potential by training only with cardio. You need to mix in some strength training as well. Instead of reserving particular days for strength training, add them into your daily routine. For example, you could do some free-weight exercises, then follow that with a one-mile sprint or an intense session of jumping rope.
- Switch up your workouts
Your body is able to adapt to doing the same types of motions that are repeated on a daily basis. It will learn how to execute the same moves while using less effort. This is counter-productive to endurance training where you want to expend the most effort possible. Therefore, it’s important to always switch between different types of exercises and keep looking for variations that accomplish the same goal in a different way. For example, if you do sprinting up stairs one day, switch to kickboxing another day.
- Try a ketogenic approach
Many people improve their energy level when they switch to a ketogenic lifestyle. This is a low-carbohydrate diet that forces your body to burn body fat. When the body burns its own fat stores, the fat cells release energy compounds called “ketones” that are used for fuel instead of glucose. Start your keto challenge by taking advantage of this metabolic process.
- Explosive movements
An explosive movement is an action that propels a part of your body or your whole body at top speed as if it was shot out of a canon. This type of motion is one of the most challenging and strenuous, so it will train both strength and endurance effectively when repeated to exhaustion. Some examples are standing jumps onto a high surface or pushups with a clap in-between each rep.
- Compound movements are better
Some bodybuilding exercises isolate specific muscles and joints to work one area for maximum gain, but this is not the best approach for improving stamina and endurance. When you combine several parts of the body in one exercise, it requires a greater overall effort.
- Try hybrid exercises
Hybrid exercises combine two or more exercises into one. For example, a squat thrust is a squat followed by shooting your legs back into a push-up position. These hybrid exercises will get your heart rate up to the maximum in a short time, especially if they’re repeated at top speed for numerous reps.
If you feel like your endurance and stamina has hit a plateau, try these seven strategies that will help you reach a level of fitness you’ve never achieved before.