Muscular strength is the maximum amount of force that a muscle can exert. Muscular endurance, on the other hand, refers to your muscles’ ability to forcefully contract repeatedly over an extended period of time. A boxer’s knock-out punch is largely dependent on his muscular strength, but his ability to keep punching hard through 12 rounds depends on his muscular endurance.
Exercises to Build Muscular Strength
Most exercises that build muscular strength take place in the weight room with heavy weights. Although the term “heavy” is subjective, loads that exhaust the muscle in eight to 10 repetitions build strength by building more muscle mass, while sets that exhaust the muscle in one to five repetitions build strength through neuromuscular adaptations. Some examples of muscular strength exercises include squats, seated calf raises, leg press, cable hip extensions, abdominal crunch machines, weighted back extensions, bench press, military press, dumbbell flies, lat pulldowns and kettlebell swings, as well as all Olympic and powerlifting lifts.
Body weight doesn't usually provide enough resistance to build muscular strength in advanced trainees—with some exceptions being advanced exercises such as one-legged squats, handstand push-ups and one-handed push-ups—requiring the use of dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, weight lifting machines or some other form of external resistance to stimulate strength gains.
Plyometric exercises, or explosive dynamic movements, such as depth jumps, medicine ball throws, skipping drills and explosive lunges build maximal muscle strength by improving the brain’s communication pathways to the muscle fibers and the physiology of the muscle itself, explains Bodybuilding.com.
Exercises for Muscular Endurance
You can use almost any exercise to build muscular endurance by using high repetitions and light loads. Light weights, resistance bands or body weight provide the resistance so that the muscles don’t reach to the point of failure. Some good exercises for muscular endurance sets include abdominal crunches, resistance band lat pulldowns, or machine and free-weight exercises with very light loads. Depending on fitness and body size, a body-weight exercise such as pull-ups may be a muscular endurance exercise for one individual and a strength exercise for another.
A muscular endurance workout might involve a high target number of repetitions, for instance, 50 bodyweight squats. You can also use a time target for a muscular endurance workout, fitting as many repetitions as possible into a certain period of time. New Zealand's fitness expert Ish Cheyne recommends a combination of these two techniques, by timing how long it takes to complete a high number of repetitions—1,000 sit-ups, for example—taking short rests as needed.
Isometric exercises in which the muscles work without moving are another kind of muscular endurance exercise. Planks, wall squats and many Pilates and yoga poses are isometric exercises.
Cardiovascular Activities That Do Both
Muscular endurance plays a significant role in high-intensity cardiovascular activities, when exercise intensity exceeds the level that you could maintain for more than 60 seconds to a few minutes. Soccer, basketball, track and field, tennis, cycling and mixed martial arts are a few sports that depend on muscular endurance. Sprints, hill sprints, shuttle runs, punching bag training and other short interval activities are some ways to build sport-specific muscular endurance.
References
- American Council on Exercise; Personal Trainer Manual; San Diego, CA and Boston, MA; 1991
- ACSM's Resources for the Personal Trainer; American College of Sports Medicine; 2006
- Bodybuilding; What Is the Best Plyometrics Workout; Workout of the Day
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