Whether you are a professional athlete or a senior who engages in low-impact exercise, building your stamina can have a great deal of positive impact on your health. Better stamina can help you to accomplish everyday tasks, like going up flights of stairs or gardening, without feeling fatigue. Building stamina is easy; you can do it by increasing your cardiovascular activity, lifting weights and getting an appropriate amount of rest.
Cardiovascular Exercise
Intense or semi-intense cardiovascular exercise causes your body to need more oxygen more quickly. To get the oxygen where it needs to go, your heart pumps blood faster, resulting in a short-term higher heart rate and, over time, creating a lower resting heart rate. Cardiovascular exercise also helps your muscles to extract and use oxygen more efficiently from the blood. Both conditions allow you to perform activities that raise the heart rate for a longer period of time. The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association recommend that average, healthy exercisers engage in either moderate cardiovascular exercise for 30 minutes per day, five days per week, or vigorous cardiovascular activity for 20 minutes per day, three days per week.
Strength Training
Strength training also builds stamina. By performing exercises that force your muscles to bear weight, you will make your muscles larger. Over time, this will make them capable of bearing an even greater amount of weight without becoming fatigued. Strength training also builds endurance, allowing you to lift things for a longer period of time. The Mayo Clinic recommends that average, healthy exercisers lift weights two to three times per week for 20 to 30 minutes.
Sleep
To perform at your optimum level, you need sleep. A 2002 study by Peter Hudson Walters, Ph.D., of Wheaton College, and published in "Strength and Conditioning Journal," reported that sleep is a major factor in an athlete's recovery. After studying 15,000 student athletes, Walters found that athletes needed even more sleep than the average adult. Without the ability to physically recover during sleep, your stamina may become significantly decreased. The Mayo Clinic recommends that healthy adults sleep at least seven to eight hours per night.
References
- "Circulation;" Statement on Exercise; Gerald F. Fletcher, M.D.; 1996
- Mayo Clinic
- Physical Activity and Public Health: Updated Recommendation for Adults from the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association
- "Strength and Conditioning Journal;" Sleep, the Athlete and Performance; Peter Hudson Walters, Ph.D.; 2002
- Mayo Clinic
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