Stamina, or endurance, is a physical fitness component. When measuring fitness levels, endurance assessments are used to measure the efficiency of your heart, lungs and muscles. Stamina is a beneficial physical trait for maintaining endurance in everyday as well as high-intensity activities. Efforts to increase stamina levels are beneficial to your physical health.
Function
Physical stamina can be measured as cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance. Cardiovascular endurance is the ability of your heart and lungs to provide fuel in the form of blood and oxygen. Increased amounts of fuel are required for cardio training workouts in which your heart rate reaches a target heart rate zone. Muscular endurance is the ability of your muscles to exert force to overcome resistance in the form of weights, body weight or gravity with repeated efforts over time.
Types
Stamina is required for engaging in everyday tasks such as laundry and chasing kids to specialized athletic events such as running a marathon. Stamina for fitness training can be classified into endurance groups such as power endurance, short term endurance and long term endurance. Power endurance tasks consists of performing short bursts of high intensity tasks repeatedly. Examples include playing football, pitching a baseball, and running sprints. Short term endurance tasks consists of continuous movement alternating between speeds and distances. Examples include playing soccer, water polo and hockey. Long term endurance tasks consist of continuous movement at a steady speed. Examples include distance running, cycling and crew.
Training
Training to increase cardiovascular stamina requires three to four weekly workouts for a minimum of 30 minutes each. Heart rates must reach training levels between 60 to 80 percent of maximum heart rates. Workouts must include warmups and cool downs to gradually increase and decrease heart rates. For muscular stamina training, weight lifting is recommended. Exercises should target major muscle groups including your chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, legs and abs. Perform three to four sets of 10 to 15 repetitions for each exercise. Muscle groups should be trained twice weekly. For split training, half of the muscle groups are worked in each session so that each muscle group is trained two times weekly.
Benefits
Benefits of increased stamina include improved heart and lung capacity, decreased blood pressure and decreased stress levels. Improvements in health reduce the risk of heart disease. Benefits of increased muscular stamina include increased muscle mass and strength and increased metabolism, your body's ability to burn calories. Excess body fat and body weight can be decreased with increased stamina levels. Everyday tasks can be completed with less fatigue as energy levels are increased.
Considerations
Proper nutrition is a critical part of training for improvements in stamina. Your body needs to be supplied with nutrients to meet the increased demands of training. First-time participants should consult a physician prior to starting an exercise program.
References
- Body Beautiful: Building Up Your Stamina
- "Keep Moving! Fitness Through Aerobics and Step"; Esther Pryor & Minda Goodman Kraines; 2000
- Sport Fitness Advisor: Muscular Endurance Training
- "Personal Trainer Manual"; American Council on Exercise; 1991
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