Training for muscular endurance allows you to increase bone mass, increase muscular and tendon integrity, reduce the risk of injury, increase your resting metabolic rate and improve your ability to carry out the activities of daily living. Training muscular endurance will also increase muscular stamina, which is helpful when trying to push out that last mile on your run or trying to last through your tennis match. When training for muscular endurance, you will need to use specific counts that improve the fatigue resistance of your muscles.
Suggested Repetitions
When you are training for muscular endurance, your lifts will be higher in comparison to strength-training. The National Strength and Conditioning Association suggests 12 or more reps to be completed within a set, and the American College of Sports Medicine suggests 15 or more. These rep counts for training muscular endurance will also result in muscular toning. You will also increase strength slightly during muscular endurance resistance training. The increases will not be as dramatic or significant as they would be using strength-training protocols, but your muscles will gain strength because you are supporting a resistance.
Sets and Frequency
The amount of sets to perform for muscular endurance during a session varies, but will be one to four sets. The American College of Sports Medicine suggests 1 to 4 sets, while the National Strength and Conditioning Association suggests two to three sets. The National Strength and Conditioning Association has suggested exercise frequency numbers to follow while engaging in muscular endurance training. While training muscular endurance, a beginner should try to work out using resistance exercises two to three times a week. An average or intermediate lifter should train three to four times a week when performing muscular endurance workouts. If you are an advanced lifter, or are training for sport and physical events, you should train four to seven times a week.
Intensity and Rest
The National Strength and Conditioning Association states that you should try to perform no more than 67 percent of your one rep maximum for each exercise when training for muscular endurance. The American College of Sports Medicine suggest 40 percent to 60 percent of your one rep max when training for muscular endurance.
Resting periods in muscular endurance training should be brief. The National Strength and Condition Association suggests resting for no more than 30 seconds between sets, and the American College of Sports Medicine suggests no more than 90 seconds of rest. Your muscles need do need to replenish energy supplies when lifting, but because you are training the muscles to be able to handle a continuous load for an extended period, they must be capable of handling stress with less time for recovery. Ideally, the shorter your rest is -- while completing suggested reps, sets and intensity -- the more you will improve your muscular endurance.
Maximum Endurance
Another fashion of muscular endurance training is performing repetitions until muscular exhaustion or maximal exertion. The American College of Sports Medicine states this idea as absolute muscular endurance. An example of this would to be to perform as many push-ups as you can, without resting, until a point of failure. You can also cross endurance training with power training and perform as many repetitions as you can for an exercise in a allotted period, such as performing as many sit-ups within a minute.
References
- "ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 8th edition."; American College of Sports Medicine; 2009
- "Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning,"; Baechle, Thomas R., Earle, Roger W.; 2008
Member Comments