Muscular strength and endurance training can be beneficial for your daily life on top of helping sport and recreational activity. Training for muscular strength will increase the maximum force your muscles can produce on an external force. Training muscular endurance will adapt your muscles to handle repeated muscle contractions over time. Perform eight to 10 exercises that work major muscle groups during a session, and train at least twice a week.
Benefits
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, training muscular fitness improves fatigue resistance, increases bone density, develops better balance, increases glucose tolerance, increases joint and tendon integrity, decreases risk of sustaining injury through activity, improves the ability to perform daily activities and increases the amount of calories you burn at rest. In terms of sport, the training will help you run faster, jump higher, increase stamina, increase flexibility if you train at full range of motion, increase muscular coordination and improve your agility.
Training for Strength
When training for strength, your reps per set will lower than if you would be training for endurance. According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association, you should perform two to six sets with one to six reps for optimum results when strength training. Your recovery time for strength training should be two to five minutes in between sets. Use a resistance that is 85 percent to 100 percent of your one rep max when engaging in your reps. In regards to sets per exercise, the American College of Sports Medicine has found that significant strength gains drop off after completing three sets of an exercise. You will benefit from the additional sets, but the benefits will not be as significant as the positive deviations between sets one, two and three.
Training for Muscular Endurance
There are two ways to enhance muscular endurance: sets of resistance training and absolute muscular endurance training. According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association, perform two to three sets of 12 or more reps when training for muscular endurance. Train at less than or equal to 67 percent of your one rep max for each exercise, and only a maximum of 30 seconds of rest in between sets.
The American College of Sports Training also recognizes absolute muscular endurance training. With absolute muscular endurance training, you will engage in a maximal effort until complete muscular exertion sets in when performing your reps. For example, you will perform a set of push-ups to failure. You also can incorporate time into the factor and see how many reps can be performed in a duration, such as performing as many dips as you can in one minute.
How to Increase Strength and Endurance
You can increase muscular fitness in a multitude of ways. Use your body weight for exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups and body squats. Train with weight and machine resistance equipment such as the bench press and leg press machine. Also, you can always be creative and practical by using the environment around you for resistance such as rocks, bags of sand, heavy ropes and household containers, such as water jugs.
References
- "ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 8th Edition"; American College of Sports Medicine; 2009
- "Advanced Fitness Assessment and Exercise Prescription, 5th Edition"; Vivian H. Heyward; 2006
- "Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning"; Thomas R. Baechle and Roger W. Earle; 2008
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