Stamina consists of your physical strength and the ability to fight or resist disease. You can increase your stamina through regular exercise, making yourself less vulnerable to debilitating fatigue and increasing your physical fitness. Aerobic exercise and strength training are the two primary routes to better stamina, which in turn has the potential for improving your quality of life.
Significance
Increasing stamina through aerobic exercise can help your body fight disease. In a 2009 study by M. McDermott et. al., results showed that "supervised treadmill exercise can improve walking endurance and quality of life in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD)." In fact, those in the PAD group who underwent a regular treadmill regimen "had more favourable changes in brachial arterial flow-mediated dilation than the control group." Physical stamina can decrease the likelihood of contracting such chronic diseases as Type 2 diabetes, and a stronger heart lowers the chance of developing heart disease.
Types
You can separate stamina into two categories: aerobic, and anaerobic. Aerobic stamina determines how long your body is able to sustain a heightened level of activity and still meet your increased need for oxygen. Anaerobic stamina is the length of time your metabolism can perform under oxygen debt, such as in a race where your cardiovascular system falls short of your pace. Anaerobic stamina will be far shorter than aerobic, and your body must rest after anaerobic activity to recoup oxygen and expel waste chemicals that have accumulated in your blood.
Thresholds
During exercise, you cross the aerobic threshold at approximately 65 percent of your maximum heart rate. You can determine your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. For example, if you are 30 years old, your max is around 190 beats per minute (bpm), and your aerobic threshhold is 65% of 190, or 123 bpm. A good goal for aerobic stamina is the ability to maintain your aerobic heart rate for 30 minutes. During athletic performance, you jump the anaerobic threshold at between 80 and 90 percent of your maximum bpm, so for a 30-year-old, that is between 152 and 171 bpm. A trained athlete maintaining this anaerobic rate for one to two minutes has excellent stamina.
Effects
To increase aerobic stamina, endurance training is essential. For example, a swimmer training for an open-water swim of a mile or more increases stamina with workouts of longer distances, such as 500-yard swims, and hones heart strength with shorter interval training. To maximize anaerobic stamina for sprint racing, a swimmer could practice sets of short-distance sprints, with only a few seconds of rest in between them.
Considerations
While stamina is critical to performance athletes, it is no less important to those working for enhanced fitness. By strengthening your heart, lungs, and muscles for increased stamina, you can enjoy the things you love longer.
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