Whether you run marathons, triathlons, play football or participate in recreational exercise, building and maintaining endurance is important. Professional athletes spend a lot of time priming their bodies to be able to run farther and faster. This process, however, doesn't need to be complicated. Using a few scientific principles can help improve just about anyone's endurance, regardless of performance level.
Oxygen Delivery
To maintain exercise at any given intensity your muscles require oxygen. This is required for energy production to take place. Exercise without it can only be maintained for a short period of time. This is evidenced in a research paper published in the journal of "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise," which states "oxygen delivery is viewed as the main limiting factor of endurance performance." This refers to the ability of your cardio-respiratory system to deliver oxygen to your muscles. Improving your body's ability to deliver oxygen to working muscles comes primarily from maximum exercising. This means if you are not breathing heavily during or after exercise, you won't gain much benefit in terms of improving oxygen delivery. Improving this element is fairly straightforward: if you are a runner --- run more, if you play football --- play more, if you are a swimmer --- swim more. The key is to exercise for longer periods at a lower intensity. As you progress you will notice it will become easier, which means your body's ability to deliver oxygen is improving.
Lactate Threshold
When you exercise for extended periods of time your body produces lactic acid. This by-product of energy metabolism causes the acidity of muscles to change, thus affecting the ability of your muscles to contract, eventually leading to fatigue. The higher your threshold, the greater intensity you can exercise at without fatigue setting in. Without blood tests you won't be able to know what your threshold is, but you can still improve it. Dr. Kravitz from the University of New Mexico suggests the best way to improve your lactate threshold is to increase the volume or intensity of the exercise. For example, if you currently run 10 miles per week, running 15 miles per week for six weeks will increase your threshold. Similarly, running 5 miles per week, but at a higher intensity, would also increase your threshold. For team sport athletes, repeated sprints offer the best method of achieving an increase in lactate threshold.
Economy
According to Dr. Larsen of the Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre, the Kenyans dominate endurance events primarily because of their high level of exercise economy. Dr. Larsen's research, published in the journal of "Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology," indicates Kenyans are able to exercise at high intensities without using much energy. It has therefore been accepted that economy is an important determinant of endurance performance. There are currently two methods of improving your exercise economy. The first is simply to increase the duration of exercise, whether you run, cycle, swim or play football. The more you do it the more economical your body will become at that task. The second is plyometrics, which aims to increase activation of supporting muscles as well as the muscles elasticity, therefore reducing the amount of work your body has to do to achieve the same result.
Just Run
Whichever sport you participate in, improving endurance can be as straightforward as just doing more. Although training the specific determinants with special training protocols is one option, simply altering the frequency, intensity or duration of your training consistently will also improve your endurance and improve the determinants previously mentioned. For those at higher levels of performance, training the specific determinants mentioned will yield better results. But for those just beginning or exercising recreationally, increasing the amount of exercise you do will lead to improvements in endurance.
References
- Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise; "Limiting Factors for Maximum Oxygen Uptake and Determinants of Endurance Performance"; J. Bassett; January 2000
- University of New Mexico; "Lactate Threshold Training"; L. Kravitz; March 2005
- Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology; "Kenyan Dominance in Distance Running"; H. Larsen ; September 2003
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