Examples Of Muscle Endurance Exercises

Muscular endurance is one of the five primary kinds of health-related fitness, which directly influence your susceptibility to diseases and the general condition of your body. The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports recommends performing 30 minutes of muscular endurance exercises that target every major muscle group at least three times per week. Different examples of muscular endurance exercises correspond with particular forms of endurance-building activity that each have specific benefits.

High Repetition

High repetition resistance exercises build muscular endurance. The National Federation of Professional Trainers recommends building muscular endurance with resistance exercises that exhaust your muscles within 20 to 25 repetitions. Working within this repetition range targets slow-twitch motor units within your muscle fibers, which are primarily responsible for activities that require muscular endurance. Slow-twitch motor units contain the highest concentration of energy-producing mitochondria in the muscles, and your muscles adapt to high-repetition exhaustion by increasing the number of mitochondria within your muscle fibers.

Slow Contractions

Exercises that involve slower contractions build muscular endurance. Cellular waste products, such as lactic acid, build up inside your muscles as a result of energy production required for muscle contractions. Therefore, increasing amounts of lactic acid accumulate inside your muscles during slower contractions. High concentrations of lactic acid produces a burning sensation inside the working muscles, and increasingly inhibits further contractions. Your muscles adapt to slow contractions by making lactic acid removal processes more efficient. Your muscular endurance increases, because removing lactic acid more efficiently allows your muscles to contract for longer periods of time.

Isometric

Isometric exercises build muscular endurance with contractions that do not change the length of your muscles. Isometric exercises involve contracting your muscles against immovable resistance, such as pushing against the floor or pulling on a stationary bar. Isometric exercises are particularly effective for increasing muscular endurance in core stabilizing muscles. Core endurance is a critical element of physical fitness and athletic performance, because core contractions make all your joint movements more efficient by stabilizing your spine and hips. Many yoga poses are isometric exercises that build muscle endurance. Clayton Horton, who specializes in Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, recommends increasing muscular endurance with yoga poses, such as parsvakonasana and navasana, which lengthen your muscles while activating your core stabilizers.

Circuit

Circuit exercises build muscular endurance by combining multiple exercise movements, and minimizing rest time. You might complete four or five circuits during an endurance workout. Each circuit generally involves performing one set of three or more exercise movements in a particular sequence without resting between sets. According to the NFPT, circuit exercises should always include pushing, pulling and lower-body movements. A hybrid of circuit and high-repetition exercise is particularly effective for increasing muscular endurance.