Meaning of Local Muscular Endurance

Local Muscular Endurance

Local muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to sustain repeated contractions against submaximal resistance for a certain period of time. A submaximal resistance is anything under your one-rep maximum for an exercise.

Muscular endurance training is a type of training that can look like performing bicep curls for a continuous amount of reps, which would be training the local muscular endurance for your biceps, for example.

In weightlifting, when you train specific body regions with bodyweight or resistance exercises for an extended period of time, you are training those specific body parts' muscular endurance. This is localizing your training efforts to these specific muscle fibers.

Endurance training and resistance training allows for a variety of muscle endurance and muscular strength benefits, depending on the specific exercises and number of reps you choose to do.

Your muscles become capable of performing less than maximal activity for longer sustained periods of time, and your muscles can recover from this high-intensity training at faster rates. This aids in sport and recreational activities as well as increases the ease of performing laborious upper body or lower body chores or tasks at work or at home.

Through muscle strength training, muscular fatigue is delayed and lean tissue percentages within the body also will increase. This increases the metabolic activity in your body, which allows for more calories to be burned at rest and creates higher energy levels, along with several other cardiorespiratory and cardiovascular benefits.

Testing Local Muscular Endurance

When testing muscular endurance in something like an exercise program or training program, engage in exercises or physical activities in a continuous manner for several seconds to several minutes.

In order to maximize these muscular endurance exercises, you should have limited rest periods and assistance from non-engaged muscle groups, such as kicking or jerking upward when performing sit-ups.

Examples of endurance tests would be performing the greatest number of repetitions possible in one set of squats, bench press, push-ups, pull-ups, or lunges, or another weight training exercise at a prescribed weight.

Training for Local Muscular Endurance

To improve muscular endurance, train active muscle groups for six to 10 exercises at two to three sets per exercise in a session. Intensity of each set should be 67 percent or less of your one-rep max for that exercise, and you should perform 12 or more repetitions in each set. The short rest periods should be no greater than 30 seconds in between sets, to keep your heart rate up. This mode of training will increase your muscular endurance for the muscles being trained.