Muscular endurance means a muscle’s capacity to work without pause for an extended time period. Developing endurance involves targeting specific types of muscle fibers that have a natural capacity to resist fatigue when being stressed. These slow twitch fibers do not have the high capacity to apply intense force of fast twitch fibers, but they can keep functioning far longer.

Weight training for endurance

Those who train with weights frequently discuss rep ranges, or ranges of repetitions of a given exercise that will yield a given result. While power lifters seeking the explosive force required to lift very heavy weights will work in the range of one to five reps bodybuilders trying to define muscles and increase their mass will do six to twelve repetitions of the same exercise and those training for endurance will do more than twelve. Of course increasing the reps means decreasing the weight with which the athlete trains.

One critical factor often neglected in endurance training is the necessity for recovery. Muscles should be allowed to rest between sets, and these rest periods should be longer for endurance training than for other practices. Five to seven minutes rest is a good average. Many athletes use circuit training for endurance programs. This means that instead of repeating a set of the same exercise immediately after a rest period, the athlete proceeds instead to an exercise that works another muscle group entirely.

Endurance without weights

Another way to increase lower body muscular endurance is through cardiovascular training. Walking, running, biking or swimming provides repeated activity to the lower extremities that develops the slow twitch fibers in the same way as high rep weight training. Certain very active sports like tennis can also facilitate endurance of lower body muscles.

For the upper body, endurance can be gained through exercises utilizing the weight of the body. Push-ups, chin-ups and triceps dips at the same high reps used in weight training will help develop endurance in arms, back and shoulders. There is also some benefit to extending the length of a rep during chin-ups and dips.

The bottom line

An athlete training for muscular endurance as opposed to power or appearance should do more reps at a lower weight. A good range for most purposes is 12 to 25 repetitions of the same exercise. Each set of 12-25 reps should be followed by an adequate rest period for best results.

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