What is Muscular Endurance Training and why should you do it?
The goal of Muscular Endurance Training is to improve the efficiency and endurance of your muscles, helping them to perform longer before fatigue sets in.
This type of training is characterized by higher repetitions, lower intensity as compared to Maximal Strength Training and often shorter rest periods.
Adding muscular endurance training to your program will lower your risk of injury and leave you with more energy and better posture throughout the day.
This makes it a key component in a well balanced strength training program.
Circuits are a great way to make the most out of a small time frame. If you are a busy professional who only has 30 minutes to get a quick workout in, it can easily be done with a circuit.
If you are planning a full body circuit it could look something like this:
- 3 Rounds:
- 20 yd. Sled Push
- 20 yd. Sled Pull
- 20 Walking Lunges
- 20 Push Ups
- 20 Plank Jacks
If you don’t have access to a sled you can replace the sled with squats and do a circuit like this in your own home or even on vacation if you’re really itching to get something quick in.
A muscular endurance workout that isn’t in the form of a circuit might look something like this:
If you are new to fitness and want to dive into it, start out with bodyweight exercises (squats, lunges, push ups, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, burpees, etc.). It’s important to master proper form of these exercises before throwing weights into the mix, especially when performing so many reps.
When creating a plan in this phase, workouts may have a set / rep scheme (3 sets of 20), and some can even go for time.. giving you 45 seconds of mountain climbers or 2 minutes of lunges.
Either way, both of these examples are ways to achieve the same goal.
Note that in order to see results, you must progress through the same exercises (incrementally adding more reps or weight over time) versus adding a variety of exercises without a way to measure progress.
So before you go throwing every exercise you can think of into a circuit to see how difficult you can make it, you might want to reconsider.
Muscular endurance is good for everyone. It’s important for the general population because it improves daily function and efficiency of movement.
Training with higher repetitions of different exercises will improve the aerobic capacity of muscles, improving your ability to perform everyday tasks like walking up a flight of stairs.
Let’s face it, nobody wants to be out of breath just getting from point A to point B.
Endurance athletes such as soccer players, cyclists, runners, swimmers, etc. will benefit from this type of training as well. Athletes will be able to sustain energy for a longer period of time during their games or competitions compared to those who never train in this phase.. and we’re going for gold people!
Each phase of training is important in a program for a variety of reasons.
Ever wonder why a powerlifter is winded faster?
While they often have higher capacities with maximal strength, they are often lacking endurance as 15 minutes of rest between sets is considered normal (given the neurological demands of their training).
Muscular endurance isn’t typically associated with powerlifting.
Someone who is only lifting heavy weights might be strong, but they are likely to burn out faster throughout the day than those who add this type of endurance training into their workout regimen.
Incorporating muscular endurance into your training program will better prepare your muscles for either a heavy strength or hypertrophy phase when you’re ready to move on and cycle back through.
