What Is Endurance Exercise?

There are many ways to improve your health and fitness. You might perform strength training to improve your muscle strength and bone density. You might also perform mobility exercises to increase your range of motion, decrease pain, and improve flexibility.

Another type of training is called endurance training. It’s commonly used to strengthen your cardiovascular system, which includes your heart and lungs.

It may be one of the better types of exercise for overall health and fitness.

What Is Endurance Exercise?

Endurance exercise is designed to strengthen the aerobic system. Your aerobic system is the system that supplies oxygen to your muscles.

This oxygen is necessary for the muscles to burn the appropriate fuels which provide your body with the energy it needs to function.

Training your aerobic system by improving your endurance helps your body become more efficient. Your heart gets stronger. Your lung capacity improves. And your entire cardiovascular system functions optimally.


Additionally, endurance exercise helps optimize your metabolism, which often leads to weight loss, better sleep, and improved mood.

A heart rate monitor is commonly utilized to help exercisers stay within a predetermined heart rate zone. This zone helps to make sure you stay in your aerobic zone rather than working out too intensely and burning different types of fuel.

Types of Endurance Exercise

There are actually many different types of endurance exercise. The one that’s most common is running.

However, sprinting isn’t endurance exercise. That type of high intensity effort builds muscle strength. However, long distance running is an endurance exercise.

Swimming and cycling are two other common endurance exercises. And there are others. You might enjoy utilizing a rowing machine, cross-country skiing or dancing.

Endurance Fitness Programs

There are a few common endurance fitness programs to consider. They include:

Periodization – This system embraces a slow build-up of distance over time. For example, you might run one mile a day the first week, two miles a day the second week and so on, until you’re running at a moderate intensity for an hour.

This type of training program is also often used for an athlete who is training for an event. For example, if you’re training for a marathon, your weekly long runs would gradually increase each week until you’re running a twenty-mile run once a week.

Intervals – Interval training combines high intensity periods with periods of low or moderate intensity. Tabata intervals are another twist on the interval training, where an athlete may actually rest between periods of high intensity effort.

Finally there is the long slow distance approach. With this approach you would run, or bike or swim, at a low to moderate intensity level for long distances. For example, if you’re a cyclist you might ride your bike for fifty miles at a slow pace.

If you’re seeking improved endurance and are not a competitive athlete, consider gradually increasing your workout time and keeping an eye on your heart rate monitor.

Keep the intensity to a moderate level and focus on increasing the amount of time you’re able to work out.

Learn more in here about our lifetime fitness exercise guide

Warren Tattersall has been a nutritional consultant for over 20 years and has a personal interest in weight lifting toward reaching competition level.

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Is Endurance Exercise Right for You?

You may have been told by a well-meaning doctor, trainer or friend that you should look into endurance exercise. Or you may have read an article that made you wonder...is endurance training right for me? Well, it just may be the best thing you can do for your body.

However, it’s not for everyone. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of endurance exercise, so you can make the best decision for your health and fitness goals.

Pros of Endurance Exercise

Endurance exercise strengthens the cardiovascular system. It promotes a healthy heart and lungs and has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack and cardiovascular disease.

If you’re concerned about your cardiovascular health, endurance exercise may be for you.

Endurance exercise promotes an efficient metabolism. Endurance training means that your body is staying in the aerobic zone.

It’s using oxygen to help supply energy and fuel to your muscles. While there are weight-loss benefits to strengthening both your aerobic and anaerobic systems, endurance exercise trains your body to optimize your metabolism.

If you’re exercising for an hour or two a day, you’re going to lose weight.

It’s also good for your mindset. Because endurance exercise is performed at a low to moderate intensity level, you’re able to exercise for longer periods of time.

This time is often useful to clear your head, let go of the day’s concerns and generally de-stress.

You have an abundance of options. While many people think of running when they think of endurance exercise, you can bicycle, dance, row, cross-country ski and swim too. In other words, you’re not limited to running.

And in many cases there are fitness machines you can purchase so you can exercise year round.

Cons of Endurance Exercise

It can take a lot of time out of your day. Endurance exercise by definition is a longer exercise program. You’re not going to put out a high intensity effort for twenty minutes and be done with your fitness routine.

Instead, you’ll exercise for an hour or more depending on your goals and current fitness level. This type of program doesn’t fit into everyone’s schedule.

Endurance exercise also doesn’t take functional fitness or strength training into the whole body health equation.

It may be wiser to incorporate endurance exercise into a complete training program. For example, you might do yoga or lift weights twice a week and jog ten miles at a low intensity three times a week.

Endurance exercise is a fantastic way to improve your health. Talk to your trainer or health professional to help you decide if it’s right for you and how to get started.

Learn more about your health online when you read the rest of our information here about: stress management guide and also download the free health report available there!

Warren Tattersall has been a full time nutritional consultant for over a decade and works with people all over the world to help them improve their health, increase their personal energy levels and to use supplements to assist with diet related health issues.

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