subject: Muscular Endurance Exercises For Training [print this page] Muscular Endurance Exercises For Training
Training for functional strength is one of those things that all too often we ignore. I remember talking to a friend who was training in a really awkward way to build muscle and I asked him, "Why are you training that way?"
His answer?
"Well, this is the easiest way to train to put on mass and frankly I don't care about actually being fit."
I literally could not believe what this guy was telling me. He spends at least an hour a day working out and doesn't care about being fit...how could that be?
I think that basically sums up the problem with our society today. We are way too obsessed with how we look at not enough about how we act and function. I mean look at how crazy this is -- if you are in functional shape, you will look great anyway! So it's pretty crazy to completely ignore any kind of functional training just because you "don't care".
Now that I've made the argument for functional fitness. I want to talk about one of the prime staples of it and that is muscular endurance. Muscular endurance is essentially, in my mind, being able to do a lot of repetitions and to quickly recover between sets.
It's not something that's super-hard to achieve, but it does take a different mindset when you're training and you might have to make some small tweaks. For example, if you're used to waiting 5 minutes in-between sets while talking to your gym buddies, then you're going to have to change your habits (although you can continue talking to your gym buddies!).
Bottom line, what you're going to want to do is two things. You're going to want to increase your repetitions, either with less weight or with bodyweight exercises, and/or you can decrease the time in-between sets. In the best case scenario, you're going to want to do both.
Essentially, what I recommend is breaking down your in between set time down to 20 seconds or anywhere from 15 seconds to 30 seconds, by doing that you'll allow yourself to build your muscle endurance and get even stronger.
The bottom line is to build functional fitness, by having high muscle endurance you will be better prepared for the challenges found in everyday living
NOTE: Another good tip about achieving goals is to visualize yourself achieving that goal. See yourself in your mind able to do dozens of pull ups easily - and if you stick to working out chances are you will reach that goal.
