Tips For Creating An Endurance Building Workout
Last week we discussed goals directed to increasing strength, this week I’d like to focus on increasing endurance. You may think this is the same as the second blog in this series which was about fat loss, but it will be a bit different. If you are looking to increase endurance you don’t need to necessarily do “circuit” training like you would with fat loss, but you will be doing higher reps and lower weights. If you are focusing on endurance you probably have a specific goal in mind like running a marathon or maybe you play a sport. If not thats okay too! Endurance is not always a request from a beginner exerciser is all :). I’ll say again if you are new to exercise and looking to increase endurance or anything really, you will still want to incorporate muscle building to lay a good foundation that can then be played with more depending on goals. We need to have muscle on our bodies to get stronger, and the same works for lasting longer too. The majority of our muscles contain two kinds of fibers that help you move: slow-twitch fibers, which use energy slowly (aerobic) but help to keep you moving longer. fast-twitch fibers, which use energy faster (anaerobic) help you move faster and more powerful for a shorter time. During an endurance phase, our slow twitch muscle fibres are worked more but we still want to train our fast twitch fibre’s for overcoming different resistances.
The endurance building type of workout shown is just an example of many difference ways you can approach it, this is just more of a beginner “runner’s” style. This program shown today can still be a good place to begin from, but we must still keep in mind the importance of proper nutrition. When we do things “low and slow” the main source of energy are fats. Fats are the slowest burning source of energy. Each gram of fat supplies the body with about 9 calories, more than twice that supplied by proteins or carbohydrates which both give us 4 calories per gram. Since fats are a more efficient form of energy, the body stores any excess energy as fat. These energy sources don’t get depleted as quickly, and once we reach a certain threshold (”steady state”) our bodies are burning fat for energy. When you are training for endurance again it will vary from person to person whether you are in a calorie deficit or not. For the most part, you should only be in a caloric deficit when trying to lose body fat. If you are trying to improve or increase anything, even endurance, you will probably want to be in a caloric surplus. How much of a caloric surplus depends from person to person still. If your goals are to not gain weight and go longer, you don’t want to go above the calories you are putting out, so where those calories come from is very important (your macro’s). Whole natural foods for every phase of training at all times of life is key :).
Tracking our caloric intake can also be a big help here with apps like myfitesspal as well as putting in your energy output to maintain calories. As mentioned for endurance eating enough fat to have stored energy is important, as well as consuming enough protein. You will still want to consume carbs here, however the macro breakdown can change a bit more to favour fat here.
I’ll show a basic framework of what an endurance building workout would look like, also keeping in mind everyones goals and what works for their bodies are different so your workout may still look different than this, this is just a framework I have created that tends to be successful.
**Endurance training is not much different than muscle building as far as framework and exercise selections, we just increase the reps!
We still want to do our warmup cardio and exercise’s and start with a compound lift. When you are focusing on endurance the barbell and dumbbells can be beneficial, i’d recommend doing a mix of both. The reps are higher but you still want the weight to be “heavy” for the amount of reps given.
When training our endurance we will want to train the core in all ways, hence the two different variations at the end. When focusing on endurance as mentioned before you are probably doing some type of cardio already whether it be a marathon, running in general or some type of sport. You will need good core stability not just a visible six pack, so doing one thing for this at the end of each workout will help. Compound lifts are still your best deal when it comes to training, they teach the body to move as one unit which is also key with whatever your endurance based activity of choice is.
Stretching is a big factor when training for endurance as well, you are doing A LOT of reps in comparison to other training programs. Your connective tissues and fascia will be feeling the affects of these reps, both dynamic and static stretching is highly recommended.
Here are an example of a “leg day” and a full upper body workout based on this structuring:
A reminder that these are just examples! I’m not recommending these to anyone and there are TONS of different combinations that will be better from person to person… endurance can get very different depending on what other activities you do. This one is geared more towards someone who is a long distance runner. Their bodies are constantly moving forward, which is why I always choose to start their lower body days with deadlifts. This will be different for other athletes!
One of the fun things about exercising and why I love being a Personal Trainer is just putting different workouts together for different bodies.. it’s like an art! Especially when it comes to training for an activity.
One more left in this series… Tips for creating an Injury Rehabilitation style workout will be next week!
Happy exercising,
Robyn