Health Tips - Endurance

The Benefits of Endurance Training

Endurance training is exercise focused on improving stamina, or the athlete's ability to do something for a longer period of time. For most athletes, this is looking at aerobic fitness or cardiovascular fitness. And this is the body's ability to get oxygen to the body and to the muscles that are using it during exercise. For the general population, and for athletes, these can include exercises such as walking, running, biking or swimming.

So all athletes need some type of endurance training. In the general population of adults, the American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise each week. Even athletes in sports that aren't focused on endurance should look at getting some amount of cardiovascular exercise to try to meet this minimum recommendation.

For athletes in endurance sports such as biking and cycling as well as running, they should focus on higher levels of endurance training to improve their ability to be competitive in these sports. Even our athletes in power sports, such as football and volleyball, should focus on strength endurance training to allow them to participate at a higher level.

How to Get Started

The need for a personal trainer for endurance training is really an individual question. Some athletes will benefit from a personal trainer, but many athletes are already equipped to start endurance training on their own. For our high school athletes, a lot of our coaches in the area are very well equipped to train our athletes. We have great coaches that have already formed great training programs that focus on endurance for our young athletes.

For an accomplished athlete endurance training can take them to the next level by allowing them to participate at a high level of activity for a longer period of time. This consistency and availability are important qualities in an athlete, and endurance training can improve both of these characteristics for an athlete.

There are different types of endurance training. The most common type of endurance training is aerobic exercise focused on cardiovascular fitness. And this is going to focus on building lean muscle. While athletes may not see a hypertrophy or enlargement in the muscles, their muscles are going to be getting stronger. For strength endurance athletes, they may some hypertrophy or increased mass in their muscle through that training.

Be Smart About Endurance Training

Endurance training can protect an athlete by improving their ability to keep their form and biomechanics throughout the activity. When athletes get tired or fatigued, their biomechanics and form can change, which places new stresses on their body. This can be seen in a distance runner late in a race, or in a pitcher late in a ballgame. As their form breaks down, it places new stresses on their tendons, ligaments, muscles and bones which can lead to overuse and stress injuries.

For any sporting activity, there are some risks of injury. And endurance training is no different. In endurance training, the most common type of injury we see is an overuse injury such as a stress fracture, a strain or tendonitis. For athletes getting into a new activity like endurance training the key to staying healthy is being patient and having a good plan and appropriate guidance.

Most injuries occur when athletes try to increase the intensity of volume of their training too quickly. With an appropriate plan, this risk can be decreased. The potential long term benefits of endurance training far outweigh the risks as endurance training and cardiovascular fitness can decrease the risk of chronic disease and the need for medications.