Endurance 101
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Endurance can easily be a great tool that any athlete can use to their benefit. There is many ways that we can train to get our endurance up. For example; running, cycling, swimming, and even just brisk walking. Not only is endurance a tool for athletes but also is important for everyone. Getting your heart rate up has many beneficial effects for your health. Having endurance is a key factor in staying healthy. Studies even show the opposite, strength training benefiting endurance athletes. The explosiveness and power that comes with strength training leads to better endurance performance. Everything seems to relate back to each other and the more we have of both strength and endurance the more chance for success. Diet can also be another one of those key factors when it comes to endurance. Carbohydrates are what the body uses first for energy because they are the easiest to convert to ATP. The night before an endurance work out it is smart to eat a high carb meal. A good way to help improve your endurance is measuring your heart rate before, during, and after working out.
Heart Rate Info
Endurance Sports
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Running
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Cycling
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Swimming
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Canoe/Kayak
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Cross-country skiing
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Water Polo
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Rowing
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Track and Field
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Soccer
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Circuit Training
Training
There are a variety of training methods that endurance athletes can incorporate in their training program such as aerobic conditioning, anaerobic conditioning, and high intensity interval training (HIIT). The goal of this section is to provide you with basic information on endurance training. Additionally, there are training videos of four different athletes from different sports demonstrating drills they focus on for improving their endurance. These videos serve as examples of how endurance athletes train for their sport.
Endurance training aims to enhance one’s cardiorespiratory fitness and the components of endurance training include intensity, duration, and frequency. The rate of progression for endurance training should gradually occur over time and depend on one’s age, current activity level, physical limitations, and goals.The American College of Sports Medicine recommend adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week. For instance, adults can incorporate 30-60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five days per week.
Before creating your endurance training program a medical evaluation should be obtained by a healthcare professional. A healthcare professional will help determine the intensity, duration, and frequency for your training program to prevent injury or burnout. It is also important to monitor your heart rate before, during, and after exercise. Obtaining such information will help maximize your training performance. Aerobic conditioning drills are long duration, easy distance training at a very light intensity. During aerobic training, an endurance athlete can focus on technique. Anaerobic conditioning is performing at "race pace" to improve one's lactate threshold. Time trials or race simulations follow under this training category. High intensity interval training helps improve one's VO2max and lactate threshold and is considered one of the most strenuous type of training. HIIT is characterized as high burst of activity followed by less intense activity or rest.
Now you have the basic idea of endurance training and as mentioned, here are a few training videos shared by endurance athletes. They demonstrate drills they work on for their sport and most importantly, improve their endurance. Now good luck, get out there, and have fun training!
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The Benefits of Endurance Activities
Thinking of doing an endurance activity. The key of endurance sports is to pace oneself so we can avoid injuries waiting to happen. If done correctly, benefits of taking part of an endurance activity stay the same as the regular 30 minutes minimum or even double depending on what we are looking at. The benefits that are triggered by running for example, is that it decreases the rate of cardiovascular diseases which is one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States. The list of benefits is a handful to write in a paragraph so here is a list of some of the many benefits of taking part in an endurance activity…
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Improved cardiorespiratory fitness
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More calories burned
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Decrease the chance of diabetes
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Increased muscle tone
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Enhanced mental strength leads to
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More energy and positive moods
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Decreased blood pressure
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Decreased risk of a stroke
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Decreased chance of obesity
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Increased satisfaction in body physique