Endurance vs. Stamina: What’s The Difference?
If you’re a gym rat or just fond of doing exercises, you might notice that the words endurance and stamina are often used interchangeably.
It’s essential to know that both terms are time parameters for your physical activities. However, it would be best to note that there are minimal differences between these two words.
Endurance vs. Stamina
When we say endurance, it means your body’s capability to prolong or sustain an exercise for an extended time. Several people tend to do endurance training on treadmills, rollers, or spin bikes to boost their endurance at the gym.
Furthermore, it’s vital to know that endurance is composed of two components, which are the following:
- muscular endurance
- cardiovascular endurance
Muscular endurance is the capability of your muscles to do physical activities continuously without getting worn out. On the other hand, cardiovascular endurance is the capacity of your lungs and heart to charge your body with oxygen.
Stamina means the ability of your body to sustain an activity for an extended period at a maximum capacity, both mentally and physically speaking. Most people refer to it as the feeling of being energetic while performing an activity. It can be indicated as the opposite of fatigue.
Endurance and stamina differ in the amount of force being exerted. You can distinguish the two by knowing when they are needed. For example, stamina is required for sprinting events. However, you’ll need endurance in marathons as you’ll be required to force your body to run a very long distance and time.
Another example is if you have to perform one sit-up per second. Stamina will determine how long you can do the sit-up at a constant rate. But if you want to know how many sit-ups you’ll be able to perform regardless of time and rate, then your muscular endurance will become the determining factor.
How You Can Increase Your Endurance and Stamina
If you want to improve your endurance and stamina, doing some aerobic exercises is recommended. Here are some tips that can help you start:
SAID Principle
The SAID principle can help you build an effective fitness program that will boost your endurance and stamina. SAID means Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. Furthermore, this principle suggests your body adapts to a particular type of exercise you perform regularly.
For example, if you choose to have a workout program that focuses primarily on your lower body, those body parts will improve. However, your upper body will stay pretty much the same.
150 Mins Weekly
Regular exercise can help a lot in improving your energy levels. It helps you sleep better and can even increase the blood flow throughout your body.
According to the American Heart Association, getting at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week would strengthen and improve your heart and lungs. In addition, getting more than 150 minutes is associated with extra benefits.
Overload Principle
The overload principle is another concept you can use to build your fitness program. This principle will teach you to gradually increase intensity or volume to continue working on your fitness and improve. For example, if you want to build on your 5-mile run time, you can choose to make your workout more challenging by increasing either the:
- Speed you run
- Distance you run
- Amount of time you run
Meditation or Yoga
Stress-relieving activities such as meditation and yoga can help you relax. Not only this, but it can also assist you in managing more intense workouts. Moreover, in 2016, a study suggested that six weeks of meditation and yoga significantly improves feelings of focus, peace, and endurance.
HIIT
HIIT means high-intensity interval training. This training method involves repetitive periods of high-intensity intervals interchanging with some rest sessions. For example, under HIIT, you can perform a 10-second sprint followed by a 30-second rest between every sprint.
Besides improving your cardiovascular fitness, HIIT can also help enhance your blood pressure and insulin sensitivity and help you lose abdominal fat. Furthermore, this type of training is an advanced form of exercise and is recommended for people who are already physically active.
Stay Hydrated
It’s critical to stay hydrated, especially when working out in humid conditions. Drinking plenty of water will suffice. However, most fitness enthusiasts suggest electrolytes during long exercise sessions to replace the minerals you might lose when you sweat.
Recommended Exercises
As mentioned earlier, aerobic exercises can help build your endurance and stamina. This type of exercise is linked to activities that can elevate your heart rate and breathing, such as:
- Swimming
- Dancing
- Running
- Tennis
- Hockey
- Basketball
- Brisk walking
To Sum It Up
Although endurance and stamina are often used interchangeably, these terms have different meanings. Nevertheless, both play a significant role in achieving your fitness goals. Moreover, performing regular exercises for 150 minutes weekly or more is the key to reaching your goal of improving your endurance and stamina.
