Endurance is the ability to endure an unpleasant or difficult situation, experience, or activity for a long period of time.

What are endurance sports?

Endurance sports are about pushing our bodies for extended periods. They are sports or activities that tend to demand the ability of a person to sustain themselves physically over a long period. These have to rely heavily on oxidative metabolism and cardiovascular fitness. Oxidative metabolism is where a person needs to use an extensive amount of oxygen.

They are also known as aerobic sports as they are characterized by activities that require prolonged exertion and rely on our body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently and generate energy.

Key characteristics of sport

Endurance sports have 4 major characteristics that can be elaborated further.

Cardiovascular fitness and aerobic capacity

VO2 Max—the maximum amount of oxygen that the body can utilize during intensive exercises—is a very important indicator of aerobic fitness.

  • Lactate threshold: Lactate is a resultant of metabolism that amasses in the blood faster than it can be removed, indicating that you are about to get fatigued. It helps in recognizing how much longer we can push our metabolism before we end up getting lactate in our body to indicate that we are tired.

  • Aerobic training: endurance sports rely heavily on our aerobic training, which helps us improve our body’s ability to use oxygen efficiently and keep it up for a long while.

Muscular endurance and strength

Muscular endurance: our muscles' ability to perform a contraction or keep that contraction up for a longer period.

  • Strength: Strength is something that is not necessarily up high on the priority list for athletes to have, but a good amount is still needed for efficient movements and power output in sports.

Energy efficiency

  • Running economy: Running economy means the amount of energy an athlete can expend to maintain a specific running speed, especially for long-distance races.

  • Energy storage and utilization: any kind of athlete involved in endurance sports needs to know how to use their energy stores, like glycogen and fatty acids, to their best extent so that they can fuel prolonged activity.

Training principles

  • Long-term exercises: endurance training involves sustained, moderate-intensity exercises that tend to increase over extended periods to improve both aerobic capacity and cardiovascular fitness and muscle endurance.

  • Interval training: To improve both aerobic capacity and lactate threshold, one should alternate between high-intensity bursts and low-intensity activity or rest.

  • Basic endurance training: Basic endurance training forms the foundation of higher levels of endurance training. It can be done by gradually increasing the intensity and duration of the training.

Examples of endurance sports

Some examples of endurance training are cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance.

Examples of cardiovascular endurance are running, jogging, cycling, swimming, dancing, hiking, walking, rowing, jumping rope, climbing stairs, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and interval training.

Examples of muscular endurance are push-ups, squats, lunges, planks, crunches/sit-ups, pull-ups/inverted rows, loaded carriers (farmer’s walk), rucking, and burpees.

How can we sustain better in endurance sports?

When we look for endurance sports, the focus is always on a well-rounded approach of a lot of things that need to be included in training. This includes consistent training, proper nutrition, adequate hydration, effective recovery ideas, appropriate strength training, and interval training.

Endurance and stamina do go hand in hand, but they are different from each other. Stamina is different for different people. It could mean how much a person can do an activity without getting tired.

When training for endurance sports, always consult an expert who can help you determine the perfect program according to your goals.

Using the SAID principle as a start can be good for an effective program. SAID stands for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. It means that our body will adapt to the specific type of exercise you will regularly perform. For example, if an athlete is focusing on a sport, cycling, they would try to focus their primary workout on increasing their muscle strength, whereas the upper body strength could come secondary to them. Their lower body strength might be stronger than their upper body.

Another basic concept is the overload principle. In the overload principle, the exercise that needs to focus on will gradually increase either in the intensity related to the volume or in improving your fitness. For example, in a sport like marathon running, running at a fixed pace can help a lot to survive longer in the race. So what is the limit of the speed, and how far can we reach with the same speed? With the parameter for the current goal, a new goal could be set to increase either the speed of the runner with the same distance or, at the same speed, go for miles of running.

So for a beginner marathoner, their pace is usually 9 to 11 minutes per mile. With more practice and training, they can become intermediate marathoners whose pace is 8 minutes per mile. Whereas for elite marathoners, their pace could be increased to around 5 minutes per mile.

But increasing your strength and aerobic flexibility does not always require you to do cardio and other exercises. Yoga or meditation also helps for the same. It can also help in relaxing as well as help us in learning control over our breathing and give us better breathing techniques. Having activities that can help relax and improve the ability to handle more intense workouts.

Applying HIT training is one of the most used ways to help in endurance training. Hiit stands for High Intensity Interval Training, which involves repetitive cycles of going through high-intensity intervals alternating with rest periods. For example, having 10-second sprints with 30 seconds of rest in between.

Even with how good of an endurance athlete you are, safety and making sure you get injured less. We need to make sure we modify each exercise to attain optimal results based on your needs. Always pay close attention to your body. Unnecessary pushing to the extreme when your body is not ready for the same can increase the chances of injury and even permanent damage. Necessary recovery is as important as training.