Tancred (1995)[1] believes that: "One of the misconceptions in the sports world is that a sports person gets in shape by just playing or taking part in their chosen sport. If a stationary level of performance and consistent ability in executing a few limited skills is your goal, then engaging only in your sport will keep you there. However, sportsmen and women must participate in year-round conditioning programs if they want the utmost efficiency, consistent improvement, and balanced abilities. The bottom line in sports conditioning and fitness training is stress, not mental stress, but adaptive body stress. Sportsmen and women must put their bodies under a certain amount of stress (overload) to increase physical capabilities."
Health & Fitness
The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its constitution of 1948 as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity".
Fitness is the ability to meet the demands of a physical task.
The Components of Fitness
Basic fitness can be classified into four main components: strength, speed, stamina and flexibility. However, exercise scientists have identified nine components that comprise the definition of fitness (Tancred 1995)[1]:
- Strength - the extent to which muscles can exert force by contracting against resistance (e.g. holding or restraining an object or person)
- Power - the ability to exert maximum muscular contraction instantly in an explosive burst of movements. The two components of power are strength and speed. (e.g. jumping or a sprint start)
- Agility - the ability to perform a series of explosive power movements in rapid succession in opposing directions (e.g. Zigzag running or cutting movements)
- Balance - the ability to control the body's position, either stationary (e.g. a handstand) or while moving (e.g. a gymnastics stunt)
- Flexibility - the ability to achieve an extended range of motion without being impeded by excess tissue, i.e. fat or muscle (e.g. executing a leg split)
- Local Muscle Endurance - a single muscle's ability to perform sustained work (e.g. rowing or cycling)
- Cardiovascular Endurance - the heart's ability to deliver blood to working muscles and their ability to use it (e.g. running long distances)
- Strength Endurance - a muscle's ability to perform a maximum contraction time after time (e.g. continuous explosive rebounding through an entire basketball game)
- Coordination- the ability to integrate the above-listed components so that effective movements are achieved.
Of all the nine fitness elements, cardiac respiratory qualities are the most important to develop as they enhance all the other components of the conditioning equation.
Physical Fitness
Physical fitness refers to an athlete's capacity to meet the varied physical demands of their sport without reducing the athlete to a fatigued state. The components of physical fitness are (Davis 2000)[2]:
- Body Composition
- Endurance
- Flexibility
- Strength
- Speed
Motor Fitness
Motor Fitness refers to an athlete's ability to perform successfully in their sport. The components of motor fitness are (Davis 2000)[2]:
- Agility
- Balance
- Coordination
- Power (speed & strength)
- Reaction Time
Improving your condition
Identify the most important fitness components for success in your sport or event. Then, design sport/event specific conditioning and training programs to enhance these fitness components and energy systems.
Conditioning Exercises
The following are examples of general conditioning exercises:
Why should I exercise regularly?
Not convinced about the benefits of a regular training regime, then read the benefits of exercising page.
I am new to training, so what should I do?
Visit the general fitness training program page to get an insight into a simple weekly training program that will help develop your general fitness level.
Tests for fitness components
In their research, Suni et al. (1996)[3] found that the following tests appeared to provide acceptable reliability as methods for the field assessment of health-related fitness for adults:
- Standing on one leg with eyes open for balance
- Side-bending of the trunk for spinal flexibility
- Modified push-ups for upper body muscular function
- Jump and reach and one leg squat for muscular leg function
References
- TANCRED, B. (1995) Key Methods of Sports Conditioning. Athletics Coach, 29 (2), p. 19
- DAVIS, B. et al. (2000) Training for physical fitness. In: DAVIS, B. et al. Physical Education and the study of sport. London: Harcourt Publishers, p.121-122
- SUNI, J. H. et al. (1996) Health-related fitness test battery for adults: aspects of reliability. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 77 (4), p. 399-405
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- MACKENZIE, B. (1997) Conditioning [WWW] Available from: //www.brianmac.co.uk/conditon.htm [Accessed
-
The 5 components of physical fitness are often used in our school systems, health clubs and fitness centers to gauge how good a shape we are truly in. The 5 components that make up total fitness are:
- Cardiovascular Endurance
- Muscular Strength
- Muscular endurance
- Flexibility
- Body Composition
Total fitness can be defined by how well the body performs in each one of the components of physical fitness as a whole. It is not enough to be able to bench press your body weight. You also need to determine how well you can handle running a mile etc.
A closer look at the individual components:
Cardiovascular endurance is the ability of the heart and lungs to work together to provide the needed oxygen and fuel to the body during sustained workloads. Examples would be jogging, cycling and swimming. The Cooper Run is used most often to test cardiovascular endurance.
Muscular strength is the amount of force a muscle can produce. Examples would be the bench press, leg press or bicep curl. The push up test is most often used to test muscular strength.
Muscular endurance is the ability of the muscles to perform continuous without fatiguing. Examples would be cycling, step machines and elliptical machines. The sit up test is most often used to test muscular endurance.
Flexibility is the ability of each joint to move through the available range of motion for a specific joint. Examples would be stretching individual muscles or the ability to perform certain functional movements such as the lunge. The sit and reach test is most often used to test flexibility.
Body composition is the amount of fat mass compared to lean muscle mass, bone and organs. This can be measured using underwater weighing, Skinfold readings, and bioelectrical impedance. Underwater weighing is considered the “gold standard” for body fat measurement, however because of the size and expense of the equipment needed very few places are set up to do this kind of measurement.
www.lifetime-fitness-routines.com
Medically reviewed by Lauren Jarmusz, PT, DPT, OCS — Written by Beth Sissons on January 28, 2021
Muscular endurance refers to how long muscles can sustain exercise. Improving muscular endurance can help enhance overall health and fitness.
This article explores the benefits of muscular endurance, the best training routines to enhance it, and how people can adapt these techniques into common exercises.
We will also look at tips to prevent injury during training and how to design an exercise program that could lead to long-term performance and health benefits.
Share on PinterestGary Yeowell/Getty Images
Muscular endurance is the ability to continue contracting a muscle, or group of muscles, against resistance, such as weights or body weight, over a period of time.
Increasing the performance of these muscles means they can continue to contract and work against these forces.
Greater muscular endurance allows a person to complete more repetitions of an exercise, for example, pushups or squats.
According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), the benefits of muscle endurance include:
- helping maintain good posture and stability for longer periods
- improving the aerobic capacity of muscles
- improving the ability to carry out daily functional activities, such as lifting heavy items
- increasing athletic performance in endurance-based sports
Muscular endurance tests measure how many repetitions of a movement people can do before the muscles reach a state of fatigue and cannot continue the exercise.
Many tests focus on measuring upper and lower body muscle endurance by measuring how many pushups, squats, or situps people can achieve.
A person can work with fitness instructors to measure muscular endurance or record how many repetitions of a particular exercise they can perform before reaching the fatigue state.
To increase muscular endurance, ACE recommend a combination of lower and upper body exercises, with strengthening exercises to target the whole body.
Moderate resistance training, with short intervals in between for rest, creates short bursts of tension to build strength.
Circuit or high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can be a suitable way to combine cardio and strength training into one workout.
Unless a person’s fitness goals involve training for a particular endurance-based sport, training for muscular endurance alone may not be the most appropriate strategy.
The best exercise programs mix strength and muscular endurance training.
Some evidence also suggests that exercise programs that people find enjoyable may be more likely to generate long-term benefits, as they may be more likely to stick with them.
A 2015 study comparing HIIT and steady-state training notes:
“Variety in the type of exercise is as important as the type of exercise. Particularly considering that the health benefits of exercise have to be viewed in the context of the likelihood that exercise is continued for several years, not just the weeks of a controlled study.”
When training to improve muscular endurance, what matters most is not the type of exercise, but how people design their workout.
People should take into consideration the following when tailoring a workout to boost muscular endurance:
- the number of reps
- the weight or resistant force on the muscles
- the number of sets
- length or rest periods
According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association, individuals training for muscular endurance should aim to complete three or more sets of 15 or more exercise reps with a load that is 50% or less of their one rep max (RM).
A person’s one rep max is the maximum load with which a person can complete one repetition of an exercise.
For example, a person may wish to use the leg press machine at the gym to build endurance in the legs.
If they have an RM of 300 pounds (lbs), they should aim to perform 2–4 sets of 15 or more reps with a load of 150lbs or less, with brief rest periods between sets.
As their muscular endurance for this exercise increases, they may wish to make the exercise more challenging by reducing rest times between sets, or increasing the reps per set, rather than increasing the load weight.
A person can apply the same principle of high rep and set volume, low–moderate load, and short rest periods to any exercise, such as bench presses, dumbbell curls, pushups, or squats.
People can choose exercises that suit their preferences and are challenging yet enjoyable enough to sustain training.
Example exercises
As we have already mentioned, there are no specific exercises that are better for training muscular endurance than others. The design of a training program makes it suitable for endurance training.
However, ACE recommend the following exercises for building muscle endurance, which a person can perform at home without equipment:
Pushup
A pushup works the triceps, chest, and shoulder muscles.
- Start in a pushup position by lifting the body off the ground with the hands and toes, with the body in a straight line, horizontal to the floor.
- Keep the hands flat on the floor shoulder-width apart and at roughly chest level.
- Start with the arms straight, then bend the arms while keeping the body straight and engaging the core and glutes, to lower the body until the chest is close to the ground.
- Straighten the arms to return to the starting position.
- Repeat for 5–15 times, depending on difficulty, to perform one set
A person can also work the tricep muscles more by placing their hands close together and turn them inward, so the fingers and thumbs form a diamond shape.
To make the exercise easier, a person can place their hands on a bench or other stable, raised surface.
People can also modify a push up by placing the knees on the floor to make it easier, or lift one leg off the floor to make it more difficult.
Squat
A squat works the glutes, calves, quads, and core muscles.
- Stand with the feet just over shoulder-width apart with the toes pointing slightly outwards.
- With the head facing forwards in a neutral position and back straight, extends the arms in front, so they are parallel with the ground.
- Squat down by bending the knees, keeping the body weight centered over the arches of the feet and the thighs parallel to the floor.
- Keep the back straight with the shoulders back and chest forwards.
- Use the feet, legs, and hips to push back up to the starting position.
- Beginners should aim for 5–10 reps, and they may perform the squat against a wall or end the movement in a seated position on a low surface to make it easier.
Abdominal crunch
An abdominal crunch works the abdominal muscles:
- Lie on the back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Place the hands lightly on the back of the head and chin tucked.
- Slowly curl the upper body towards the knees, keeping the lower back on the mat.
- Slowly lower back down to the starting position.
- Perform 10–15 repetitions for one beginner set.
Pike crunch
Another example of an abdominal crunch is the pike crunch:
- Lie with the back flat on the floor, with legs outstretched and arms above the head.
- Lift the torso and legs off the floor to form a pike position.
- Place the legs at right angles straight up in the air and reach with the arms toward the feet.
- Slowly lower the legs and torso back to the floor.
- Perform for 10–15 repetitions for one beginner set.
A person can also hold a stability ball between their ankles during this exercise.
Lunge
A lunge works the abs, buttocks, hips, and thighs:
- Stand up straight with the feet together.
- Bend one knee, lift the opposite leg, step forwards on to it, place the foot flat on the floor, and bend the supporting leg, so the knee reaches the bottom.
- Use the front leg to push back up to the start position and repeat for the opposite leg.
- Perform for 10–15 repetitions on each leg for one beginner set
Plank
A plank works the core and back muscles.
- Start by lifting the body off the ground with the hands and toes, with the body in a straight line, horizontal to the floor
- Keep the hands flat on the floor, with straight arms and wrists and the elbows directly underneath the shoulders.
- Keep the chin tucked in, with the abs and thighs tight.
- If the person is a beginner, hold for 30 seconds, rest for around 1 minute in between.
- Repeat the plank at least three times.
A person can modify this exercise by resting on the forearms instead of the palms if they find it challenging to hold the plank position with straight arms.
Tips to prevent injury during a workout include:
- warming up with dynamic stretches before exercising, for at least 5 minutes
- making sure to maintain proper posture and technique, and consulting with a fitness professional if unsure of these
- exhaling during movements requiring more effort and inhaling on easier parts of the exercise
- resting certain muscle groups at least 24 hours after working them out
- cooling down and stretching after exercise
- stopping physical activity if ill or injured
Muscular endurance is a muscle’s ability to continue contracting against resistance over a period of time.
People can improve their muscular endurance with strength and cardiovascular training.
Last medically reviewed on January 28, 2021
Medical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We avoid using tertiary references. We link primary sources — including studies, scientific references, and statistics — within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.