Muscular endurance is a key part of your physical fitness that needs TLC as you grow older. According to Medical News Today, muscular endurance is the duration of time your muscles can perform an exercise. Boosting your muscular endurance can enhance your physical fitness and overall well-being. So we’ve made things easy for you with five expert-approved fitness habits that improve your muscular endurance after 50.
Aging puts your body through many difficult changes. You lose muscle mass, power, strength, and endurance if you don’t do anything in order to preserve them. That’s why getting into shape and staying in shape becomes more crucial than ever before.
In order to improve your muscular endurance when you grow into your 50s and beyond, be sure to practice the below fitness habits. Keep reading to learn more, and next, check out The Best Indoor Cardio Workouts To Increase Stamina as You Age.
Work in a higher rep range.
When it comes to your strength training exercises, you want to start working with higher reps. The rep zone is one to five for strength, six to 12 for hypertrophy (muscle gain), and 12+ for muscular endurance. So choose the body part you want to improve, and start working in that higher rep range ASAP.
Incorporate compound sets.
A strength training technique I personally love to use is the compound set. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a compound set basically means performing two or more exercises back to back that target the same muscle group. Doing so will force this group of muscles to work harder and improve their endurance. For example, you can perform a set of dumbbell bench presses, followed by dumbbell flyes or pushups.
Have a finisher.
At the end of your workouts, choose a cardio finisher that challenges your body. You can use a piece of cardio equipment for your legs such as the stair climber or exercise bike. And if you don’t want to use a cardio machine, you can do a bodyweight circuit instead. Below is a sample for your legs. Perform these three movements back-to-back for three to four sets:
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Bodyweight Squat (x15 reps): Keeping your chest tall and your core tight, push your hips back, and lower into a squat until your quads become parallel to the floor. Push your body back up through your heels, flexing your glutes and quads to wrap up.
Alternating Reverse Lunge (x8 reps each leg): Take a long stride back with one leg. Firmly plant your heel on the floor, then lower yourself into a lunge so that your back knee graces the ground. Push through your front leg to rise back to standing, then repeat with the other side.
Jump Squats (x10 reps): Place your legs about hip-width distance apart. Keep your core tight, and throw your arms and hips back at the same time. Then, swing your arms forward, and jump up as high as you possibly can. Land softly into a half squat before jumping again.
Shorten your rest periods.
An excellent way for you to improve your muscular endurance is by shortening your rest periods in between your sets. For instance, if you’re used to resting for 60 to 90 seconds in between sets, you can bring it down to 45 to 60 seconds. This will test your muscular endurance, and eventually, your body will adapt to it.
Be as physically active as you can throughout the day.
In addition to taking just the right steps in your workouts, you can improve your muscular endurance by simply boosting the amount of physical activity you do each day. Force yourself to get in extra steps, take the stairs, carry all your groceries in one hand, or do some sort of manual labor that requires muscular endurance.
Tim Liu, C.S.C.S.
Tim Liu, CSCS, is an online fitness and nutrition coach based in Los Angeles Read more about Tim
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