It’s no wonder athletes are looking for ways to boost their endurance. In recent times the rise of obstacle course races, good old-fashioned marathons, and triathlons, methods of boosting athlete’s endurance demand has increased like never before. Most athletes tend to focus more on cardio activities like cycling and running, but those activities are just a small part of the endurance-building equation. To go longer and harder, athletes also need to improve their endurance.

An athlete requires a fine balance and endurance. This can only be achieved with years of strategic dieting and training. Also, endurance-building supplements can be an integral part of this balance. Athletes tend to spend hours everyday training and conditioning themselves to enhance their anaerobic and aerobic capacity. You can use endurance-building supplements to help maximize and gain the competitive edge you are looking for.

As an athlete that is looking into taking on a Spartan race or any other endurance race, take a look through these tactics and tips.

  • Combine Cardio Days With Strength Days: 

This is a simple tactic that you can implement. You must get more muscles working because the more muscles working, the more it will challenge your cardiovascular system and your heart. Instead of engaging in building strength workouts only, make sure you add cardio days into your training. Most athletes reserve one day for cardio and another for strength, but you should combine the two. You can use a bench press to engage in some pull-ups, then run (advisable a mile) as fast as you can. Another good workout is jump rope for a minute, then squats, overhead press, and sit-ups.

  • Reduce Your Amount Of Rest Between Sets:

 Athletes usually give themselves between 30 to 90 seconds of recovery time between sets, but since your goal is greater endurance, you get prepared to sacrifice your break time. By the end of all the sets, you’ll be breathing heavily, your muscles will be burning, and you should be sweating so much. You should only take a break if you physically cannot continue. You also select a series of movements like 10 squats, 10 pull-ups, and 10 sit-ups.

  • Invest in Endurance building supplements: 

supplements are not new to any athlete. Some use it to build more protein for better fitness results, others use it for many other reasons. There are specific supplements like the SR 9009 that work on increasing your endurance during training. This will help you build more muscle, retain more energy while losing water weight/fat. 

  • Go For Hybrid Exercises: 

Great hybrid exercises are two separate movements that are combined. Examples are lunges with biceps and jumping pull-ups. You must get enough muscles working in a movement because it will stimulate your heart muscles, which in turn boosts your endurance. 

athlete working out with weights

  • Do Fast-Paced and High-Intensity Lifting: 

By using or lifting weights at an extremely rapid pace, it will not only improve your strength but will also improve your endurance. This is one of the best ways to boost your metabolism. When athletes do an excessive amount of endurance workouts or training only, it tends to slow down their metabolism because it starts to eat away at your muscle tissues. 

  • Add Explosive Movements To Your Workouts:

 When you add explosive movements that take a lot of energy, it challenges your endurance, stamina, and strength simultaneously. Once you add more explosive movement to your workout, you will notice a change whereby you start moving faster than you use to. Also, add things like box jumps, burpees—power pushups, and jumping knee tucks to your workout routine.

  •  Routine Might Your Enemy: 

You must always switch up your workout routine; it helps to build your endurance. As an athlete, your body gets used to a workout after two weeks. So if you are always cycling, change it up by running and if you are always running, change it up to cycling instead. You must move the muscles differently to avoid developing overuse. It also motivates you as an athlete. 

With the help of these tactics and tips, a distance you find challenging now will feel easy in the future. Before you work on your endurance as an athlete, you need to make an honest assessment of your current aerobic, anaerobic base and build on that. And as a new runner looking to increase your endurance for races, make sure you avoid doing too much too soon because this will only lead to injury or overtraining.