Feel Stronger For Longer: Your Guide To Muscular Endurance

You're on the third flight of stairs up to your apartment, a grocery bag in each hand, and your legs and forearms start burning before your lungs do.

That's muscular endurance at work.

Muscular endurance is your muscles' ability to keep working repeatedly or hold a position for an extended period without fatiguing. It's what helps you maintain good form throughout a workout when things get hard, carry heavy bags home, or hang in there when a Pilates class really starts to burn.

If you're already strength training, you're probably already building muscle endurance in your workouts, as long as you're building in some work that involves higher reps, moderate weights and shorter rest periods. If you're only lifting heavy weights and taking long rest breaks, you'll build sheer muscular strength far more than muscular endurance.

And yes, you can definitely build muscular endurance without any equipment.

What is muscular endurance?

Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle, or group of muscles, to keep producing force over and over without getting exhausted. Strength is how much weight you can lift, and endurance is how many times you can move that weight before you tire.

Muscular endurance isn't just important for workout performance. You use it all the time in everyday life. Carrying a toddler on your hip around the shops. Hiking uphill for an hour. Joining your friends for a spin class. Kayaking on holiday. It's all muscular endurance, and in your workouts you know you're improving when you can do more reps or hold a position longer before your form breaks down.

How is muscular endurance different from muscular strength?

Muscular strength is the most force you can produce in one go. Muscular endurance is how long you can keep producing a smaller amount of force. Lifting a heavy suitcase into the overhead locker is strength. Carrying a backpack on a day hike is endurance.

The two are closely linked, and we want you to be working on both. As you get stronger, everyday loads (like luggage and groceries) become way easier to handle, and your muscles can keep going for longer before they fatigue. That's why we'll always say strength training should be the foundation of your routine, not a nice add-on.

That's why most strength programs in the Sweat app mix higher-rep, moderate-weight training with lower-rep, higher-weight training. In one eight-week study, lifters who trained with lighter weights for 25 to 35 reps improved their upper-body endurance by about 17%, while the group lifting heavier for 8 to 12 reps saw greater strength gains. So you really need to be doing a bit of both!

Building muscular endurance doesn't necessarily mean being "toned" either. What changes your shape is building muscle through progressive overload (increasing your weights over time as you get stronger), and nailing your nutrition in terms of protein and calories to change your body composition. Muscular endurance is about what your body can do rather than how it looks, which is amazing motivation to train.

How to improve muscular endurance

The simplest way to build muscular endurance is to work with a weight you can lift for 15 reps or more, keep your rests short, and gradually ask your muscles to do a little more each week. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends light to moderate loads, higher reps and short rest periods (under 90 seconds) for endurance training.

A simple place to start:

• Reps: 12 to 20 per set for exercises like squats, or 30 to 60 seconds for holds like planks

• Sets: 2 to 3 of each exercise

• Rest: 30 to 60 seconds between sets

• Frequency: 2 to 3 sessions a week, with a day between sessions that work the same muscles

• Load: a weight where the last few reps feel challenging but your form still holds

To keep making progress, change one thing at a time (rather than increasing everything at once) using progressive overload: add a few reps, hold for 10 seconds longer, trim your rest by 10 seconds, or go heavier once your top rep range feels comfortable.

If you've only got a 25-minute lunch break, circuits work really well for this. String four or five exercises together, move from one to the next with minimal rest, then repeat. On weeks when you're not feeling your best but still want to train, drop a set or go lighter. If you're brand-new to strength training, we always recommend starting with bodyweight to build confidence with the movements.

Six muscular endurance exercises

You can improve your muscular endurance with a wide range of exercises, but these are some fundamental moves that cover your legs, glutes, chest, back, and core. Most can be done at home with no equipment, and you can add free weights whenever you're ready to level up. If you don't have any equipment, then a backpack filled with books or two full water bottles will do the job!

You can also build muscular and cardio endurance at the same time by using a cardio machine like a bike, rowing erg or ski erg and turning the damper (the dial on the side) to a high number to add more resistance.

Squat

Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and your toes turned out slightly. Push your hips back (as if you're reaching for a chair behind you), then bend your knees and lower until your thighs are roughly parallel to the floor, or as low as feels comfortable. Keep your chest lifted and your weight through your whole foot. Push through your heels to stand back up.

Muscles worked: quads, glutes, hamstrings, core

Form tip: Keep your knees tracking in line with your toes. If they cave inwards as you start to fatigue, that's your cue to rest.

When you're ready for more: Hold a dumbbell at your chest for a goblet squat, then go heavier, or add a 3-second pause (or even a pulse) at the bottom.

Reverse lunge

Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart. Take a big step back with your right foot and lower until both knees are bent to about 90 degrees (your front knee stacked over your ankle and your back knee hovering just above the floor). Push through your front heel to bring your right foot back to standing. Complete all reps on one side, then switch.

Muscles worked: quads, glutes, hamstrings

Form tip: Stepping back is easier on your knees and balance than stepping forward, so it's always what we recommend starting with. If your balance is wobbly, hold a wall or chair for support.

When you're ready for more: Hold dumbbells by your sides and go heavier, or try forward or walking lunges to challenge your stability.

Push-up

Start on your hands and knees, with your hands slightly wider than your shoulders. Walk your knees back until your body forms a straight line from your head to your knees. Bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor, keeping your elbows at roughly 45 degrees from your body (not flared straight out). Push back up to the start.

Muscles worked: chest, shoulders, triceps, core

Form tip: Squeeze your glutes and brace your core so your hips don't sag down or pike up towards the ceiling as you tire.

When you're ready for more: Progress to full push-ups on your toes, then add a slow 3-second lower.

Dumbbell bent-over row

Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing in. With a slight bend in your knees, hinge forward from your hips (pushing your hips back, not rounding your spine) until your torso is at about 45 degrees. Let your arms hang straight down. Pull the dumbbells up towards your lower ribs, squeezing your shoulder blades together, then lower with control.

Muscles worked: lats, rhomboids, rear shoulders, biceps

Form tip: Think about driving your elbows towards the wall behind you, rather than lifting with your hands.

When you're ready for more: Go heavier, or try a single-arm row with one hand supported on a bench or chair.

Glute bridge

Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart and close enough that you can just touch your heels with your fingertips. Press through your heels and squeeze your glutes to lift your hips until your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Pause for a second, then lower slowly.

Muscles worked: glutes, hamstrings, core

Form tip: If you feel this more in your hamstrings or quads than your glutes, try walking your feet slightly closer to your bottom. It can also help to rest your fingers on your glutes to check they're engaging.

When you're ready for more: Rest a dumbbell across your hips and go heavier, or try single-leg glute bridges.

Plank

Start on your forearms and toes, with your elbows directly under your shoulders. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your heels (no hips piking up or sagging down). Brace your core as if you're bracing for a punch in the stomach, squeeze your glutes, and breathe steadily. Hold.

Muscles worked: core, shoulders, glutes

Form tip: Stop the set when your hips start to drop or pike up. A 20-second plank with great form beats a 60-second one where your lower back takes over. Drop to your knees if you need to.

When you're ready for more: Add 10 seconds a week, then try lifting one foot or reaching one arm forward at a time.

How long does it take to build muscular endurance?

Most people notice a difference within a few weeks: squeezing in more reps before your form fades, longer holds, and less of that burning feeling on the stairs. Significant changes tend to show up over six to eight weeks of training two to three times a week.

An easy way to track it is to test yourself now and again in a month. Count how many unbroken push-ups or squats you can do with good form, or time your plank, and keep a note of it in your phone!

Where to start this week

Muscular endurance is how long your muscles can keep going, and you build it with higher reps, shorter rests and a little more effort each week. If you're already strength training, you're probably already working on it!

If you're starting from scratch, pick three exercises from the list above, do two or three rounds twice this week and write down your numbers. In four weeks, see if you can beat them, knowing this is a highly transferable type of endurance that will carry over into everyday life immediately.

If you'd like a plan that builds strength and endurance together without having to work out the details yourself, all the strength programs in the Sweat app progress for you week by week.