Gone are the days when the only people who trained with weights were men interested in bulking up. Today, weight training to increase endurance and strength has become popular with both sexes. Why? Building strength makes endurance activities, such as spinning, a lot easier. During a spinning class, you’re required to exert a high amount of energy, endurance and strength throughout the entire 45-minute class. For you to keep this up for the full 45 minutes, you will need to be fit and strong, benefits which can be achieved through weight training for endurance.
Just as a spinning class requires endurance, performing daily chores requires you to be strong and have a level of endurance. Think about your average weekly grocery-shopping trip. Most of us don’t have the privilege of being able to buy groceries during the week when it’s quiet, so the weekend is the only time we have to stock up on essentials – along with everyone else. This means that a quick half-hour trip in a quiet shop will take you three times as long because the shop is busy. The processes of wading around the shop, dodging people and their trolleys, and transporting your groceries from the till, to your car and eventually safely into your fridge all require sustained physical exertion. This is where your weight and endurance training will be of great help.
What is the formula for a weight-training programme for endurance programme?
Long-time strength expert, Matt Wiggins, advises that you follow the following formula when you put together your programme:
Strength/Endurance = Heavy Weights + Short Rest + Volume
- Heavy weights: To build your strength and endurance, don’t do more reps with lighter weights – do this if your goal is to tone. Rather lift the heaviest weights you can manage and do fewer reps.
- Short rest: Wiggins says that to build your endurance, exert the maximum strength you can when your body isn’t fully recovered aerobically. This means that you will need to take shorter breaks between sets.
- Volume: More sets of fewer reps with heavy weights will ensure that you meet your goal of increasing your strength and endurance.
As a personal trainer, many of your clients will ask you to put together strength-endurance programmes for them. In our Personal Training Certification, we take you through how to put together such a programme from start to finish. Click here for more information.