A Quick Guide To Starting Endurance Training For Beginners

We prefer to think of endurance training as a journey that is just as rewarding and useful as achieving the goal. And, if you don’t know where you are on your journey, it will be considerably more difficult, if not impossible, to get to your destination. You must choose the appropriate place to begin your endurance training, or you will fail.

Here is a quick guide to starting endurance training for beginners. Essential steps to building endurance for beginners

Gradually increase the intensity of your training or runs
Adopt the run-walk method.
Include weightlifting in your training routine.
Embrace plyometrics
Give CrossFit training a try.
Clean up your diet

Read on to find out practical ways to build your endurance and exercises to build endurance effectively. You might also enjoy reading: 6 Reasons Why Fitness Goals Are Very Important (Find out now!)

Table of Contents

Best Ways To Build Endurance For Beginners:

If you wonder how beginners build endurance, you are in luck; here are the best ways to build endurance for beginners:

1- Gradually Increase The Intensity of Your Training or Runs

To increase endurance without risking injury or burnout, it is important to “train smart.” But what exactly does that imply? Smart training increases your mileage and pace gradually while remaining constant over time.

As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built overnight; as a beginner, try to stay persistent and be patient with your progress.

When you consistently train, you will strengthen your muscles, build your aerobic base, and increase your aerobic capacity (meaning much oxygen your muscles can use).

When you add extra runs to your week, try to make them easy and slow and aim for about 3 to 4 sessions per week for 30 minutes or more.

Generally, I make one of my weekly running sessions longer, where I go farther than any of my other weekly runs.

2- Adopt The Run-Walk Method

The run/walk method is one of the most innovative ways to build endurance, particularly for beginners gradually. It is also a great way to make your runs enjoyable so you can build lasting running habits.

Increasing your distance is easier if you adopt the run/walk method. For instance, you can try intervals of running for about 5 minutes with a 1-minute walk interval. And when it becomes too easy, you keep adding minutes to your run intervals. And if your goal is to run continuously, you will slowly build the fitness and confidence to run long without walk breaks.

Begin with a 10-minute brisk walk.
Then alternate 30 seconds of slow running with 30 seconds to one minute of walking.
As your fitness improves, you should be able to run for longer periods and with less effort.

Tips For Successful Run-Walk

Keep yourself hydrated throughout your workouts.
Invest in a good fitness tracker to track your workouts and other valuable information, including sleep quality and the number of steps.
Register for a race and start training for it. It will give a goal and maintain your runs and training more exciting.
Use your breathing as a guide throughout your running sections. Ensure you can carry on a conversation while running without breathing heavily.

3- Include Weightlifting In Your Training Routine

What are the benefits of weightlifting for endurance? Well, strengthening essential running muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones with consistent practice is beneficial, helping you improve your running efficiency as well as whole-body endurance.

Perform a lot of compound movements first, including squats, deadlifts, push-ups, and step-ups to activate a large number of muscles.
Allow at least 30 to 60 seconds of rest between each workout when doing these compound moves.
Lift weights at an incredibly rapid speed for a more intensive exercise, allowing you to include endurance training with your strength training.

Best Weightlifting Tips For Beginners:

Always begin with a warm-up.
Begin with lighter weights that you can lift about 10 to 15 times with proper form.
Gradually increase the weight. When you can lift about 10 to 15 times with proper form, then increase the weight by 5 to 10 percent.
Rest for at least 60 seconds between sets to help prevent muscle fatigue, mainly if you are a beginner.
Do not exercise for more than 45 minutes because longer sessions may increase your risk of muscle fatigue and burnout.
Do not forget to stretch your muscles gently after your workout to help you reduce your risk of injury, boost your flexibility and ease muscle tension.
Remember that resting is as crucial as training because resting will give your muscles time to recover and recharge your batteries before your next workout.

4- Embrace plyometrics

Unlike classic weight lifting, which involves lifting heavy objects and then putting them down, plyometric exercises require fast and explosive movements developed to increase power and speed.

The goal of plyometric training is to do explosive movements. It might assist you in becoming a better runner by enhancing the effectiveness of your running form.

Runners benefit from being more explosive for a variety of reasons. Once you begin to become more explosive, your entire body will begin to move quickly without any further effort on your part.

Here are examples of excellent plyometrics exercises:

Skipping
Jumping lunges
Box jumps
Squat jumps
Single leg jumps
Clap press-ups

5- Give CrossFit training A Try

CrossFit is a multi-faceted training program aimed at improving all aspects of fitness. Velocity, power, dexterity, stamina, synchronization, and tenacity are among them.

Functional fitness is a term used to describe CrossFit. Bodyweight training, plyometric exercises, Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics rings, sled pushes, Kettlebell exercises, interval-style aerobic workouts, and other methods are used to achieve this.

6- Clean Up Your Diet

Often overlooked, diet is also an integral part of building endurance. A clean diet can help you not only lose weight but also boost your overall health.

I would recommend you focus on consuming minimally processed foods and avoid junk food for your overall health.

Now that you are acquainted with a couple of methods to build endurance let’s talk about the actual exercises you can do for endurance training.

Top 6 Exercises To Build Endurance And Stamina

Below are the top 6 exercises to build endurance and stamina:

1- Plank

Planks can be an excellent addition to your fitness program because performing plants can help improve core strength and stability.

A study issued in Global Advances in Health and Medicine observed that side planks might help reduce spinal curvature in scoliosis patients. In other words, performing side planks can help reduce the chances of spinal problems.

2- Bodyweight Squats

Bodyweight squats are also among the type of exercises to help you build endurance and stamina. In addition, bodyweight squats target your calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and abdominals.

The benefits of bodyweight squats include the following:

Toning your overall body, particularly your butt
Burning fat and speed weight loss
Toning the muscles of your lower body and abs
Improving your flexibility and posture
Enhancing circulation
Improving your physical fitness
Keeping your lower back strong

3- Walking lunges

Walking lunges help improve balance and posture, especially for beginners.

Muscles worked with Walking lunges:

Quadriceps
Glutes
Hips
Hamstrings
Abdominals
Calves

4- Pushups

Performing pushups every day can be a great way to build endurance, especially if you are looking for a consistent workout routine to follow.

The good thing with push-ups is that you can do them anywhere and anytime with no equipment needed.

Check out these two articles to learn more about push-ups:

5- Sit-ups

Situps are traditional abdominal exercises performed by lying on your back and lifting your torso. With situps, you mainly use your body weight to strengthen.

A small 2010 study examined the effects of various abdominal exercises in terms of diaphragmatic pressure.

The researchers found that situps are beneficial in improving respiratory function and strengthening the diaphragm.

Muscles worked with situps:

Transverse abdominis
Rectus abdominis
And obliques

6- Yoga For Flexibility and Balance

Yoga can be an excellent complement to running. In addition, yoga increases flexibility improving your stride length and speed and helping you build endurance faster.

Here are some excellent articles to get you started with yoga:

How Long Does It Take To Build Endurance?

Exercise is a gradual process, and depending on your beginning fitness level and age, you may observe consistent gains over time. However, whether you are starting a new fitness program or preparing for a competition, you should give yourself 12-16 weeks to see significant results.

So, if you are a beginner and want to build endurance, exercise regularly, and you will begin to see the effects in 12-16 weeks. However, the effect depends on every individual, of course, but the most common number is, as stated above, between 12-16 weeks.

Final Thoughts

Building endurance for beginners is not difficult; you just need to show up, follow a plan, and be consistent. The critical thing to remember is that it will take some time for you to see significant results.

To start building more strength, do some bodyweight exercises such as planks, squats, lunges, pull up, chin up, and push-ups after your runs.