or endurance

For each and every person they says they would love to increase their strength, there’s two more that would love to increase their size. Those two characteristics are undoubtedly the most common focuses of beginning and veteran lifters and athletes alike. The weight training program generally consists of a high volume of isolation movements to build size or a low volume or compound movements to build strength, with the necessary assistance exercises thrown in. What about that other important component of physical fitness, though? There are actually many more crucial pieces to optimum physical fitness, but the one being referred to is stamina. Without improving your stamina, how can you perform any of the strength or size exercises effectively?

That’s the problem with many lifters and athletes. Because all of the focus is sent to strength and size movements almost entirely, there’s no room left to train the stamina,christian louboutin shoes cheap, or endurance, aspect of physical fitness. Without a high level of stamina, hitting the gym to perform your resistance training routine is going to be much more difficult. You won’t have as much energy to exert as you fatigue and you will tire out more quickly. However, with improved stamina levels, the onset of fatigue won’t be near as fast.

How exactly can you improve your stamina? Luckily, it’s not difficult at all. It requires a little extra effort and some more dedication,both large and small, but it’s all worth it in the long run. Follow these next few tips to learn how to improve you stamina!

• Include GPP. What is GPP? It’s short for General Physical Preparedness. This term simply refers to basic conditioning movements. GPP exercises can range from dragging a sled to swinging a sledgehammer. The possibilities are endless. Get creative – you won’t only increase your stamina, but you might actually learn to love GPP too.


• Decrease the rest time between sets. If you normally rest four minutes between sets of bench press, slowly drop that rest time down to two minutes. You must make this drop very gradually or you may end up pushing your body too hard. During week 1, bench press with 4 minutes between sets. The following week, drop that time down to three and a half minutes. Continue moving down the chain with 30-second increments until you hit two minutes.


• Include some aerobic work. Aerobic exercise basically refers to continuous exercise over the two to three minute mark. The GPP exercises we talked above require the use of the ATP-PC and Glycolitic energy systems. Exercise such as running three miles or biking ten miles makes use of the Oxidative, or aerobic, system. Try not to make aerobic exercise your main mode of conditioning. It will keep your heart healthy and help raise your aerobic (with oxygen) stamina, but you also want to focus on the GPP exercises to boost your anaerobic (without oxygen) stamina. Dedicate one day out of the week to running or biking a few miles.

The above represent just a few ideas to get you started on the road towards improving your stamina. It won’t come quickly, but if you stick with these exercises it will come eventually.