Best Muscular Endurance Exercises (105 Studies Reviewed)
Jake
Featured, PT
You might be surprised that finding the best muscular endurance exercises is a little more complicated than it sounds. Even after reviewing more than 100 research studies there are still a lot of holes in our understanding of the best muscular endurance exercises. In this article I will review some great research and give you my two cents as a fitness coach of many years. I will also recommend some of my best free fitness programs to improve your muscular endurance. Keep reading for more.
The first thing we need to do is to define what we mean by muscular endurance. Most researchers define muscular endurance as the ability to resist fatigue, with sub maximal loads. This is strength training with loads that aren’t close to your one rep maximum.
This might be body weight training, or circuit training. Most bodybuilding programs are in this category as well. Any workout plan that doesn’t use too much weight is a muscular endurance program. Let’s take a quick overview of the topic.
Muscular Endurance Exercises Overview
High rep training programs aren’t always best for muscular endurance training
Lower body muscles respond best to high repetition resistance training plans
Upper body muscles do not respond as well to higher rep ranges
Aerobic and anaerobic conditioning is just as important for longer endurance needs
There are quite a lot of misconceptions about muscular endurance training. If you ask most coaches and athletes they will tell you that higher rep ranges will build endurance. This isn’t wrong, but it only works in certain circumstances, and for certain body parts.
Moreover, there is some excellent research showing that combing aerobic training, with a muscular endurance training plan, greatly enhances the ability of a muscle to resist fatigue. In the next section we will quickly review some relevant research on building muscular endurance, for the entire body.
If you like fitness, tactical gear, and training, then you should join our email list below. We’ll send you the articles as soon as they’re released.
If you’ve been in the gym for any length of time, you’ve heard someone talk about different rep ranges, and what they’re for. Most athletes and coaches will tell you that lower reps build strength, moderate reps build muscle, and high reps build muscular endurance.
I think it’s fair to say that the first two statements are correct, but the research isn’t as clear on the last. Often times we confuse lighter weights with endurance training. As you’ll see, heavier weights, with proper form, can be quite effective in building muscular endurance.
Muscular Endurance Rep Ranges
This research study, conducted by Dr. Brad Schoenfeld and colleagues, examined over 100 relevant studies on the rep range continuum. They found strong evidence that 5 reps and under is a great way to build functional strength, with 8-12 reps working for building muscle. They did not find good evidence for higher rep ranges building endurance.
They noted different major muscle groups responded differently. When examining upper body movements like bench press, they found that upper body muscle groups did not increase in endurance with higher reps, compared to lower rep programs. They did find that lower body muscles like quads, and hamstrings, did respond well to higher rep ranges. Let’s dig into the details.
If you want to try my most effective program for building overall endurance, then check this out.
Dr. Schoenfeld highlighted that studies often measure muscular endurance improvement differently. This impacts our understanding greatly. Quite often researchers have participants perform a one rep max on something like a leg press. They will then have them test their muscular endurance based off of a percentage of this number.
Once the experimental program is done, they will reassess their muscular endurance based off of their old one rep max. For example, an athlete might do a 300 pound leg press for one rep, and do 10 reps with 200 pounds. Upon retest they are often asked to do the same percentage of that original 300 pounds. If they get 15 reps, then the researchers report a 50% increase in muscular endurance.
However, we can’t say for sure that any trait of endurance has increased, as the person has also increased their strength over the training period as well.
Muscular Endurance and Strength Increase
In this research study the authors found a way around this. They had the athletes retest with the same percentage of their initial weight, for example 50% of their one rep max. They all showed an increase in muscular endurance.
They then had them test with the same percentage of their new one rep max. Surprise, surprise, they found no muscular endurance improvement. This is why rep max calculators work. The human body is fairly predictable when it comes to rep maxes, at a certain percentage of one rep max. Let’s take a look at another method to increase muscular endurance.
Concurrent Training For Muscular Endurance Strength Exercises
Readers of this website know that I often write about concurrent, or hybrid training, where you combine resistance training with cardio, to build the best of both worlds. This works well for muscular endurance because quite often your local muscular endurance is greatly affected by the length of the physical activity.
To illustrate this point, I want you to consider running as an example. If you’re sprinting 50 meters, you will find that your muscular strength drastically impacts your performance, with your conditioning being a non factor. However, if you sprint 200m at max speed, you will quickly determine that your overall aerobic and anaerobic conditioning plays a large role. This means you couldn’t just do something like bodyweight squats to get better at sprinting.
In this study, researchers had athletes engage in 3 hours of aerobic training, and 2 hours of higher rep muscular endurance training (lower body only) for 8 weeks. They found that the athletes that did this style of training were able to increase their performance at the same aerobic output.
This allowed them to limit the build up of lactate, which indicates that your performance is becoming unsustainably anaerobic. It’s always beneficial to be able to work harder for less effort.
Training Recommendations for Muscular Endurance Specific Exercises
The best muscular endurance training plan will vary depending on your specific needs. If you have a shorter muscular endurance requirement, like a max rep pull up test, then you need to build local muscular endurance, in the relevant muscle groups.
In upper body muscle groups you can actually work with a wide rep range. Anything between 5-30 reps will work to build upper body endurance. If you need to build lower body muscular endurance, then the research does show that 15 plus reps will work well. While these reps will use lighter weight, they still need to be enough heavy enough to make each set challenging.
I would also encourage you to work on your absolute strength, if you need to improve your upper body muscular endurance. Think of the NFL combine bench press test. For this you need a high level of maximal strength, with relatively little higher rep training, just prior to the test. You can’t bench press 20 reps at 225, with only high rep training. Now let’s talk about muscular endurance training for longer tasks.
If you need to gain some strength and muscle mass, to increase your muscular endurance, you should try my most popular program.
If you need to build muscular endurance, for tasks lasting longer than a minute, then it’s a good idea to work on your overall conditioning, in addition to your local muscular endurance training. Think of tasks like a CrossFit WOD or, a Hyrox sled push. This extended period of time endurance needs a combination of strength exercise and anaerobic / aerobic exercise.
Remember that research confirms that adding in high rep training to cardiovascular endurance training allows you to put out more power, at the same relative intensity. I can also vouch that this method works very well for most athlete’s I’ve trained. It also has tremendous health benefits.
In the next section I’m going to recommend some great training programs to help build your muscular endurance. Remember that the best exercises are the exercises that translate efficiently to the event you’re testing.
Muscular Endurance Training Programs
The programs in this section will be broadly split between the two methods of increasing muscular endurance, local muscular endurance, and global muscular endurance. If you’re training to increase the number of reps you can do for specific muscle groups, then you should pick one of the local endurance programs. They focus on muscular strength exercise, for slow twitch muscle fibers, and fast-twitch fibers, over a short period of time.
Conversely, if you need muscular endurance for longer periods of time, then you need to work on your global conditioning, as well as local endurance. Aerobic endurance work is one of the best ways to increase muscle endurance. Here are the programs.
I recommend clicking through a few different programs, to see the details for each one. I’ve included a lot of detail on each exercise program page including: warm ups, PDFs, and other advice. Now, let’s finish this article up.
Final Thoughts
We’ve covered a lot of information about training for muscle endurance. I want to take this time to highlight the importance of training for your specific task. If you have specific fitness goals in mind you can tailor your training towards it quite easily.
If you find that you’re gassed during a functional fitness WOD, or other longer endurance events, you’ll find that your overall aerobic and anaerobic efficiency is the limiting factor.
Lastly, I want to highlight that gaining absolute strength is a viable option as well, provided you spend some time training for the specific test. This is especially effective if you have a fixed load to move, like most bodyweight movements. You can do a lot more bodyweight exercises, if you increase your muscle strength.
If you have any comments or questions, put them below, and I’ll do my best to get you an answer. No get out there and get training. Don’t forget to join the email list below.
The opinions and information expressed in this article are solely those of the author and are not affiliated with any corporation, group, public or private entity. This web site is not endorsed by, directly affiliated with, maintained, authorized, or sponsored by Crossfit Inc. All product and company names are the registered trademarks of their original owners. The use of any trade name or trademark is for identification and reference purposes only and does not imply any association with the trademark holder of their product brand.Furthermore it’s recommend that you consult a medical doctor prior to exercise. Always exercise under the guidance of a qualified professional.All links to Amazon are affiliate links.
