Muscular strength and muscular endurance are both components of physical fitness. (Others are cardiovascular endurance, flexibility and general body composition).

What Exactly Do These Mean?

Muscular Strength refers to the amount of energy or strength you can expend over a short time without getting tired. Strength helps to exert maximal energy over a short time. For example, a strong person can bench press 300 or 400lbs. According to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s July 30, 2021 email newsletter, he bench pressed 500lbs. That’s really insane. A strong person can carry heavy loads.

How Do You Build Strength?

To build strength using weights, you should lift heavy weights but with fewer reps. e.g. you can lift 300lbs (depending on how much you can actually lift), with 6-8 reps and 3 sets.

You can do 10 – 12 reps of push-ups and 4 sets, same with pull-ups, and squats too.

• Weightlifting, with increased amount of weight over time

• Push-ups, sit-ups, squats. Plyometric push-up is really helpful.

• Working with resistance bands

• Doing heavy farm works, like digging. Carrying heavy stuff at home, like buckets or kegs of water. Little things like that help build strength. Basically, whatever will make you engage your muscles will help improve your strength.

Sports such as weightlifting, wrestling, boxing, shotput and so on, require extreme strength.

MUSCULAR ENDURANCE

This is extremely important. I get a lot of complaints about getting tired quickly, fatigue, inactivity etc. This is due to lack of muscular endurance. Muscular endurance is the ability of the muscle to expend energy and force, repetitively and constantly over a long period of time. A person with muscular endurance will be able to run, walk, jog, stand for a long time. Muscular endurance helps you keep using and expending muscular strength for a long time without getting tired so quickly.

Virtually all sportspersons need to build endurance. Athletes (especially long distance), footballers, swimmers, cyclists, tennis. Walking, standing, jogging all require muscular endurance.

How Do You Build Endurance?

To build endurance with weights, you have to lift moderate weights with higher reps. e.g. lifting 80 to 120lbs and 15 – 20 reps. With push-ups, doing 50 push-ups in a row. Doing 50 sit-ups or squats in a row.

What other exercises build strength and endurance?

Plank strengthens the core. Staying longer, 2, 3, 4 minutes helps to build endurance in the core.

Doing Wall Sit for a long time builds the endurance of the thigh muscles. 2 minutes wall sit shows a very high level of muscular endurance in the thigh.

Consistent jogging, running, walking, cycling, swimming and dancing help to improve endurance.

SUMMARY

Muscular strength and endurance are important components of the physical fitness that need to be improved in order for us to have successful day-to-day activities and to do well in sporting activities. Doing fewer reps with heavier weights help improve strength while doing more reps with lighter or moderate weights helps improve endurance.

That’s it on this post. Take out time to improve your strength and endurance henceforth.

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Merci 💪