Muscular Endurance

When referring to muscular endurance, we are talking about the ability of a muscle to sustain a single contraction over a period of time - or the ability to perform repeated contractions against a submaximal load - for example, paddling continuously.

Surfers can benefit a lot from this type of resistance training for the upper body.

Strength Endurance resistance training is a training method that builds muscular endurance.

Maximal Strength training , on the other hand, builds Maximal Strength and employs different training methods...as does Hypertrophy Training ( for increasing the size of the muscles).

Many newcomers to weight training programs, especially women , are concerned about whether they will or won't build muscle bulk.

On a muscular endurance training program,  you will not gain massive muscle bulk (...although, if you are coming from a completely untrained state, you are going to gain some muscle tissue...) but you will see  great gains in your performance if you combine this training with your cardiovascular training routine.

Women starting on a  training program need to understand that they simply do not have the (testosterone) hormone levels required to gain huge amounts of muscle tissue...and need never fear that they are going to end up looking"bulky" and "amazon -like".

The only reason they will end up looking masculinised is if they take heaps of steroids to induce extra muscle growth. In addition to this, they would need to follow a high protein diet.

It takes a fair amount of dedicated hypertrophy training and  some serious hormones and protein intake for a girl to start looking like a guy!

The way a muscular endurance  program is structured ( the number of repetitions in a set, rest periods between sets etc) does not provide the stimulus required to increase muscle size dramatically.

Strength Hypertrophy training is what you need to do if you wish to build muscle bulk....so ladies... never fear working on muscular endurance... it's only going to improve the way you look - by stripping off a few kilos of fat and strengthening the muscle tissue you already have - plus it will hugely complement your cardiovascular training routine.

Strength Endurance Training Principles

In this type of routine, we employ high repetitions , lower weights and multiple sets of an exercise.

Weights are <65% 1RM ( your one repetition maximum)
Repetitions are >16 per set
Sets are >3
Rest between sets:  Up to 120 seconds.

Combined with doing your "cardio" sessions, (which will train your body's "energy systems", as well as acting as a resistance workout) a good resistance programme can improve your performance by leaps and bounds!