Sprint Training – The Importance of Speed Endurance Training

Being a great sprinter means that you need to have the total package. You need to have a good top-end speed and great speed endurance. You also need to have a good amount of strength which will keep you from getting injured during the season. Right now I’m going to talk to you about developing stamina.

Developing speed endurance is not an easy task to take on. The workouts can often be grueling. Usually you will find sprinters throwing up all over the track after a tough workout.  But then they realize that when it comes down to race day its will always be worth the pain. Having this type of stamina also allows you to chase down competitors in the longer distances such as the 200 and 400 m dash. Having a good level of stamina will also make running the 100m dash feel like a walk in the park.

So how do you develop a good level of speed endurance? Developing this type of stamina usually involves running anywhere from 150 m to 350 m.

 The rest between each run is about 5 to 10 minutes depending on how intense the workout is. If you are performing a workout that involves running 350 m runs you will need to make sure you get at least 10 minutes rest between each run. Always remember the goal here is quality over quantity.

Doing too much speed endurance can often hinder your raw speed. So try to perform this type of training no more than twice a week. And also make sure that you vary the intensity because you can easily over train.

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MMA training – tempo method for muscular endurance

Article by Khurram Aziz

Increasing your ability to utilise your oxidative energy system (i.e. your aerobic capacity), efficiently, is fundamental to producing a high work rate throughout a three round or a five round fight. To that end, most of my supplemental MMA training has focused on long slow distance runs, training at a moderate pace for 60-90 minutes. At these intensities, over that length of time, my body is being trained aerobically leading to a more efficient cardiovascular system.

Another method for increasing your oxidative capacity is to increase the ability of your muscles to use oxygen as a fuel. Tempo method or continuous training, is designed to specifically target those muscle fibres which are best adapted to using oxygen – the slow-twitch muscle fibres. These muscle fibres are much more efficient at utilising oxygen for energy in comparison to fast-twitch fibres, which are better at using ATP/Creatine-Phosphate and glycogen.

Tempo method

Tempo method focuses on time under tension (TUT) to get the desired result. The protocol I’m working on in my MMA training requires lifting weights of around 60% of my 1-rep max (RM) at a slow pace – 2-0-2-0. This means lowering the weight at a slowly over 2 seconds, no pause at the bottom, then lifting the weight at a controlled pace for 2 seconds, and then repeating without any pause at the top. The muscles are in constant tension during the set, no matter how many reps you do.

I use big multi-joint movements, such as the squat, bench press and shoulder press, to target the maximum number of muscles.

In his book, Ultimate MMA Conditioning, Joel Jamieson recommends picking 3-4 strength exercises and performing 8-10 reps for between 3-5 sets. Rest periods should be limited to 45 seconds MAX between each set going up to 6-8 minutes between each exercise.

I use the “big 4” lifts – squat, bench press, dead lift and shoulder press, performing each exercise at a 2-0-2-0 pace:

Exercise Intensity Reps Sets Rest between setsSquat 60% of 1RM 8-10 3-5 45 secondsShoulder press 60% of 1RM 8-10 3-5 45 secondsBench press 60% of 1RM 8-10 3-5 45 secondsDead lift 60% of 1RM 8-10 3-5 45 seconds

6-8 minutes active rest between each exercise (shadow boxing)Effects of tempo training

After only four weeks of tempo training, it is hard to tell what effect this mode of strength training has had on my muscular endurance.

According to the literature, slow-twitch fibres which are crucial for endurance are not fully recruited during rapid explosive movements. Only slow movements, which cause the slow-twitch fibres to be under tension long enough can cause adaptation in these fibres to take place.

One article which discusses this is written by Thomas V Pipes, entitled Strength Training and Fiber Types. In it, Pipes takes muscle biopsies of an athlete before and after pre-determined training microcycles.

Pipes found that following a routine in which 8 reps (at the 8 RM) were used, the fast twitch muscle fibers of the trained muscle (in this case the quadricep via the leg press) hypertrophied.

However, he also found that the slow twitch muscle fibres atrophied (i.e., got smaller); and he also found that the number of reps the athlete could perform at 80% of his 1 RM decreased, yet his 1 RM increased. The athlete was then placed on a routine using 12 reps (at his 12 RM). This time the muscle biopsy showed that hypertrophy did in fact take place, but that this time it was in the slow twitch muscle fibres. Not only that but the fast twitch fibres atrophied and the number of reps possible at 80% 1 RM went up, while his 1 RM decreased.

What this shows is that with increased reps, i.e. an increase in TUT, using a lighter weight, slow twitch fibres are targeted preferentially to fast twitch fibres. In other words, muscular endurance increases in preference to maximum strength.

This correlates with the real-world example of bodybuilders. Bodybuilders have long used the principle of TUT to increase overall muscle hypertrophy. The result is muscles which are capable of a remarkable degree of endurance but poor maximum strength in comparison to other weight trained athletes.

Another study I found relating to this was conducted by Dr Patrick O’Shea, Professor Emeritus of exercise and sports science at Oregon State University (http://cbass.com/SLOWFAST.HTM).

He used electromyography (EMG) to study muscle recruitment order of muscle fibre types in the quadriceps of a trained athlete during execution of a one repetition squat with progressively increasing loads.

Starting with 60% of 1 RM, O’Shea found that the slow-twitch fibres contributed 60% to the effort and fast-twitch fibres 40%. At 100% maximum effort, however, the percentage of slow-twitch fibres involved was found to be only 5%, while fast-twitch fibres contributed 95%. So lighter loads have been shown to target slow twitch fibres better than heavier loads.

Conclusion

That’s the limit of my understanding at the moment. Using tempo training as part of your overall MMA training you can effectively target slow twitch fibres, increase their cross-sectional area and make your muscles better able to utilise oxygen as a fuel.

How far this contributes to the body becoming a better aerobic “machine”, however, I think is still open to debate. There may be another mechanism by which TUT leads to greater muscular endurance.

I posed this question on Joel Jamieson’s forum, where I learnt of tempo training in the first place, and got the following reply:

“The way I understand it, at least in theory, is that the hypertrophy of slow twich muscles reduces their “oxidativeness”, because mitochondrial density declines. Meaning, the same number of mitochondia have to produce energy for a larger mass of muscle. So there is less O2 energy available per unit of muscle. However, if mitochondia and capillaries also increased, which happens with aerobic training, it might not matter and O2 capabilities could potentially improve which would help reduce fatigue. Is tempo training equiv to aerobic training? Not sure!However, generally with more muscle hypertrophy (more muscle fibre protoplasm) the same workload’s lactic acid can be spread over a larger volume, and not affect PH locally as much. So performance decline should be more gradual, increasing endurance. Since muscles generally have mixed fibre composition, and faster twitch are known to hypertrophy more easily and more than slow twitch, there is a good chance this has something to do with it as well.”There are articles which I’ve seen that say that hypoxia (depriving muscles of oxygen) can lead to hypertrophy, so the continuous training, i.e. sets performed with no pauses between reps, can deprive muscles of oxygen long enough to cause hypertrophy.

Finally, Joel himself had something to say on this topic:

“The physiology of tempo training as I’ve described I’ve found pretty much only in some obscure Russian textbooks and I was first introduced to the method by Val of Omegawave. The cause of the local hypoxia has to do with the overall tempo, not pausing at the top or bottom of the rep and the overall loading. This is how slow twitch muscles are targeted, not just being you’re ‘going slow’ exactly.That’s not to say fast twitch fibres aren’t working as well, clearly they are, but from what I’ve read it is effective at increasing slow twitch hypertrophy and I can’t argue with the results I’ve seen so it’s obviously doing something. Slow twitch fibres, by their very nature, are extremely dense with mitochondria so you can’t assume that increasing their cross-sectional area is automatically going to lead to a decrease in mitochondrial density. Even if this were the case, other forms of more direct aerobic work can easily increase mitochondria within these fibres anyway.”

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Hammer Nutrition – 6 Reasons Why Endurance Athletes Can Benefit

Article by Mark Holowaychuk

Hammer Nutrition supplements are extremely popular products by athletes. To put it simple…it’s because they work and work well. Millions of kilometres have been travelled by water, bike and foot fuelled by nothing more than these great products. There are however a few things that makes these supplements really special. Here are 6 reasons why Hammer Nutrition products are king.

Friendly for Diabetics. Endurance supplements in general are carbohydrate based. They are also in general full of inexpensive fillers and sugars that spike your blood sugar levels all over the place. Hammer Nutrition supplements are different. They use long chain carbohydrates that sustained time-released type effect so that your body burns them more evenly. This is very different from other brands out there.

Athletes Choice. With the big endorsement contracts that get thrown around these days, it’s easy to say that the only reason Mr. Athlete X is using product X is because he is paid to do so. What is unique about Hammer Nutrition supplements is while they do have many sponsored athletes, they have even more athletes who choose to use it as their primary source of fuel for sports and races. No money, no fame, just for the effectiveness of the results the products bring.

Preservative Free. Supplement manufacturers do whatever they can to increase profits. One technique is to increase the shelf life of a product. If the shelf life is longer, the product can be produced in higher volumes and can sit on the shelf longer without expiring. Hammer Nutrition supplements are very unique in that they don’t put preservatives in their products. Their motto is that preservatives aren’t going to help you perform better, so why put anything in the product that might potentially take away from its effectiveness?

Premium Ingredients. Erring on the cheap side when it comes to ingredients in supplements is really easy. Everyone is trying to cut corners one way or another. One things that Hammer Nutrition has found is that natural ingredients work better and by using natural ingredients inside of supplements (albeit at a higher manufacturing cost) the athletes who used the products performed better. Thus their line uses natural versions of the ingredients to provide maximum benefit to the athletes.

Great Taste. With many endurance sports you are required to drink quite a bit of a supplement. Over time if the product flavour isn’t quite the best, you can really start to dislike a product. What is great with Hammer Nutrition is they create such amazing flavours. They even have many of the products that you would use for long duration prepared to be subtlety flavoured. This means that the flavour isn’t overbearing or too sweet. It is just the right flavour.

Designed by Athletes. Nothing is worse than having supplements designed with little to no input from the actual users of the products. Luckily for Hammer Nutrition users, their products are designed by their owner and top management team, which happen to all be endurance athletes. This means that ever Hammer product that goes out on the market, has already been created to fill a purpose and solve an issue that an athlete already has encountered. The right product for the right situation.

At the end of the day, Hammer Nutrition supplements are something that anyone should consider if they want to play any sport at a high level. Not that you need a supplement to play as this is untrue. It is just if you want to fuel your body properly and ensure you are not depriving your body of essential minerals and such, fueling becomes mandatory at the higher levels. What is great with these products is they are friendly for diabetics, the athletes choice and even preservative free. They use premium ingredients, taste great, even designed by the very athletes who use them. If you are in the market for any type of endurance supplement, the brand to definitely take a look at and read up more on is Hammer Nutrition.

scoobysworkshop.com In this video were gonna talk about my number one favorite supplement, caffeine! Caffeine is a cheap and effective supplement for bodybuilders and endurance athletes alike. In this video we will talk about what kind of caffeine to take, how much to take, when to take it, caffeine tolerance, and also about what the research says. Caffeine comes in different forms and surprisingly, coffee is not the best way! Several studies have shown that the anhydrous caffeine in the pill form is more effective in improving perfomance than the caffeine in coffee. If you want to maximize your performance, you should use the pill form. Two added benefits of using caffeine pills, first its far cheaper. For the price of one fancy starbucks coffee you can buy a bottle with 100 doses of caffeine in it. The second benefit of using the caffeine in pill form is that you know your exact dosage. Speaking of dosage, lets talk about how much to use. Oddly enough, more is not better. Several studies have shown that there is no increase in strength or endurance if you consume more than the recommend amount of caffiene. This makes caffeine unlike many other supplements. So, how much should you take? The research shows there is no benefit to taking more than 6mg/KG before your sports activity, I would recommend half that or 3mg/kg – so for a 150lb person thats 200mg. Take your caffeine about an hour before your lifting session and take it at most once per day. If you dont want the …

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Difference Between Developing Muscle Mass and Muscle Endurance

Article by David Ben Efraim

Whenever most people are looking to perform muscle-building exercises they believe that the only worthy indicator of progress is the increase of muscle mass. While this is a widespread concept, it is quite an erroneous one; there is another important indicator of your progress referred to as muscle endurance.

Building Up Muscle Mass

This is the concept with which most people are familiar with: do the reps, pump the iron, watch your arms get bigger and your muscles gain definition. There is not much to explain here: you do your exercises, your muscles tear up and then rebuild themselves stronger and more massive. This process is done over and over again until the person reaches their desired appearance.

Most of the exercises which aim to increase muscle mass have you do short but intense movements, such as dumbbell curls for example. While this is the best way to increase muscle mass, it does next to nothing when it comes to improving your muscular endurance.

Why Muscular Endurance is Important

If you try flexing your muscles as hard as possible without stopping, you will notice that after a few seconds pass there will be a burning sensation in your muscles that keeps growing stronger and stronger until you physically can’t keep it up anymore. This burning sensation is caused by the lactic acid which is pouring into your muscles; muscle endurance is basically how long your muscles can work before the pain from the lactic acid becomes too much to bear.

The problem with working your muscle endurance is that the results will be much less tangible than if you focused on muscle mass; your muscles will only grow very little and you won’t feel the difference until much later… every step of your progress will allow you to last a couple of seconds longer. As you can imagine, this serves as the main reason a lot of people neglect their muscle endurance, but the truth is that if you are gunning for more than appearance then you will need to work it out to bring the best out in you.

How to Train Muscle Endurance

While there is a ton of exercises designed to help people increase their muscular endurance, none of them can be described as the best method. Simply make sure that the exercises you will be performing will force you to flex your muscles for prolonged periods of time. Above all, keep your workout adapted to your own capabilities; an injury can throw you off course pretty easily.As mentioned before, there are innumerably systems and products which are designed to help you increase your muscular endurance and naturally I cannot say that one thing works while the rest are scams, because that is simply not true. When it came to me and my desire to work on my muscle endurance I looked around and decided that a special dumbbell called the Shake Weight for Men was the right thing for me.

It works by basically shaking back and forth when you squeeze it creating the perfect conditions where cardio and muscular endurance are needed. Apart from that, I found that it was a good deal in my situation seeing as how it’s pretty compact and not overly expensive and allows you to regulate the intensity of your workout. If you are not the type of person who works out very often and would like to get yourself into shape, I believe that this product can offer some valuable assistance.

Related Definition Muscular Endurance Articles

Why Muscular Endurance is as Important as Muscle Growth

When people are training at the gym and making their routines, they most often concentrate on simply increasing their muscle mass to become bigger and stronger. Unfortunately, while some of them may have workouts that are out of this world, many simply forget about just how important muscular endurance is, especially when you are increasing your muscle mass.

What Makes Muscular Endurance Important

As you probably know it already, whenever you are moving your muscles are contracting, and to do so they require oxygen. The bigger and more developed your muscles are the more oxygen they are going to require in order to move effectively. Increasing your muscles mass might make you stronger, but it won’t actually allow you to last longer.

Whenever your muscles are pushed to their limit they start filling up with lactic acid which is basically the substance that makes you feel the burn.

If you choose not to work on your muscular endurance the lactic acid will start pouring into your muscles very soon, and as a result all the muscles that are contracting will start to bring you pain which will not allow you to keep going until you rest.

If you want to make sure that you can actually make use of your muscles for extended periods of time then you will have no choice but to work on your muscular endurance and take some time off muscle growth exercises.

A Great Way of Improving Muscular Endurance

While there are undoubtedly many ways to do this, one of the best methods for beginners is to exercise with the Shake Weight.

While it should be noted that those who have been going to the gym for a while now will probably not find any use in working out with this dumbbell, those who are just starting will benefit in many ways from the Shake Weight.

For those who don’t know what it is, the Shake Weight is basically a dumbbell that you squeeze with your hands, causing it to bounce up and down in your hands. The goal is to try and keep it as steady as possible, and surprisingly this actually provides for a very intense and rewarding workout, working out not only your upper body muscular endurance, but also your cardio.

Order this DVD at www.shopcathe.com Muscle Endurance This high rep, total body conditioning workout not only increases functional fitness gains, but it promotes nicely shaped and defined muscles. You’ll experience maximum muscular endurance gains along with strength gains as you challenge each of the major muscle groups through a wide variety of exercises. Do this workout one to three times per week and you’ll soon enjoy the benefits of improved posture, increased bone density, and an overall healthy, happier you. Equipment needed A step bench, barbell, various weighted dumbbells, and a medicine ball (we will use an 8 pound medicine ball) Muscle Endurance Format: warm-up (6 min.), weight training (45 min.), Abs (9 1/2 min.), stretch (4 min.) Total = 64 1/2 min. Muscle Endurance This high rep, total body conditioning workout not only increases functional fitness gains, but it promotes nicely shaped and defined muscles. You’ll experience maximum muscular endurance gains along with strength gains as you challenge each of the major muscle groups through a wide variety of exercises. Do this workout one to three times per week and you’ll soon enjoy the benefits of improved posture, increased bone density, and an overall healthy, happier you. Equipment needed: A step bench, barbell, various weighted dumbbells, and a medicine ball (we will use an 8 pound medicine ball) Muscle Endurance Format: warm-up (6 min.), weight training (45 min.), Abs (9 1/2 min.), stretch (4 min.) Total …
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Difference Between Developing Muscle Mass and Muscle Endurance

Whenever most people are looking to perform muscle-building exercises they believe that the only worthy indicator of progress is the increase of muscle mass. While this is a widespread concept, it is quite an erroneous one; there is another important indicator of your progress referred to as muscle endurance.

Building Up Muscle Mass

This is the concept with which most people are familiar with: do the reps, pump the iron, watch your arms get bigger and your muscles gain definition. There is not much to explain here: you do your exercises, your muscles tear up and then rebuild themselves stronger and more massive. This process is done over and over again until the person reaches their desired appearance.

Most of the exercises which aim to increase muscle mass have you do short but intense movements, such as dumbbell curls for example.

While this is the best way to increase muscle mass, it does next to nothing when it comes to improving your muscular endurance.

Why Muscular Endurance is Important

If you try flexing your muscles as hard as possible without stopping, you will notice that after a few seconds pass there will be a burning sensation in your muscles that keeps growing stronger and stronger until you physically can’t keep it up anymore. This burning sensation is caused by the lactic acid which is pouring into your muscles; muscle endurance is basically how long your muscles can work before the pain from the lactic acid becomes too much to bear.

The problem with working your muscle endurance is that the results will be much less tangible than if you focused on muscle mass; your muscles will only grow very little and you won’t feel the difference until much later… every step of your progress will allow you to last a couple of seconds longer.

As you can imagine, this serves as the main reason a lot of people neglect their muscle endurance, but the truth is that if you are gunning for more than appearance then you will need to work it out to bring the best out in you.

How to Train Muscle Endurance

While there is a ton of exercises designed to help people increase their muscular endurance, none of them can be described as the best method. Simply make sure that the exercises you will be performing will force you to flex your muscles for prolonged periods of time. Above all, keep your workout adapted to your own capabilities; an injury can throw you off course pretty easily.

As mentioned before, there are innumerably systems and products which are designed to help you increase your muscular endurance and naturally I cannot say that one thing works while the rest are scams, because that is simply not true. When it came to me and my desire to work on my muscle endurance I looked around and decided that a special dumbbell called the Shake Weight for Men was the right thing for me.

It works by basically shaking back and forth when you squeeze it creating the perfect conditions where cardio and muscular endurance are needed. Apart from that, I found that it was a good deal in my situation seeing as how it’s pretty compact and not overly expensive and allows you to regulate the intensity of your workout. If you are not the type of person who works out very often and would like to get yourself into shape, I believe that this product can offer some valuable assistance.

www.fitstudio.com Equipment needed for this routine: Hampton Fitness Hampton 10 lb Pro-Hex Grey Dumbbell Pair www.sears.com (0:35)- Routine Sets & Reps (1:08)- Jump Squats (2:22)- Sit-Through (4:02)- Diagonal Lunge (5:35)- Thruster Check out www.scotthermanfitness.com for more information and detailed exercises! Join the most supportive and fastest growing community on facebook! www.facebook.com Check out my Routines & Tips on the SEARS FitStudio page! 🙂 www.fitstudio.com iPhone App! itunes.apple.com Bio-Engineered Supplements & Nutrition BSN www.bsnonline.net Check out my Meal Plan!: www.scotthermanfitness.com View TRX Pro Pack Here! tinyurl.com Follow me on Twitter! twitter.com

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Soccer Endurance ? The Easy Way

When it comes to playing the game of soccer, there are several pieces that need to fall into place for a player. For instance, if you’re not ready to defend, and at times run backwards, the opposing team can run rough shot on you. You’ll find that the world is quite difficult to manage when it comes to defense, if you can’t backpedal and turn on a dime. You’ll have to not only be able to change position, flip your direction backwards and forewards, but also be able to do it for the full 90 minutes if need be. Do not assume that if you’re not a center, you have to work less than others, you will have to work as hard as you can during training to accomplish more than the opposing squad when it comes down to playing, even if you’re a goalie.

To start your endurance training, it’s suggested that you start jogging in the mornings.

If you’re not jogging already, start tomorrow morning. Start with 15 minutes of jogging throughout your city, then move forward and go 30 minutes. After you’ve gone 30 minutes and it becomes relatively easy, then try to go forward for an hour at a time. If you find yourself doing an hour time with ease, then make sure that you start running full speed for 15 minutes, then running full speed for 30 minutes. Eventually running full speed every morning should become the norm.

The second thing to do when working on endurance, is to get on a treadmill at night or in the afternoon. Spend no less than an hour jogging on a treadmill at different inclines. This will seem difficult at first, but it’s going to help you in the long run. Make sure that you’re jogging and not fully running.

Your running should be reseved for another time.

Lastly, to improve endurance and dexterity, go to the field and start at one end lunging forward. Lunges are a crucial element to dexterity and endurance, and if you can do forward lunges through the course of a full soccer field, you’ll start to gain stamina and strength in your lower body. Combine this with your running, and you’ll have a great combination of options that will lead you to move along faster than ever thorough training.

One last thing to remember when working on soccer endurance is to make sure that you combine your cardio vascular exercise with weight lifting. The call is not to do major weights, but rather to work out on the upper body and lower body alike. When building lean muscle, you have to work on toning and definition because you’ll need the balance that comes with exercising your whole body. If you only run, you will have one set of skills down, but not the endurance that is necessary in moving ahead of the compeititon. Mix things up and you’ll find that you can gain a major foothold in endurance and stamina training. Do not concentrate on one thing, make sure that you go forward with many options.

Force Factor – Endurance Program

Article by John Bryce

Muscular endurance is defined as the ability of a muscle to do continuous work over a long period of time. It is determined by how well your slow twitch muscle fibers are developed. It is very important for athletes and those people who have to sustain an activity for long periods of time to improve their muscular endurance. The better your muscular endurance is, the better your performance is as well. This is why athletes are often looking for the endurance program that works best for them.Click Here For Force Factor Limited Free Trial!There are a wide variety of effective programs for developing muscular endurance. One such example is circuit resistance training. This training takes place by moving from one station to the next, usually set up in a circle. At each station a different exercise is performed with high repetitions but low to moderate resistance. Fifteen seconds of rest is provided while changing stations. Approximately ten exercise stations are used, and the exerciser repeats the circuit two to three times. In addition, short sessions of large muscle exercises can increase your endurance, build calorie-burning muscle tissue, prevent back problems, and tone muscles. Examples of these exercises include lateral lifts, biceps curl, desk push-ups, and seated crunches. Aside from athletes, some people engage in endurance exercises because they can take inches off of body measurements. These exercises produce some changes in body contour, and also strengthen the body. In addition, endurance exercises speed up metabolism, so that your body burns calories at a higher rate for several hours after engaging in the exercise. Keep in mind, though, that in engaging in an endurance program, you have to include exercises which resemble the activity for which the endurance is needed. Probably the best training program is performing the sport skill repeatedly. This is because any form of training must mirror the specific demands of the sport.Click Here For Force Factor Limited Free Trial!

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Why Muscular Endurance is as Important as Muscle Growth

Article by David Ben Efraim

When people are training at the gym and making their routines, they most often concentrate on simply increasing their muscle mass to become bigger and stronger. Unfortunately, while some of them may have workouts that are out of this world, many simply forget about just how important muscular endurance is, especially when you are increasing your muscle mass.

What Makes Muscular Endurance Important

As you probably know it already, whenever you are moving your muscles are contracting, and to do so they require oxygen. The bigger and more developed your muscles are the more oxygen they are going to require in order to move effectively. Increasing your muscles mass might make you stronger, but it won’t actually allow you to last longer.

Whenever your muscles are pushed to their limit they start filling up with lactic acid which is basically the substance that makes you feel the burn. If you choose not to work on your muscular endurance the lactic acid will start pouring into your muscles very soon, and as a result all the muscles that are contracting will start to bring you pain which will not allow you to keep going until you rest.

If you want to make sure that you can actually make use of your muscles for extended periods of time then you will have no choice but to work on your muscular endurance and take some time off muscle growth exercises.

A Great Way of Improving Muscular Endurance

While there are undoubtedly many ways to do this, one of the best methods for beginners is to exercise with the Shake Weight. While it should be noted that those who have been going to the gym for a while now will probably not find any use in working out with this dumbbell, those who are just starting will benefit in many ways from the Shake Weight.

For those who don’t know what it is, the Shake Weight is basically a dumbbell that you squeeze with your hands, causing it to bounce up and down in your hands. The goal is to try and keep it as steady as possible, and surprisingly this actually provides for a very intense and rewarding workout, working out not only your upper body muscular endurance, but also your cardio. Like I previously mentioned it, this tool is the perfect thing for amateurs who are only beginning training, but will probably not yield impressive results if you have been exercising for some time already.

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Mountain Biking Endurance Races

Article by Tony B

For the casual cyclist, mountain biking is a wonderful way to enjoy the great outdoors as well as get a great work out. Today, mountain biking is growing rapidly into an excitingly popular sport. With that growth arises an entirely new subculture of mountain bikers who race professionally.

Every year there are hundreds of events and races organized across the nation for mountain bike enthusiasts. These endurance races are generally for those in the absolute top percentage of mountain bikers. It takes a certain amount of conditioning and performance to compete in endurance races as the competition itself is so demanding. There are plenty of different categories, but these races can be as long as 12 hours, taxing the limits of human endurance.

Types of Races

Of the many categories of endurance races, most are beyond the scope of normal cyclists’ physical limits. Starting at three hours these races only scale upwards, reaching six or even twelve hours in length. The shorter three hour races are separated by gender and occasionally by age groups, but the longer races often open up to include both genders and all age groups.

There are numerous formats for endurance races as well. Some races are strictly solo races such as the shorter races. However, as they get longer, endurance races include all combinations of team work and trade off riding, with teams of up to four riders.

Endurance races are highly organized much like the marathons many of the nation’s major cities hold annually and require registration and occasionally physicals. In addition to assuring the participants are physically capable of participating, these events often require a demonstration of certain safety equipment that meets particular regulations.

Safety Measures

Safety is probably the most important thing organizers see to when there is a race. In addition to making sure each rider is in acceptable physical condition and has the proper gear, mountain bikes themselves are often checked to ensure they are in top shape, with fully aired tires, tightened handlebars, and properly adjusted frames and shocks.

Prohibited materials on the bike are also carefully watched. Such prohibited materials include reflectors, kickstands, adjustable hubs, sound frames, true wheels and any personal media devices. All of these items are checked for and expected to be removed before the race starts.

Finding Endurance Races

Endurance mountain biking is a high level addition to the sport of mountain biking. For that reason, if you are interested in getting involved, you should try and contact your local mountain biking association or club. They’ll have all the information you need to not only train for and prepare your bike for competition but the rules associated with the sport. There are numerous websites out there that cater to the crowd of endurance mountain bikers if you are looking for more information.

For anyone who has just gotten into mountain biking endurance racing might be a bit too much for you yet. However, you’ll find that in time you’ll be looking for a bit more of a challenge, and these longer more intense races might be just the thing you’re looking for to push your limits and test your physical conditioning. If you’re serious about endurance racing, take the time necessary to research and get in the shape necessary to compete in these races.

Do you want to know what it takes to come home with a buckle from one of the most difficult mountain bike races in the country? Watch our comprehensive video on endurance training and find out.
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