10 Effective Exercises to Improve Endurance

Endurance is one component of complete fitness, and it’s an essential one if you hope to win on the soccer field. So how can you strengthen your endurance?

You can’t go wrong with a few simple exercises that have stood the test of time. Here are ten to get you started.

1. Swimming

When the body aches after a week of grueling practices, let your players get their cardio in the water. Doing so helps cushion sore joints while still increasing their heart rates. 

If you have access to a pool, swimming is the ideal recovery day workout, along with yoga and cycling. These forms of exercise don’t create any impact, letting your connective tissues rest and heal while keeping you gently active.

2. Burpees

Who said you needed equipment to get a combination cardio and strength blast? Burpees are the exercise everyone loves to hate for a good reason. These bad boys challenge you.

Begin by standing upright, then leap back into a plank as if you were performing an ashtanga-style sun salutation. Jump your feet back to meet your hands, then return to standing.

Get creative with variations where you add pushups or renegade rows to the mix and conclude with a final hop.

3. Box Jumps

Box jumps build both endurance and plyometric power. And it’s as simple as jumping on top of a box! So long as you keep the proper form, that is. If you want to work on your ability to last, here are the steps:

  1. Grab several boxes of various sizes.

  2. Begin with the smallest one and set a 30-second timer.

  3. When it goes off, move to the next one.

Challenge your players to get in as many hops onto the taller boxes as the small ones.

4. Biking

Cycling is another zero-impact activity, making it ideal for players who need to spend time on the disabled list with a knee or ankle injury. However, it’s also suitable for anyone seeking to go the distance.

Biking is an ideal cross-training activity that doubles as transportation — have your players ride to practice and encourage them to bike to school.

5. Speed Drills

Speed drills most closely mimic the movements your athletes will take on the field. Therefore, they’re one of the best ways to train soccer endurance. Set up an agility course or run cone patterns at practice.

6. (Occasional) Long Runs

Running is an ideal form of endurance training. However, keep in mind that people who run for 30 minutes, three days a week, have the lowest injury rates. Have your players run a mile or three, but not at every practice.

7. Boxing

You don’t use your hands much in soccer unless you play goalie. Therefore, boxing is the ideal endurance cross-training activity because you work muscles you otherwise don’t. Incorporating seldom-used tissues elevates your heart rate — it’s why some folks get winded climbing stairs even if they bike every day.

8. HIIT

High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, is an ideal way to increase your endurance. These workouts alternate intense bursts of exercise, where you give 100% effort, with rest periods. If you only have a short training period, such sessions are ideal for maximizing calorie burn and endurance gains in 30 minutes or less.

9. Mountain Climbing

Mountain climbing works your leg muscles in new ways. It’s like riding the stair-climbing machine at the gym, only with breathtaking vistas and the added mental health perks of exercising in the great outdoors.

What can you do if you live in Kansas? Please don’t despair — you can replicate many of the benefits by using your stadium. Think “Rocky” running up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum, perhaps with a few pauses for bleacher pushups for cross-training.

10. Super Sets

You probably take your team to hit the weight room a few times a week. To help your players build endurance, incorporate super sets into your repertoire.

For maximum calorie burn, make some of these compound movements. For example, a thruster combines a squat with an overhead press, working your full body and making your heart pump like a sprinter’s. Use a set of weights at roughly 60% of your one-rep max and see how many you can perform before you have to quit.

Improve Your Endurance With These 10 Effective Exercises

Endurance is a critical component of overall fitness and a must for the soccer field. Have your players improve theirs with these 10 effective exercises that have stood the test of time.

Author Bio:

Oscar Collins is the managing editor at Modded. He writes about cars, fitness, the outdoors and more. Follow @TModded on Twitter for more articles from the Modded team.