How to Improve Endurance & Stamina

Endurance is the ability to exert energy for a set period of time. This is very important for athletes and anyone looking to improve cardiovascular training. A crucial part of gaining stamina and increasing endurance is to have plenty of energy going into a workout. This means eating right, drinking enough water and getting enough sleep. Once you begin working out, you build endurance by exercising harder and longer over time, and by performing more intense intervals during a particular session.

Instructions

    • 1

      Strive to do at least a half hour of cardiovascular exercise each day. You may want to start with 10 or 15 minutes two to three times each day if 30 minutes all at once is too much for you. Once 30 minutes is easy for you, build up to 45 minutes a day. Try increasing your workouts five minutes at a time.

    • 2

      Create a healthy sleep schedule and stick to it. The human body needs 6 to 8 hours of solid sleep to function most effectively. Getting too much or too little sleep can have a negative effect on the body and lead to a lack of energy.

    • 3

      Eat well-balanced meals. Rather than eating three large meals each day, try to eat five to six smaller meals throughout the day. This will increase your energy level and allow your body to burn more fat and calories, because this type of eating boosts metabolism. It will give you more energy on a daily basis and more energy stores for your body to tap when you are working out. Drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water each day to fully hydrate your body and increase energy and metabolism.

    • 4

      Perform interval training. If you are walking or running outside, add in a hill or increase your speed every couple of minutes. Sustain the fast pace for 30 seconds to a minute. If you work out on a treadmill or elliptical machine at the gym, increase the speed or incline at which you are training as a method of doing intervals.

    • 5

      Cross-train using weights. You can incorporate a weight training program into your workout, which will help build muscle to increase stamina, or you can perform your cardio workout while carrying weights to make your muscles work harder. Your body will become accustomed to working out with the extra weight, and you will have more endurance for your routines when you get rid of it.