The importance of physical fitness is increasing with each day. People are becoming more and more health conscious. Two main things to remain healthy are Metabolism and Stamina. Stamina is a common word heard in reference to athletes. They are said to have had a very high level of stamina for increased performance.
So what exactly is stamina? Stamina is defined as the ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort. More commonly it is related to physical effort. As children, the PE lectures in school were the ones where the coach stressed on increasing our stamina. And yes, by the time we graduated, we did have a decent stamina. But then life came in the way and all that was shifted to the black sea.
If you want to get back into the grind, here are some exercises that will help you increase your stamina.
- Cardiovascular Exercises: Cardiovascular exercises not only warm you up but also help increase stamina. Begin slow and increase your speed and time on each equipment eventually. This will give your body time to adjust and slowly increase your stamina. On the Treadmill, alternate walking and jogging for a few minutes for the most effective results. It can be 1 minute each or as long as 10-15 minutes each.
- Swimming: Swimming is said to be one of the most stamina increasing exercises. Water requires to exert more strength than usual. Swimming non-stop for 45 minutes will get your entire body going. Start by swimming as much as you can, take 60 second breaks and then eventually increase your lap time to 15 minutes.
- Weight Training: It is an essential part of any fitness program. It helps in developing the strength and skeletal muscles. Weight training uses a specialized equipment that target specific muscles of the body. Combined with aerobic exercise, weight training can boost your strength, tone your muscle, help to lose weight and increase your stamina.
- Circuit Training: Also referred to as Cross- training as it involves combining exercise of other disciplines such as weight training and trail running, or biking and swimming. this training takes advantage of the particular effectiveness of each training method, while at the same time it nullifies the shortcomings of that exercise by combining with other exercise. The main benefits of cross training is that it builds strength and flexibility, prevent injury by correcting muscular imbalance So it includes some of the exercises mentioned above. Thereby making it more effective to increase stamina.
For all those who do not like going to the gym or are too lazy to do or even go swimming, here are some exercises you can do at home and save a fortune:
- Walking: It is a simple low impact exercise but the It is an ideal exercise for everyone irrespective of age, sex or stamina where everyone can easily take some time from their busy schedule to walk for some distance. It helps improve your overall balance, increase strength over a period of time, blood circulation and same time lift your mood. The faster, farther and more frequent you walk, the greater are the benefits.
- Jogging/ Running: Take a step further from Walking. Once you feel you have maxed out you walking speed, shift to jogging and eventually to running. You can even alternate between the three for maximum results. Doing so will increase your stamina to a very large extent and also improve your mood. Look for beautiful trails around and explore you neighborhood while improving your stamina.
- Exercise at home: To go a step further and really add to your workout routine, here are some particular stamina increasing exercises you can do. Keep it in the order you find comfortable but have 2 to 3 sets of the whole cycle.
- Superman
- Jumping Jack
- Traveling Push-ups
- Cycle crunch
- Sea Plank
- Turtle
- Kangaroo
- High knees with a twist
- Greek Shuffle
- Squats with a side kick
- Bicycle crunch.
In conclusion, just like Rome, Stamina cannot be built in a day. It requires persistence, motivation, the right technique and consistency. Once developed, this will not only help you in physical exercises but also affect your mental health. You will be able to work more and remain fresh even after long days. Go ahead and make your days what you always wanted them to be.
