Muscular endurance exercises are meant to promote a muscle's ability to work under a certain load for an extended period of time. Most sports require an athlete to have some advanced level of muscular endurance, and it also helps to have significant endurance in day to day life.Some muscular endurance exercises can be done at home without any specialized equipment — push-ups are perhaps the most common of the endurance exercises done at home — while others should be done in a gym or fitness centers where weights and circuit training equipment is available. Circuit training, in fact, is one of the best ways to build muscular endurance because a circuit provides a variety of exercises aimed at different muscle groups.
Exercises that engage certain muscles for sustained periods of time work well as muscular endurance exercises. During a push-up, the arms, shoulders, and chest support the weight of the body throughout the course of the motion, and the weight load is accentuated by the pushing motion. Doing several push-ups at once will build endurance in the upper body, as well as in core muscles such as the lower back and the abs. One should be careful, however, not to overdo this exercise, as the muscles can be worked to exhaustion and even injury.
At the gym, muscular endurance exercises are included in circuit training machines. The basic concept behind circuit training is the grouping of several machines in the same room; the user can go from one machine to the next after finishing an exercise, and each subsequent machine works a different group of muscles. This is considered a full body workout, and the circuit can be modified to suit one's muscular needs. While not exclusively so, circuit training machines often use a system of cables connected to a rod with adjustable weight slots built into them to provide resistance. Everything from biceps curls to bench presses, from rows to calf extensions, can be done with the various types of circuit training machines.
Free weights can also be used for muscular endurance exercises. Curls and bench presses are a great way to build upper body strength, and when the exercise is performed to muscle failure — that is, until the muscle can no longer lift the weight — it begins to build endurance. One should be careful, however, not to push beyond his or her limits, as this may lead to injury. Every endurance exercise should be preceded and followed by a stretching routine.
