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How To Increase Your Stamina in 7 Easy Steps

2nd February 2023

2nd February 2023

By Adele Webb

The new year is the time for new beginnings, and for many of us, that means setting new goals like attending the gym regularly. Gone are the days of cramming as much Christmas food as possible into our mouths, and in its place is a new ambition to get fit and become a better version of ourselves. Like switching up that sugary snack for a delicious protein shake now and again (you can try The Fit Protein for that)!

Now, the idea of throwing yourself headfirst into a new gym routine is great – we are behind you 100% here, but more often than not tiredness sets in. Keeping up your stamina whilst working out can be difficult, especially after a little time out of your regular schedule. Do you catch yourself needing a breather on a regular basis? Do you feel winded even after a quick workout? Well, this is a sure indication that you need to improve your stamina! When focusing on goals, this one tends to go by the wayside, with strength, endurance, and speed taking its place. Yet, mighty stamina is important to ensure you get the most out of your fitness sessions whilst training harder and for longer durations. Don’t we all want to reap the most benefit possible? So, pick up your spirits and switch up your habits, we are here to help you gain energy…all it takes is small lifestyle changes.

What is stamina?

Defined in dictionary terms, stamina means ‘the ability to sustain prolonged physical and mental effort.’ To explain this further, stamina combines together both energy and strength – this small word allows you to perform mental and physical strain without getting fatigued. Physical stamina refers to the body’s ability, whilst mental stamina refers to the mind (surprise surprise). Believe it or not, both are needed whilst working out. It may be all well and good being physically ready, but when your mind is not in the best state then committing to a workout session could be difficult. Both work in unison with one another. Increasing the stamina you possess is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. It can help lower your blood pressure, and heart rate, and burn more fat. Win-win! Health benefits aside, stamina is also important for performance – not just at the gym, but in other sports and activities too! In general, stamina can ensure you:

  • Run faster for longer distances
  • Take more prolonged walks
  • Lift heavier weights for more reps
  • Push through pain, fatigue, and discomfort
  • Perform daily activities with the highest energy levels

How to increase stamina?

Now, we have discussed the benefits of having great stamina, but how can you get your own to this optimised level? Overall, is it not that difficult – trust us. There are easy lifestyle changes that you can incorporate - your diet and what you consume can have an impact as well as which activities you partake in on a daily basis. First and foremost, you need to be ready to challenge yourself, and this is key. To improve your stamina, you will need to follow the ‘principle of progressive overload’. This physiological rule says that you won’t improve if you keep doing the same workouts at the same intensity repeatedly. You must switch it up and push yourself as this will be more beneficial in the long run. Isn’t it always the case that there is no pain without gain, right? This aside, let’s now divulge into our different tips to improve stamina.

  1. Improve your heart health

Interestingly enough, ensuring your heart health is increased will actually improve your stamina. During each workout get that blood pumping and increase your heart rate. When your heart rate is increased, the volume of blood pumped increases subsequently allowing it to be more efficient and flow faster. Therefore, exercising on a regular basis will in fact make your heart stronger and in return build your stamina and give you more energy – result!

  1. Go for long walks

Sometimes we just need some fresh air, and you will be happy to know that you can still improve your stamina in the great outdoors. Moving your body for long periods of time will build up your endurance. Even a 30-minute stroll can have fantastic benefits. So, when you just don’t feel like going to the gym, step outside and build that stamina through a brisk walk. To gain further results, increase both the speed and intensity of the walk.

  1. Practice isometric exercises

For those who are unclear on what isometric exercises are, these are particular exercises that don’t extend or contract muscle fibers. Wall sits and planks are good examples here. Improving stamina doesn’t have to mean high-intensity sessions, instead incorporating isometric work into your workout can teach your muscles to stay under stress for extended periods.

  1. Decrease rest intervals during workouts

We know we have mentioned this before – the dreaded rest breaks. But it must be said, resting less between reps, unless you are lifting very heavy weights, will improve your stamina. Reducing the number of times you rest between moderate to high-intensity sessions can actually increase body composition and physical performance. In general, you will work harder in less time which means you should also see results quicker too!

  1. Eat a balanced diet

Let’s get onto diet, and this one is a general rule of thumb for a healthy lifestyle. To ensure you sustain energy throughout workouts and activities, you should aim to consume a variety of whole foods like fruit, vegetables, protein, and healthy fats, whilst limiting processed foods and sugary snacks. It is worth noting here that carbohydrates are not your enemy. When it comes to exercise, eating carbs contributes to a balanced diet and will help your body to be fuelled for longer.

  1. Stay hydrated

Dehydration can cause many complications, including feeling tired, mental fatigue, and weakness. It has been said that keeping hydrated before, during, and after your session can reduce tiredness, improve performance, and as a result prevent workout-induced injuries. However, there is a flip side to this. Don’t drink too much water as this can lead to you feeling too full.

  1. Listen to music

Music is a mood booster – there’s something special about plugging in your headphones and listening to your favourite tune. This also extends to stamina. There has been a study that discovered the beneficial effect of music on exercise which discovered that participants had a lower heart rate whilst listening to music which means they were able to work out for longer without getting tired. In another study, it was found that participants who exercised with music exercised for longer than those who were not listening to music. How cool huh?

Summary

We hope this has helped with your road to better stamina…it is by no means easy and training for longer periods whilst saving as much energy as possible will take time. After all, nothing happens in an instant – it takes motivation and endurance to reap the results. But there’s no better time than the present right? All it takes is a few lifestyle changes and you’re on your way to a better you with bucketloads of extra stamina. Keep energised and stay focused…you’ve got this.

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The Best Exercises To Improve Your Rowing PB
Whether a seasoned gym addict, first-time fitness enthusiast, or avid water goer, there’s nothing quite like smashing your rowing PB. While it might look intimidating to begin, it’s much simpler, addictive, and most importantly, beneficial to your body than beginners might think. Like any workout PB however, there can reach a point where your best time seems to plateau. After all, there are only so many times you can improve right? Well not necessarily. In addition to a high protein diet and the use of fitness supplements like The Power Booster to aid performance, there are a wide range of exercises to try that can improve rowing endurance, power, and technique. By the end, getting a faster rowing PB should be a breeze. The Benefits Of Rowing Firstly, it’s important to ask; should you go for a PB in the first place? Short answer: absolutely! Rowing offers a complete high-intensity exercise all without skipping a beat; just a single session will train 9 of your muscle groups and around 85% of your body’s muscles. Compared to other workouts, this builds strength and endurance within key muscles in the upper and lower body. While achieving that rowing PB can be tough, being able to endure the challenge and feel the muscle growth is an unmatched workout joy. The versatility of rowing means everyone from cardio lovers to arm day enthusiasts can look forward to smashing their next PB. Rowing workouts are also low-impact and kind to your individual joints. This makes it the perfect PB challenge for those recovering from, and looking to avoid persistent injury - or perhaps even the dreaded shin splints. The exercise also provides mental benefits for the individual through the release of endorphins (the body’s feel-good hormones).   Exercises To Improve Your PB So how do you go about improving your PB? Well because rowing utilizes a complete range of muscles, getting a better time is all about targeting these individual parts of the body. This requires a mix of all types of workouts from cardio and core to strength training. Cardio Workouts To bring rowing performance to the next level, it’s almost essential to incorporate a strong aerobic focus into your exercise. Given the repetitive and continuous motions required with rowing, it’s easy to get stuck in the trap of pushing yourself too much – especially when it comes to striving for a PB. Cardio performance exercises are a fantastic method to build your rowing endurance, improve your heart health, and simply just lift your mood. For the best results, we’d recommend a mix of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and steady-state cardio (SSC) workouts. High-Intensity Interval Training HIIT exercises are all about raising the heart rate and building strength and stamina. They balance short but maximum-intensity workouts with rest intervals – think short sprints, fast cycling, and squat jumps. This makes HIIT an important tool to improve cardio capabilities and smash that rowing PB goal. Steady State Cardio SSC workouts on the other hand focus on continuous but long-term workouts. Instead of 2-minute short sprints of high intensity, you might take a light 30-minute jog for a consistent heart rate. These exercises have the benefit of improving your endurance levels and making it easier to continue rowing until hitting your distance target.     Strength Training While debates continue to rage about whether rowing is a cardio exercise – we’re firmly of the it is camp – strength plays just as vital a role as endurance. Regardless of whether you row 500, 1000, 2000 metres, or beyond, there will always be a mental balance required between the rowing strength you exert per rep and the overall distance remaining. By improving key muscles through strength training, you can reduce the effort and difficulty on each row to improve speed and overall performance. Given the full body sequence of actions used in rowing, we’d recommend you focus your workout on 3 key areas: legs, core, and arms.         Leg Exercises Your leg contains some of the strongest muscles in the body. Given its importance to strong rowing performance, it’s not exactly surprising that we’re recommending you incorporate leg exercises into your fitness routine. This is especially true at the rowing catch point - the end point of each row – where the greatest leg force is required. To improve leg muscle strength, we recommend simple but effective exercises like squats, lunges, and targeted deadlift sessions.     Core Exercises While it might not be completely obvious, your core muscles – the stomach and lower back muscles - play a pivotal part in maintaining your posture and improving your rowing PB. They are especially important in supporting rowing form toward the end of the workout when you begin to tire. A strong core also minimises the workload on other muscles that would otherwise have to work harder to compensate for a weak core. Core workouts are also simple to do whether at home or the gym. Just some ideas include plants, hip bridges, and Pilate ab crunches. Arm Exercises Arm strength also plays a significant role in maintaining rowing form, albeit slightly different depending on whether you’re at the gym or treading the waters. For water goers, the arms act as a messenger of sorts. They transfer the power generated from the leg and core muscles into the rowing oar and push the boat forward – a fairly important element to achieving any sort of distance. For the motivated gym goer, strong arms can provide well-defined concentric and eccentric muscle movements that benefit form. To focus on improving arm muscle strength, there are plenty of exercises you to try. Just some effective choices are bicep curl and triceps extension workouts, but you can even try something as simple as home push-ups (which will also help in improving core strength). The Importance Of Technique, Rest, And Recovery With all this said, a key and often overlooked part of improving a rowing PB is simply getting the basics - effective form and technique before, during, and after any exercise – down. Consider adding some simple and easy stretches before a session to effectively warm up your muscles and best prepare your body. Likewise, you could have all the endurance tools you need to succeed, but a poor rowing technique could see you waste unnecessary energy. Efficiency is key here. The other added benefit of good form is that it greatly reduces the chance of any injuries which let’s face it, is quite important to training and smashing the next PB. As someone who has gone for a personal best on many occasions, I can agree that this last part can be the most difficult, but achieving a PB is all about planning rest and recovery days into your training. Listening to your body here can be crucial. Pushing too hard increases the risk of overtraining, potentially leading to injury. To this end, it can make it easier to think of recovery as another stage of the workout process. Remember, rest days don’t necessarily mean you have to do nothing all day. Gentle exercises like walks and even yoga can work wonders for body recovery. Interested to discover more about Innermost Power Booster Supplements? Looking for the best ways to fuel your next workout? Perhaps you have some amazing and inspired ideas to share? Don’t hesitate to message us on our Instagram @liveinnermost. Read more
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