You can lift heavy once. Anyone can. But lasting strength? That’s a different skill, and it begins with muscular endurance.
It’s what keeps your body moving when the burn kicks in and your mind wants to quit. Outside the gym, it’s the source of power that lets you lug groceries across blocks, carry your kids on your shoulders, and push through a long day on your feet.
Most workouts fixate on strength or cardio. Few build up muscle stamina. When you go for the latter, the fitness shift you experience is undeniable.
What is muscle endurance?
Look up the “muscular endurance” definition, and you’ll see that it’s simple: it’s the muscle’s capacity to keep working without giving in. Climbing stairs, cycling uphill, holding a deep yoga pose… all of these movements draw from the same reservoir of staying power.
Keeping your muscular agility at top-notch matters so you can:
- Reduce the risk of injury,
- Develop and maintain healthier, stronger muscles and bones,
- Increase your physical strength,
- Improve your confidence via a deep sense of accomplishment, and
- Try new and different activities to keep life exciting.
According to Ronan Diego, a holistic health mentor and trainer of Mindvalley’s 10X program, the body naturally builds for endurance. “When we face an intense challenge, there’s a rebuild phase that follows. If that challenge comes again, it becomes easier because now we are literally stronger.”
At the biological level, here’s why.
This power lives in your slow-twitch muscle fibers. They’re the ones that keep your body moving through long stretches of effort. The more you train them, the more energy they can produce, thanks to mitochondria, the tiny energy factories in your cells that turn oxygen into fuel.
All of this determines how long your muscles can sustain effort before fatigue sets in. And what you experience as endurance is strength and stamina working in rhythm.
The ability of the muscles to actually be able to contract, then come back over and over again for another contraction… that’s muscular endurance.
— Ben Greenfield, trainer of The Longevity Bluerpint on Mindvalley
Muscular strength vs. muscular endurance
Muscular strength measures your muscles’ maximum force in a single effort. You express it through weighted arm workouts, explosive jumps, or bodyweight exercises that demand maximum output simultaneously.
Muscular endurance, on the other hand, is about time under tension. It observes how your muscles can continue to perform without fatigue while maintaining form. It shows up in movements that repeat or hold stress over time, like the number of squats you can sustain, the plank you can hold, or the swim stroke you can repeat even as your arms start to burn.
Now, there’s no choosing one over the other, as both features are equally vital. With strength, you can lift heavy. And endurance? It allows you to continue lifting over time.
But why is muscular endurance important?
Well, endurance is where transformation happens. Once you’ve built a foundation of strength, endurance teaches your body and mind to stay consistent under pressure. Think of it as a full-body workout for your life: every muscle, organ, and thought pattern learns to work together to bring the best of you in the long run, through the late nights and the comeback seasons.
Endurance is integration in motion.
As Ben Greenfield, a biohacker, explains in his Mindvalley program, The Longevity Blueprint, “The ability of the muscles to actually be able to contract, then come back over and over again for another contraction… that’s muscular endurance.”
And ultimately, it’s what builds longevity.
Science-backed benefits of muscular endurance
Building endurance activates a network of biological systems that shape your long-term health, as you can see in these benefits:
1. More stamina, more energy
Endurance training teaches your body to use oxygen more efficiently. And this boils down to the fact that training helps your cells become better at converting oxygen into fuel, and your blood vessels become more efficient carriers.
These are crucial for lasting stamina at the gym, on a run, or through a long workday.
2. Better performance when it counts
Science has shown that endurance training enhances oxidative metabolism in muscle. This, in turn, fuels a consistent pace and precision during sustained effort. This means more final reps, stronger finishes in a race, and smoother recovery between workout sessions.
Yamila Tudela Pol, a Barcelona-based Mindvalley member, experienced this firsthand after she joined 10X. She shares, “I am lifting or pulling more weight than before, defining my legs and feeling younger in my 50s.”
3. Increased mental resilience
Research done on athletes shows that regular endurance training can stretch your focus, patience, and willpower. All of this helps your brain normalize calmness, even in the face of stress.
Daniela G. Carvajal would know. After completing 10X, this Mindvalley member noticed her workouts getting easier than ever. “Now I see it’s so easy to lose weight for the first time in my life, it seems magic,” she shares. “And my body feels much better.”
4. Heart health
Endurance sessions literally teach your heart to pump stronger and more efficiently. This, in turn, regulates blood pressure, balances cholesterol, and supports circulation.
With heart disease taking roughly 17 million lives each year in the U.S., they directly protect your heart by improving its function.
60-year-old Carl de Wet, for one, reaped this benefit after embracing Ronan’s guidance. “The biggest surprise I got,” he explains, “was my blood pressure kept coming down and is now quite normal. I feel so good with a fitter and healthier body.”
5. Improved posture and balance
Core and back endurance training improves postural control, helping you stay upright and stable… whether you’re working long hours or actively moving through your day.
With greater muscular endurance, you also strengthen the more minor, often-overlooked stabilizing muscles that protect your joints and spine. This is how you minimize strains and overuse… and move freely and pain-free in life.
6. Longevity
If there’s anything that these benefits show, it’s that endurance is ultimately about securing body freedom… in the power to move, adapt, and live with lasting strength.
Or as Ronan puts it, “What if all that fitness is to prepare you for moments in life when it really matters?”
And science has the receipts. Turns out, people with higher levels tend to move better, age more slowly, and maintain independence longer.
Disclaimer: Before you jump into any new workout, it’s best to check in with your doctor first about what’s best for you. Everybody’s different, and the safest way to grow stronger is to train with full awareness and guidance.
How to improve muscular endurance: 4 expert tips
You build and improve muscular endurance through progression, precision, and recovery that teach the body to sustain effort without losing form.
Both Ronan and Ben, who train Mindvalley students in building strength that lasts, offer simple tips that anyone can follow to condition the body for endurance. Check them out:
1. Balance between intensity and technique
Sustainable endurance training begins with controlled tension. “We want to add a tension that is heavy to each muscle fiber, but not so heavy that we lose technique, and not so light that we never reach the limit,” says Ronan.
So, each and any set of exercises you do should challenge form while keeping movement steady. The goal is to find the sweet spot where fatigue builds coordination and the body learns to adapt to it over time.
2. Circuit training
Variety strengthens endurance. Circuits that combine strength and aerobic movements build both power and staying power. As Ronan reminds his students in 10X, “We are doing all strength training in a circuit fashion.”
This approach trains the heart and muscles together, improving overall work capacity and metabolic efficiency.
3. Interval sessions
Short bursts of high-intensity exercise paired with brief recovery periods train the body to produce energy under pressure.
“Most research,” Ben notes, “shows anywhere from one up to about four times a week is all that’s necessary to gain muscular endurance through using a Tabata set.”
(Note: A Tabata set is a four‑minute high‑intensity interval format that alternates 20 seconds of all‑out effort with 10 seconds of rest, repeated eight times.)
They also trigger the natural recovery hormones that help your muscles repair and come back stronger—two components of lasting endurance.
4. Oxygen control
As Ben explains in The Longevity Blueprint, training the body to function in the absence of high amounts of oxygen for extended periods is just as important as being properly oxygenated.
Why does this practice matter? Well, simply put, your endurance grows when you teach your body’s systems to use oxygen more efficiently. This then helps your muscles draw more oxygen from the blood and stay efficient when effort levels rise.
You can achieve this through simple exercises like breath‑hold walks, nasal breathing drills, or steady‑paced runs.
In any of these exercises, your goal is simple: focus on controlled breathing rather than speed.
Check out more endurance tips from Ronan below:
4 expert-picked muscular endurance exercises
Building muscular endurance means choosing movements that challenge muscles to hold tension, repeat effort, and stay under control through fatigue.
Here’s where Ronan’s preferred exercises help the most. Think of them as an introduction to the 10X Fitness program, where real movement matters more than any gym metric.
1. Bodyweight exercises
“For muscle development and strength growth, it is essential to lift something challenging,” says Ronan. Bodyweight movements are an ideal starting point.
Some variations that work wonders:
- Push‑ups, which build endurance through repeated upper‑body tension that engages your chest, arms, and core.
- Pull‑ups. They’re how you can develop strength through controlled vertical pulls that test grip and back endurance.
- Squats and lunges. You get to train lower‑body stamina through continuous, full‑range motion.
- Planks. Whatever the version you try—high, forearm, or side—the goal’s the same: you hold it all together, teaching the muscles to resist fatigue through steady control.
They require only your body weight and gravity, yet they teach the exact control and repetition your muscles need to last.
Pro tip: Adjust hand or foot placement, tempo, or hold duration to make each movement demanding enough to spark your body’s adaptation to it.
2. Resistance training
This type of strength-building exercise builds endurance through progressive overload. They let you move through a broader range of motion while maintaining your time under tension.
Here’s how different lifts contribute to lasting strength:
- Dumbbell or hammer curls build grip and arm stamina through repeated resistance.
- Leg presses create fatigue tolerance in the largest muscle groups.
- Bench presses strengthen pushing endurance in the chest and shoulders.
- Rows develop postural endurance and balance across the back.
Now, if you’re wondering whether resistance training is only for a certain body type or gender, Ronan clears it up. “There is no fundamental difference between the training for men and women when it comes to weight,” he explains.
Because everyone benefits from loading the body in controlled, repeatable patterns that test both stamina and strength.
Pro tip: Choose weights that feel challenging and will make those last reps feel like ego death. And move with steady control, not speed. For men, this refines power into lasting strength. For women, it builds support, tone, and resilience without overstrain.
3. Cardiovascular exercises
Cardiovascular training builds endurance from the inside out. It strengthens the heart and lungs, both of which are the engines that keep every other muscle supplied with oxygen and energy.
Here’s how simple movements reinforce your stamina:
- Running trains consistent pacing and teaches the body to manage fatigue over distance.
- Cycling conditions the legs to generate steady power while supporting joint health.
- Swimming combines breath control, resistance, and full‑body coordination in one fluid motion.
- Hiking develops leg endurance and balance through elevation and uneven terrain.
The efficiency that these exercises groom is what Ronan calls metabolic flexibility. It’s the body’s ability to draw fuel from both oxygen and stored energy, depending on what the moment demands.
Now, what is the ultimate goal of this type of exercise? To get your system to become more efficient at recovering between sets, sustaining focus, and performing without fatigue over time.
Pro tip: Mix up the intensity levels when working out. Pair long, steady sessions with short bursts of faster movement. The mixture conditions both endurance and recovery, creating a foundation that supports every other form of training you do.
4. Isometric exercises
Ronan’s teaching to “serve the body, not the ego” speaks directly to this type of training. These quiet, focused holds reinforce the deeper goal of endurance: mastery without strain.
Some isometric moves to try:
- Wall sits. Hold your body in a seated position against a wall without moving. The constant tension on your legs and core makes your muscles work hard even though you haven’t taken a single step.
- Planks. Brace your body in a straight line, using your arms, shoulders, and core to resist gravity. It trains endurance by keeping every stabilizing muscle switched on at once.
- Glute bridges. You lift your hips off the floor and hold, activating your hamstrings and glutes while strengthening postural support.
- Side planks. Balance on one forearm and the side of one foot, building stability through the core and hips while holding your entire body in alignment.
- Static lunges. Drop into a lunge position and freeze, keeping both legs engaged to maintain balance and strength under tension.
Each of these movements challenges your muscles to hold tension through stillness. Together, they build a body that’s steady, fatigue‑resistant, and capable of sustained effort in every setting requiring your strength… well beyond the gym.
Frequently asked questions
How do you measure and test for muscular endurance?
Well, here’s the good news: there’s no need for special equipment to measure endurance. Just your brutal honesty with yourself and a set timer would do.
To do this, Ronan advises picking the most challenging muscular endurance workouts that you can repeat at least once without experiencing muscle failure. “The repetition needs to be for the standard full range of motion,” he says, adding that it should be non-stop and uninterrupted.
And above all, the baseline for knowing how strong you are in full form, no rest, no shortcuts.
If you don’t know where to start, you can opt for bodyweight movements, like push‑ups, planks, squats, or wall sits. Hold or repeat until your form starts slipping, then record your time or rep count. Re‑test every few weeks to see how long you last and how fast you recover each time.
How often should you do muscular endurance exercises?
According to Ben, two to four sessions a week are enough to build steady gains without overfatigue.
To know your ideal momentum, he suggests practicing bodyweight exercises like push-ups and air squats frequently. You can also “identify a trigger or a point in your schedule where you can actually do a Tabata set for a total of three times in any given week.”
Now, what makes this quest fruitful is getting enough rest in between your workouts. Ronan warns of the dangers of overexerting yourself: “Too much fatigue in the joints or too much fatigue in your nervous system.”
Ultimately, the balance between effort and recovery is key.
Does muscle endurance burn fat?
The short answer is yes.
Endurance training boosts metabolism and helps the body use fuel more efficiently. Ben explains, “As your body builds up the lactic acid that occurs as you train for muscular endurance, you actually develop very high amounts of what is called growth hormone.”
That hormonal spike? You can think of it as the go-to hack for metabolizing fat. It tells your body to tap into stored energy while you build lean and strong muscle (which is especially suitable for endomorph males looking to make the most of their build).
When you train consistently while recovering well, you eventually reshape how your body burns energy even at rest.
Great change starts here
Muscular endurance is ultimately the quiet language of progress. It determines how you show up and hold your own when things get hard. Every rep, every breath, and every hold train more than just muscle; they rev up your capacity to handle life outside the gym with calm power.
Now, if you’ve ever wanted a body that works as hard as you do and a fitness system that respects how human that process really is, Ronan Diego’s free 10X masterclass on Mindvalley is where you can begin.
In just 64 minutes, you’ll learn to:
- Unlock full fitness levels for less time, twice weekly,
- Trigger rapid strength, agility, and longevity safely,
- Master six anywhere‑ready endurance exercises for efficiency, and
- Harness momentary muscle failure for faster growth.
Manuela, a Mindvalley member based in Bludenz, Austria, has seen firsthand how powerful Ronan’s method can be. Between work, family, and the daily grind, she struggled to find time for a consistent fitness routine. She wanted results that felt real… not another short‑term sprint that would leave her drained.
Thanks to Ronan, she finally achieved her desired results. She shares:
Within the 12 weeks of 10X, I saw and felt my body composition transform after the first four weeks.
Stories like Manuela’s prove that change doesn’t have to be complicated; it just has to be intentional. With Mindvalley, you get access to tools, guidance, and a community that lifts you higher as you build the endurance to go further.
Welcome in.
