Improve Your Muscular Strength And Endurance

Muscular strength and muscular endurance are both part of your overall muscular health. Strength is the amount of force that your muscles exert to do a particular task, such as lifting a heavy weight. Muscular endurance is the ability of your muscles to repeat contractions to do a task for a specific length of time. Exercise can be designed to work either strength or endurance, or both at the same time. Progressive resistance exercise by lifting weights can improve both components of your muscle fitness. 

Start with light weights during the first week of a new muscle endurance workout. Using light weights allows you to focus on proper form instead of straining to lift the weights. Proper form when lifting is critical to success and to prevent injury. Gradually add weight as your strength and endurance improves. The amount of weight to add depends on the number of repetitions you can do before your muscles give out. You should increase the weight until you can do 8 to 12 repetitions before you have to stop. If you can only do 6 or 7 repetitions of an exercise, reduce the weight. Add more weight if you can do more than 12 repetitions.

After 3 weeks of lifting progressively heavier weights, focus on increasing the number of sets of 12 repetitions per exercise to condition the muscles. Do 2 sets of 12 repetitions of each weight lifting exercise. Continue to do 2 sets of 12 repetitions until you can easily perform the routine without becoming exhausted. Continue to do muscle strength and endurance exercises to maintain your muscles. Exercise every other day, three days each week for maximum retention results.