On your marks, get set, go: improve your endurance with cardio training

Endurance training not only has many physical benefits, but also contributes to a healthy and balanced psyche. Exercise releases the happiness hormone serotonin and reduces the release of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisone. This can reduce depressive moods and anxiety and create a more positive attitude towards life.

Many people want to improve their fitness. This is often driven by the need to keep the body fit and healthy, to improve their own performance and to challenge themselves. Regardless of the motivation, a healthy endurance training plan has many health benefits.

But how much training do you actually need to get into top shape? How can you challenge yourself without exceeding your limits? And how long does it take to noticeably improve your performance? You can find out this and more in our blog article.

Build endurance with a wide variety of sports

You can improve your endurance performance with various types of sport. The important thing is that you enjoy it and can maintain your interest in the long term. Here are some classics that you can use to improve your fitness quickly:

Running
Cycling
Swimming
Skiing
Skipping rope
Interval training
Walking
Hiking
Dancing
Yoga

Depending on what your goals are, you can vary between these and other sports to add variety to your training plan. Your goals define the method. If you simply want to be fit and build up basic endurance, it's enough to go hiking with friends at the weekend and incorporate a few LIT (low intensity training) sessions such as walking, swimming or yoga during the week. According to the WHO, the minimum amount of exercise should be 150 minutes per week.

If you want to challenge yourself more and increase your performance, you can logically do even more. Here, the intensity of the training is increased further and your metabolism changes during exercise. Your stored fat reserves are now also used as fuel after your glycogen stores (carbohydrates), which are stored in your muscles, have been used up in advance. The by-product of energy production is lactate, which is broken down again by the muscles.

In this phase of training, you can already resort to sports such as jogging and cycling - including interval training. The aim here is to increase your endurance and speed, or more precisely, your performance and to be able to maintain this over longer distances.

Small steps to the goal

Whether you just want to be fit and healthy or want to run a marathon in your personal best time, the important thing is and remains: Start with short and less intensive units and then work your way up gradually. According to sports scientist Ingo Froböse, 3-4 training sessions of 30 minutes each per week are sufficient to quickly improve your fitness.[1] If you can't make it out for a bike ride, run or swim, you can confidently practise jumping rope. 10 minutes of this is about as effective as 30 minutes of running.

It is important to keep at it and to train regularly, as this is the only way to achieve the desired level of endurance. If you lack motivation or have started too hard, it is better to reduce the duration or intensity of your exercises, not the frequency.

However, if you notice that you are mastering your training sessions with ease and could entertain yourself on the side, it is time to first increase the duration and then the intensity. Because you can only continue to improve if you regularly adapt your training plan. If you always stick to the same challenges, then at some point they will no longer be challenges.

The aerobic-anaerobic threshold

Anyone who wants to train in endurance sports will sooner or later come across this term, which is often referred to as the lactate threshold. But what exactly is behind it? The aerobic-anaerobic threshold separates two states of training. On the one hand, there is the aerobic zone, in which sufficient oxygen can still be absorbed for the work performed. Here, the muscles can still break down the lactate produced without any problems. Slow endurance runs fall into this area.

When athletes move into the anaerobic range, they enter what is known as oxygen debt. The load is so great here that not enough oxygen can be transported into the bloodstream via the lungs and the muscles can no longer completely break down the lactate produced. You get out of breath and you feel your muscles much more intensely. You reach this state during interval training or sprints, for example.

The better trained your endurance is, the higher your aerobic-anaerobic threshold will be. Beginners often enter the anaerobic zone after several hundred meters of slow running, while trained runners remain in the aerobic zone even during longer endurance runs.

The aim of endurance training is to stay exactly at this threshold. You should therefore challenge yourself to improve your endurance, but not push yourself so hard that you enter the anaerobic zone. In this way, you will effectively increase your performance and will be able to continuously cover longer distances and increase your speed.

Building stamina with perseverance and moderation

With all this enthusiasm and motivation, you must never forget one thing: Listen to your body and its signals. Don't try to become a marathon runner overnight, because your body needs to get used to new challenges slowly. If you feel sick, dizzy or exhausted after endurance training, if you get headaches, muscle aches or breathing difficulties, then you have overdone it with your training.

Even if sport takes up too much of your life and you have no energy left for work, family or friends, you may need to take a step back. Rest periods and sufficient sleep should always have top priority, because without these you will overtax your body and not achieve the desired results.

If you follow this advice and stick to your training plan with perseverance, you will see clear results after just four weeks. You will be faster, complete longer training sessions and find training sessions less strenuous.

A healthier life with endurance training

But the reward for constant training is not just increased endurance. Your mental and physical health will also be grateful. Not only does endurance sport increase the release of your happiness hormones, but endurance training also has a whole range of positive effects on your body:

Powerful, economical breathing
Improved blood circulation
Improved muscle condition and muscle metabolism
Reduced body fat percentage
Lower blood pressure
Reduced resting heart rate
Increased heart rate
Reduced risk of thrombosis
Increased ability to concentrate
Strengthened immune system

Whether you want to push yourself and perform better or simply want a healthy lifestyle, endurance training definitely pays off. You will be amazed at how quickly your body improves. Goals that seem impossible today can become reality in just a few weeks. The important thing is that you keep at it, don't give up and don't push your body beyond its limits. Because only with a regular training routine and sufficient rest periods will you see the success you are hoping for.

Cover picture by enduco.