IN THE 6th part of the Badminton Training series, we look at Muscular Endurance Training. You can read the previous parts too, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.
The author of this series is Jillian Anderson -- She lives in Australia but was originally from California, where she was a sports coach and fitness instructor for more than 10 years. Her clientele includes many high performing athletes in a variety of competitive sports. She writes regularly for sports and fitness related blogs including Sports Fitness Advisor, The Huffington Post and The Guardian.’
This part will stress on these --
The combination of strength and endurance results in muscular endurance – the ability to perform many repetitions against a given resistance for a prolonged period of time. It is a crucial element of fitness for athletes such as distance runners, swimmers, cyclists and rowers. It’s also important for success in many team sports like soccer, field hockey and Australian rules football.
Traditionally, muscular endurance programs have used moderate loads lifted for 12-25 repetitions. However, this is completely inadequate for many sports such as boxing, canoeing, distance running, cycling, swimming, rowing, x-country skiing, triathlon and many others.
Any form of training must mirror the specific demands of the sport. In resistance training, this means that the load used should match the resistance that must be overcome while competing. The number of repetitions or the duration of exercise bouts in a session should approach that during the event.
Recall that muscular endurance training makes up only one part of the annual strength program – even for endurance athletes. It should follow a phase of maximal strength training. This makes sense because the greater an athlete’s maximal strength, the greater their potential for strength endurance – i.e. the more force they will be able to apply over a prolonged period. Heavy strength training has also been shown to improve exercise economy in endurance athletes.
The Different Types of Muscular Endurance
Different sports require different levels of muscular endurance. While each program will vary according to the athlete’s needs, muscular endurance can be split into 3 groups: