Endurance Training
First thing you may ask yourself is "what is endurance training?", well you are in the right place because on this page you will not only get a definition on Endurance Training, but also plenty of the benefits that come with it.
Below is a great source of information regarding all you need about endurance exercise
Definition
Endurance Training is defined as "a form of organized and planned endurance activity, brings many health benefits by improving or restoring physical condition"
Benefits of Endurance Training
Decrease in Hypertension
Endurance training has been proven to help decrease blood pressure especially in older individuals. There was a recent study that was conducted on patients 60 years or older all with hypertension comparing their blood pressure before and after a 12 week endurance training regiment, and there was a drastic improvement. "Exercise significantly decreased systolic and diastolic ABP by 8.5 +/- 8.2 and 5.1 +/- 3.7 mm Hg" (Westhoff, et all. 2007)
Increased BDNF
BDNF is short for Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor which is a huge factor in growth and maintenance of the brain. It is showed that long term regular Endurance training is connected with higher levels of BDNF in the blood stream. BDNF is said to be increased more after endurance training compared to other forms of exercise such as strength training. It is said that BDNF increased the adaptive changes in the brain. Basically in short endurance exercise helps keep your brain young and healthy.
Prevents Disease
Endurance training has been shown to help prevent many different types of diseases. Many diseases are connected with low levels of BDNF such as Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity, type 2 diabetes, Heart Failure, Acute Coronary Syndrome, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Depression, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. Endurance training has proven to increase BDNF and helps prevent or prolong these diseases.
Hypertension guidelines
Hypertension is something that is very common across the United States and is very worth looking into. Below is a link to a website going into the definitions, normal ranges, and treatment methods such as endurance training.
Different Forms of Endurance Training
Going for a run or walk can be a great way to work on your endurance and often is accessible to people with many different schedules. Even short amounts of time can be beneficial such as walking a few laps during your lunch break.
Swimming can also be a great form of endurance exercise. One of the greatest factors of swimming is that it is non-weight baring which limits the amount of impact on joints and bones. If you have any form of bone or joint pain that prohibits you from doing things such as running, swimming may be a great alternative for you.
While often used for strength training, weight lifting can also be used to help factors of endurance. If you are to use weight lifting as a form of endurance training you should be focusing on doing submaximal lifts while maintaining the rep range of 12-20. This is a great way to boost endurance for individuals who desire to lift weights.
References
Mrówczyński, W. (2019). Health benefits of endurance training: Implications of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor—a systematic review. Health Benefits of Endurance Training: Implications of the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor—A Systematic Review, 2019, 1-15. doi:10.1155/2019/5413067
Westhoff, TH., Franke, N., Schmidt, S., Vallbracht-Israng, K., Meissner, R., Yildirim, H,..... Van der Giet, M., (n.d.). Too old to benefit from sports? The cardiovascular effects of exercise training in elderly subjects treated for isolated systolic hypertension. Kidney & blood pressure research. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17575470/.