Endurance training is critical for overall health and fitness. It keeps the heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy and improves overall fitness, which can reduce the risk of many diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke[1].
Endurance sports create a stronger, healthier body by adapting muscles, the cardiovascular system, bones, joints, and lungs to the new task[2]. Endurance exercise training has many positive effects on health including improved metabolism, reduction of cardiovascular risk, and reduced all-cause mortality[3]. And endurance training is effective at improving the heart’s ability to pump oxygenated blood and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. It also reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety while improving cognitive function[4][5].
But what is frequently overlooked is the value that endurance training has on the mind. If you have followed this site for any length of time, you know we hammer the relationship between physical fitness and mental fitness. The two are not the same, but they overlap significantly. And improvements in one area have spillover effects that improve the other area as well.
All training is training of the mind.
Everything we engage in has the opportunity to make our minds better. But only physical training can bring all the health benefits that physical training can. And in very few other activities can you find something physical that profoundly benefits the mind.
One of the main values of endurance training is the development of mental toughness.
Endurance training can help develop mental toughness by teaching us to push through physical fatigue and pain, building our capacity to tolerate discomfort and overcome adversity[1]. Allow though it is not a perfect match, there is still a large amount of carryover.
There are few more valuable skills to develop than toughness of the mind. It is a way to callous yourself from the difficulty of the world. If you cannot avoid difficulty, the next best thing is to make yourself immune to it. And any activity that can thicken those callouses of the mind will serve you for years to come.
You live in a world of people who have weak minds and weak bodies. They have not begun to even improve one of them! It’s difficult to begin that process, that is critical.
Long training runs or rides can help train the mind for the monotony of an endurance event[2]. Mental toughness is the ability to deal with difficult situations and to pivot and be flexible in the face of adversity[3][4][5]. Endurance athletes should work on their mental skills to produce consistently high levels of performance despite everyday challenges and significant adversity[5]. Therefore, endurance training can help individuals develop mental toughness by building physical resilience and teaching them to cope with difficult situations.
Another value of endurance training is the development of discipline.
Endurance training requires a consistent effort over a period of time. This consistency can help to develop discipline, which can be applied to other areas of life. Much of what you want to achieve requires effort concentrated over time. If you can develop discipline through endurance, you are much more likely to have success in other areas of your life. This is another example of the spillover effect of training.
Endurance training can help develop discipline by teaching individuals to push through physical fatigue and pain, building their capacity to tolerate discomfort and overcome adversity[1].
Endurance requires a high level of discipline to maintain a consistent training schedule and to push oneself to complete long and challenging training[2]. Through regular practice, we can learn to develop the discipline needed to maintain a consistent training regimen and to push ourselves to achieve our goals[1].
Endurance also requires mental discipline to maintain focus and motivation during long and monotonous workouts[3]. Therefore, endurance training can help individuals develop discipline by teaching them to push through physical fatigue and pain, maintain a consistent training regimen, and develop the mental discipline to maintain focus and motivation during monotonous training.
In addition to these values, endurance training can also have physical benefits.
It can help to improve cardiovascular health, reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and improve overall fitness levels. Endurance training can also help to improve muscular endurance, which can make everyday activities easier and reduce the risk of injury.
There have been several studies that support the benefits of endurance training. One study published in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology found that endurance training can help to improve mental toughness and resilience in athletes (Connaughton et al., 2010).
Another study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that endurance training can help to improve muscular endurance and reduce the risk of injury in individuals (Schoenfeld et al., 2017).
With that in mind, in the future, we will talk about how to start endurance training and get your life in order starting with your fitness.
References:
Connaughton, D., Wadey, R., Hanton, S., & Jones, G. (2010). The development and maintenance of mental toughness: Perceptions of elite performers. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 32(5), 682-704.
Schoenfeld, B. J., Grgic, J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2017). Strength and hypertrophy adaptations between low- versus high-load resistance training: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 31(12), 3508-3523.
