How to build endurance?

[gogh_me]

I want to build up my endurance but I've never done it before except by accident and I don't remember how I did it so I thought it best to ask advice.

 

Which way would be a better way to build endurance, to have a set duration or distance and go at whatever pace I can maintain or to pick a pace and go for as long as I can keep it up? Or any other method that you recommend? Or sources I can read?

 

Thanks in advance!

[hsorlando]

I'm not an expert but everyone I''ve talked to about upping my endurance, I run, has said to continue adding mileage, and not to worry about how fast I go. So far it's working. I may not be as fast as a lot of runners, but I can probably run longer than some that will go all out and then not be able to finish. So I think for endurance the longer you go in whatever you do, the better. And besides the running the endurance has helped big time when I lift weights.

[gogh_me]

Thank you, thats the method I'm leaning towards trying. It seems logical that if you want to improve your endurance than try to endure more, kind of 'duh' but there is so much conflicting advice that its not so obvious.

[Guest]

It largely depends on what you want to have endurance in. Building up running endurance is largely strength based(unless your very thin), but building up endurance for something like cycling/swimming is much different. Basically if you want endurance for running you should mix in a lot of bodyweight exercises like wall squats, lunges, body squats etc. But if you want to build up endurance for cycling/swimming you basically need to set aside a lot of time to train. The best type of training takes hours at a relatively low heart rate. Basically for the average person this means keeping your heart rate around 135 for at least 90 minutes....preferably 2-3 hours regularly and occasionally for 4-6 hours.