7 Days of Muscular Endurance Workouts

Mikaela Frame
7 Days of Muscular Endurance Workouts

 7 Days of Muscular Endurance Workouts

You've decided it's time to focus on your fitness. Congratulations! You've taken the first step to a new and improved body and mind. This 7-day advanced program aims to build your stabilization and muscle endurance. 

Focusing on muscle endurance is one of the first and most important steps to building a strong foundation and laying the groundwork to achieve any fitness goal. 

Let’s Break Down Muscular Endurance

Muscular endurance refers to the ability of a muscle to perform repeated exercise over an extended period without tiring. If you can exercise for longer periods without feeling tired, you probably have good muscular endurance and might be someone who exercises regularly. 

But let’s be honest, if you’re here, it means you might have recently noticed that you are getting more and more tired as you perform daily exercises, and it’s time to start working your muscles more. 

When you can increase your muscular endurance, the main benefit is enhancing your physical performance. Increasing your muscular endurance protects your body from injury, allowing you to bounce back faster and lessen your chance of sprains. If you are looking to improve your everyday life, training to improve your muscular endurance is a great place to start. You’ll feel the impact of it when you’re throwing the ball with your dog for longer or decide to take the harder route up the hiking trail. 

We’re here to help you get started.

The First Steps

As part of your workout preparation, your muscles must be warmed up and ready to go. To effectively do this, you will begin with 10-15 minutes of total body stretching. For optimal workout recovery, you will focus on fueling your body with protein and carbohydrates, both complex and simple, to aid in muscle growth and repair.

For four weeks, you will follow this 7-day training guide, aiming for four workout days and three rest/active recovery days. During your workouts, make sure to perform each exercise for three sets of 12-20 reps at 50-70 percent of your maximum effort with 30-60 seconds of rest in between sets. And don’t forget to turn on your favorite playlist to get you pumped!

Future program progression: If you have mastered this program, you can use the 7 Days to Building Muscle Strength program to put your muscle endurance to the test.

Day 1

For the first day of this 7-day guide, you will be focusing on your chest and triceps. Throughout the first day, you want to make sure that you are drinking one gallon of water to stay hydrated and fuel your muscles to avoid cramping. Hydration is essential when participating in muscular endurance workouts, so don’t forget to fill your water bottle up before you start.

For each of the following exercises, you should be completing three sets of 12-20 reps (you can start low and increase reps over time). Make sure you are taking breaks in between each set, but only for 1 minute! 

Day 1 will look like this:

  1. Foam Roll
  2. Wide Pushup
  3. Dumbbell or Barbell Bench Press
  4. Flat Bench Cable or Barbell Flys
  5. Narrow Pushup
  6. Overhead Tricep Dumbbell Extension
  7. Tricep Rope Pushdown
  8. 10 Minutes Stretching

Once you’ve worked out your muscles, you are bound to feel a bit sore and definitely hungry. The best way to fuel your muscles after you are done with a workout is to fill up with protein and fiber, so you can reproduce the energy you’ve burned. 

For the first day, you will want to drink a protein shake after you’ve completed your workout as a quick and refreshing way to gain back some of the calories you have just lost. Snacking on a sliced mango will give you 7 percent of your daily fiber intake and 2.8 grams of protein, without any fat, sodium, or cholesterol, so you should have one of those as well!

Day 2

For day 2, you will focus on your back and biceps. Again, you will want to be drinking a gallon of water throughout the day to maintain proper hydration. You’ll notice that you should be including foam rolling into most of your days. Foam rolling helps with muscle tightness and soreness, so today, you’re really going to be feeling it. 

Day 2 will be completed as follows:

  1. Foam Roll 
  2. Wide-Grip Lat Pull-Down
  3. One-Arm Dumbbell Row
  4. Seated Cable Row
  5. Underhand Cable Pulldowns
  6. Alternating Dumbbell Bicep Curl
  7. One-Arm Dumbbell Preacher Curl
  8. Standing Bicep Cable Curl
  9. 10 Minutes Stretching

Like the day before, you will want to fill up with protein, vitamins, and minerals after completing your workout, so drinking another protein shake is in your best interest. 

Protein shakes allow for a quick boost of energy, and often they come in a very delicious flavor! We also recommend eating another mango, but if you want to switch things up, apricots, peaches, papayas, and bananas are also great after a workout. 

Day 3

On day 3, you will take a rest day. If you’re feeling rather sore, you might want to work with a foam roller to massage some of your muscles out. You will also want to make sure you are spending some time stretching on your day off because your muscles will thank you!

On your rest day, it’s imperative that you drink water throughout the whole day. Try to drink an entire gallon, thats what we recommend. Cell dehydration (which is exactly what it sounds like) can lead to negative effects on your muscles, weakening them over time, so even on days when you aren’t working out; water should be consumed regularly. 

Also, consuming electrolyte tablets in water can help to restore some lost minerals from sweat. Look for electrolytes that do not contain an excess amount of added sugars to add into your drink! This will ensure that you will be well-rested and prepared for your next day of working out.

Day 4: (Legs/Calves)

Day 4 will focus on your legs and calves and will leave your legs feeling like jello. On top of drinking a gallon of water, you will start this workout by foam rolling your muscles. 

The workout for day 4 is:

  1. Foam Roll
  2. Leg Press
  3. Leg Extension
  4. Sumo Barbell Squat
  5. Seated Leg Curl
  6. Standing Calf Raises
  7. Seated Calf Raises
  8. 10 Minutes Stretching

Focusing on one part of your body each day really allows you to build muscular endurance because it forces you to use the same muscles repeatedly. Your legs might be begging for a break, but you will be one step closer to your goal of gaining muscular endurance. Soon, these workouts might begin feeling like a piece of cake, and that’s exactly the time to push yourself a little harder with a more intense workout!

Day 5: (Shoulders/Abs)

On day 5, you will focus on your shoulders and abs. Working on your stomach can lead to cramping, so drinking the right amount of water is essential for optimal functioning!

Day 5 will go like this:

  1. Foam Roll
  2. Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
  3. Front Delt Raise to a "T"
  4. Side Lateral Raises
  5. Seated Bent-Over Rear Delt Fly
  6. Exercise Ball Crunches
  7. Air Bicycles
  8. 10 Minutes Stretching

After this workout, it’ll be especially important to fuel up with a protein shake or whatever healthy fruit you enjoy. Making sure that you are eating after these high-intensity workouts makes sure that you can refuel and recuperate while also getting as many benefits out of the program as possible.

Day 6

Day 6 is going to be the second day of rest that you take. You should still commit to drinking plenty of water as well as stretching out all the muscles you’ve been exercising. On these rest days, focus on the foods you are eating and make sure that you are consuming proper nutrition that will enhance your muscular endurance and enhance how you feel physically. 

Day 7

On day 7 of the routine, you should participate in active recovery exercises, drinking water, and stretching. Active recovery exercises are movements and activities that require you to move without being as intense as your workout days. 

Working out at a lower intensity between your more advanced workouts helps promote a faster recovery, so finding an activity you like to do can be a great way to feel good about getting physical activity without overworking your body.

Some active recovery exercises that you can try are:

  • Yoga
  • Swimming
  • Steady walking or light running
  • Hiking
  • Cycling
  • Rollerblading
  • Tai chi

After day 7, you will begin again with day 1 of the routine. Feel free to build in more reps or increase your weight as you grow stronger and increase muscular endurance. And I don’t know if we’ve said it enough already, but make sure you are drinking enough water!

Learn About Your Health with Vessel

If you’ve ever wanted to keep track of your body’s vitamin and mineral levels or see if you are getting enough quality sleep, you can now find out with Vessel. Vessel allows for you to access key pieces of information about your own body all from the comfort of your own home.

We will send you a Wellness Card, and all you have to do is use it, scan it with the app on your phone, and then scroll through all your information! If you are wondering what changes you should make to your diet or lifestyle to improve your physical fitness, Vessel Health can provide you with information to help you make proper changes to improve your well-being.

So along with this 7-day routine, sign-up with Vessel to learn more about how we can assist you in your journey to a healthier and stronger life!