Stamina Defined by The Cambridge Dictionary:
Stamina means, “the physical and/or mental strength of doing something that might be difficult and take long time.”
What comes across your mind when the word “stamina “is discussed about? Generally, people think of the physical capacity to run more and swiftly, jumping higher or sprinting with agility, long bouts of skipping, climbing heights with utmost vigor.
But at the same time, what we overlook while thinking about stamina is incorporating our day to day activities. Being able to accomplish our routine tasks and errands without any physical troubles is also included in the very notion of physical stamina. Likewise, mental stamina too should be of due concern to us.
Difference Between Stamina And Endurance:
Stamina and endurance are two diverse concepts which are interchangeably used at times when talking about physical exercises or performances. Albeit there’s a major difference between the two.
Stamina and endurance both are time related concepts. Stamina is the time for which the physical activity is performed at the highest or peak level while endurance is the maximum time for which physical activity can be performed.
In endurance activity one doesn’t need to come up with the maximum performance in the prescribed time nevertheless has to maintain the performance for the maximum span of time.
Stamina is extremely crucial for sports where tremendous burst of energy is required. Such sports generally don’t last long. For e.g. Sprinting, HIIT workouts. Some other sports which are benefitted by a great deal of stamina also include baseball, football, soccer etc.
In endurance activity, force is not necessarily to be maximum as the target here is to maximise the time. The best example of endurance is marathons, in which one has to push particular muscle group of his body for a prolong
period of time.
Endurance can be further classified into two components: Muscular endurance and Cardiovascular endurance.
Why Do We Need Stamina ?
However, in today’s time, stamina is required not only by sports community, it’s a vital prerequisite of every one of us to deal with our demanding work schedules and hectic life scenarios.
Besides it, battling any kind of illness takes away major share of our strength and stamina both. Post Covid loss of stamina and strength was experienced by many of us. During this time, people became even more cautious about boosting up their stamina as they observed that those with decent stamina could recover from post Covid lethargy and loss of energy symptoms more rapidly.
How To Boost Our Stamina ?
Despite of having tremendously busy life and exhausting work schedule, we can’t ignore the importance of exercise in our life.
Exercise is crucial and inevitable for building and enhancing physical stamina.
Various types of exercises can cater you with the ability to improve your stamina.
1) Cardiovascular exercises: Walking, biking, dancing, skipping, swimming playing certain sports like tennis, soccer, squash can help to improve cardiovascular stamina. They are such physical activities which will exercise your heart and lungs more proficiently and will supply more oxygen to your muscles.
2) Strength training: Incorporating strength training workouts in your exercise routine at least for 2 to 3 days a week can help develop substantial strength.
“Growing stronger “is one of the best ways to increase strength and to develop healthy, strong musculature which supports longer exercise durations with maximised force and power output, which means better endurance and stamina!
(3) Stretching: A good and effective stretching combats muscle stiffness and tightness. When muscles tighten, they become shorter and mislay their flexibility. To get the optimal muscular stamina, muscles must be strong, flexible and supple.
Obesity And Stamina:
More than 1 billion people worldwide are obese which is an absolute bothersome picture for the healthy tomorrow. WHO has urged countries to reverse this very predicament to the general health and longevity of an individual.
Stamina and obesity are inversely related to each other. Again, to combat obesity the focus should be on improving lifestyle by including various forms of exercise and nutritive diet. Obese people have considerably low cardiovascular stamina that leads to low physical endurance and stamina.
Stamina In Old Age
Old age brings its own set of physical limitations and dependency. In order to minimize them, one can opt for good stamina boosting physical activities.
Some simple yet powerful physical activities can help ageing community retain their stamina. Slow paced walking in public parks with even surface, indoor walking, strolling, hand raises, mild stretching and even lifting light to moderate weights under the supervision of a professional can help them stay active and energetic with good stamina, strength and flexibility which in turn aid their mobility and smother some physical issues like joint stiffness and muscular weakness.
Role Of Nutrition And Supplements In Augmenting Stamina:
Food plays pivotal role in increasing our stamina. Generally, all such foods which are beneficial for our overall health, are excellent for building stamina as well. So good protein sources, complex carbs and fibres, fruits enriched with vitamin C, banana, coffee are some of the outstanding foods for increasing stamina and to keep overall health in a good shape.
Some herbs and supplements earn credit for supporting our physical as well as mental stamina. Ancient herbs like shilajit ,ashwagandha are powerful natural supplements to enhance stamina.
In a nut shell, you cannot increase stamina overnight. Once you start following healthy and disciplined life style with well-structured exercise and nutritious diet regimen and avoid stressors as much as possible, you will notice gradual increment in your physical stamina.
Patience and discipline are the crucial elements to grow heightened levels of stamina.
