Stamina Vs. Endurance
Let us first understand the difference between the two. Although the both words mean “staying power”, there is a slight difference between the two.
Stamina is about how long you can perform a certain task continuously before needing a break. For instance: sprinting. The longer the time you can sprint, higher is your stamina.
Endurance has more to do with extended periods of time. How many 100 m sprints can an athlete perform or how long can a marathon runner run.
Stamina is a short-term measurement. It measures the size of your energy surges. Endurance is a long-term measurement. It measures how much energy you have.
What Happens To Endurance And Stamina As We Age?
Each individual experiences the process of aging differently. However, based on things like genetics and lifestyle, in general endurance and stamina decrease as you age. Many attribute the lack of energy, endurance, and stamina to poor diet and exercise habits.
Based on averages, a human body begins to lose 3 to 5 percent of lean muscle tissue and gains that much body fat every decade after age 30. After age 45, adults tend to lose about one-quarter of a pound of muscle (replaced by fat) every year. By 60, you’d have naturally lost 4 pounds of muscle and gained about 4 pounds of fat from average natural body processes from the age 45 to 60. All along as you age your heart also weakens and your cardiovascular health gets deteriorated too.
Wants to maintain or gain your stamina and endurance? Read on here to find the best tips about maintaining your stamina & endurance while you are growing old plus ways to increase stamina and endurance to live an active happy life in old age.
Relationships Between Muscle Loss & Stamina; Cardiovascular Health & Endurance
While the muscle loss is directly related to loss of muscular strength and your stamina, your cardiovascular health is directly related to endurance. Endurance testing is often used by cardiologists.
The loss of endurance and stamina over 60 make physical movements more difficult, you tire more rapidly and your metabolism slows, making it easier to add weight.
Can You Gain Stamina And Endurance In Old Age?
Endurance and stamina is not exclusive to the young. One can develop endurance and stamina at practically any age. It may just require more efforts as you get older.
Best Ways To Maintain Endurance And Stamina As You Age
Maintaining or increasing endurance and stamina in elderly may be somewhat difficult, but is very much possible. Fortunately, even a small amount of exercise can increase your stamina and help you perform daily tasks such as walking up stairs, going food shopping and performing household chores.
According to the New York Times, one prime factor for building physical endurance and stamina over 60 is regularity. It was shown that with regular exercise, healthy people over 60 can regain some muscle mass.
A study performed by the Sinai School of Medicine suggests that exercise for older adults results in improved stamina and endurance, as well as reduced depressive symptoms, enhanced mobility and a decreased risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Exercise Tips To Maintain And Increase Your Endurance As You Grow Old
Tip # 1
If You Are New To Exercise: Begin slowly. Consider increasing the amount of time spent moving your body around the house. For instance, walk up the stairs more often, perform more demanding household chores or lift heavier objects in your house.
Tip # 2
Do cardiovascular activities regularly. Identify an activity that elevates your heart rate and which you can perform at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week. That’s 150 minutes of cardiovascular activity per week, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some instances of cardio activities include brisk walking, light jogging, riding a stationary bicycle and working on the elliptical machine.
Tip # 3
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their report “Growing Stronger” recommends strength training as one of the best ways to keep the muscles strong and healthy. Strong, healthy muscles will help you to exercise longer, which in turn will boost your endurance and stamina.
Incorporate at least 2 days of strength training to your weekly exercise regime.
For instance, you can do bicep curls by using some weight such as a bag of groceries in your hands, one by one – alternatively, to strengthen your biceps. Tuck your elbows in to your sides. Bend each hand elbow (one hand at a time) and curl your hand to meet the shoulder of the same side. Lower your hand back to the side and repeat the exercise until your arm muscles are fatigued. You can do this exercise by using your both hands together or one hand at a time, alternatively.
Tip # 4
Stretch your muscles regularly to fight muscle tightening. If you don’t do, your muscle fibers shrink and become shorter, resulting into lose of flexibility and reduction in your range of motion. Make sure to stretch all your major muscle groups at least for five minutes before and after each exercise session. Here are some stretching exercises for seniors.
Bonus Tips For Building Endurance And Stamina After You Are 60
(i) Can’t go to gym? There are many exercises for gaining endurance and stamina that you can do at home. Some of them can be done even while sitting on a chair. The best thing about chair exercises is that you can exercise while watching TV!
(ii) For elderly, there are many options to build strength and “longer workout-time” with as little impact as possible. No gym or special equipment needed for building endurance and stamina. Soup can or a bottle of water can be used as weights. Standing or sitting, you can build endurance anywhere, at home or in a park.
(iii) And for the seniors who suffer from mobile disabilities, walking for increasing or maintaining endurance and stamina is a boon. Walking for as less as 20 to 30 minutes per day offers many health benefits at any age.
Make exercises a part of your everyday routine and live happily after.
Developing endurance and stamina after 50 or even 60 plus may seem impossible to many people, but believe me it’s very much possible. It doesn’t call for much effort. All you have to do is make the choice to activate your body almost every day.
Tools like a mobilty scooter, massage chair could be a great help for a senior person.
I think regular monitoring is most important for old aged people.
There is a lot of stuff to maintain those.
I’m 55 years old. I do HIIT workouts 3 times a week, and jog about 3 miles on alternating days. About 3 months ago, I went through a 6 week 5K training program, and have kept jogging ever since. However, I have found that my pace has gotten slower, even with a consistent routine. I have been participating in a HIIT program with trainers for a year and a half now, and I have not improved in my stamina nor endurance. I use 20 lb dumbbells for the weighted exercises for the most part. Any ideas on why my pace has slowed and my stamina and endurance have not increased?
Hi Susan: May be in your case the decline in stamina & endurance would have been more had you not been doing HIIT. Age does impact these two, and HIIT does provide benefits to contain the declining pace. Have you checked with your trainer?
Please read this: https://justfitnesshub.com/seniors-hiit-safety-rules-precautions-guidelines/
Hmb is great to maintain muscle mass
Mixes well with creatine in morning coffee
Age is not what causes decline, disease and immobility do. I have been studying the aging process for over 30 years, because I knew I would be… aging. I am now 73, weigh 220lb and 5’6″ tall. Where the BMI would say I am obese I am far from it. I am between 12 and 15 percent body fat (professional athlete level). My routine is 2 one hour weight training session a day, 5 days a week most of the time. I use bicycle sprints for stamina. I look like a 30 year old body builder with no wrinkles.
How and why? It is a goal of mine to prove age is not the cause of illness or our decline, but our environment and our improper care of our bodies. Face it we check our car’s condition more often than our bodies.
I eat food from made scratch and true organic sources. I drink filtered water and take vitamins specific to my needs with changes as needed. I do not diet, but regulate a wide variety of foods (fruits, vegetables, meats, and starches) and try not to over do any one food. I do use sugar, but am reasonable about it. Candy and soda or snack chips are out, too much sugar, salt and toxins).
Have I ever been ill, I am human so that is normal to happen, but I rarely am sick for more than a couple of days. Have I ever had serious health issue, yes and in some cases they took time to get over. But I continue to bounce back. NONE of my illnesses were caused by old age. I stay away from all pharmaceuticals, most are useless and some dangerous. They are the easy way out and not a good choice.
I am not the only person proving you can retain your health as you age, I meet people all the time in there 60s and beyond that are solid as a rock well built and by no means frail.
Imagine spending your later years feeling like a 30 year old. All it takes is a commitment to exercise and activity. Get away from that TV and couch… they are the killers. Put the snack and junk food down. You will have far more fun if you are healthy at any age.
Start simple and build on that with reasonable goals. Expect it to take time, if you are out of shape, don’t rush it and cause a physical injury setting you back. You are competing with no one, but yourself. If you can do one push up, fine start there and in a week try two. It is about progress no matter how small keep making progress each week.
You will find people watching you grow and cheering you on. Ask others what they do to build or refine stamina, endurance, muscles, etc, they are often glade to share what they have learned. In many cases they have traveled the same path you are not following.
Be proud of every accomplishment even if the accomplishment is not giving up or coming right back to it.
When you exercise you are not only building muscle, endurance and stamina you are flushing your body of waste in you body, building a stronger heart and lungs, more oxygen filling Red blood cells, flexible arteries and minimal chance of blocked arteries.
All the best in attaining the new you,
Thank you so much, Dr. John. Very inspiring!
When you go to the doctor with an aliment and they say, “Well it is just part of aging.” That is not a good answer, it is a cop out and leads you to believe there is no hope, but to live with your tired, old miserable body.
Or they prescribe a medicine that does not deal with the root cause, but mitigates a symptom; that too is wrong. Look at the bottle of the prescription and do research on the side effects. Sometimes the side effects are worse then you current condition. Some prescriptions will destroy the liver, kidneys, pancreas or brain functions as examples.
Too much blood pressure medicine can cause a false Dementia sending you to a mental care ward in a Senior Care home for life where you will lack the common sense to not mess yourself. My 90 year old mother was prescribed a heart med, and 3 blood pressure meds all at the same time. She did not know who she was or who I was. She could speak 3 words a day and tried eating a sandwich with a fork. She did not have any heart problems before or blood pressure issues.
In a less than pleasant manor I approached the doctor about the prescriptions. He was not terribly phased and stated, “Well she is older you know, what do you expect.” My comment was, “Get her off the excess meds until we can prove she needs them.”
It a long story and took 9 months to rid her of the chemicals impact of these meds, but after 9 months (and B12) she was normal again and requires none of those toxic drugs. That was 8 years ago and yes she is 98; with no signs of dementia.
It makes me wonder how many people are suffering from dementia due to careless prescriptions by medical doctors. How many seniors are prisoners of their corrupted own brain as the result of chemical modification due to doctors who just don’t care.
My challenge to you today is to go to your local drug store and walk down the cold and flu isles. Look at the medications and find one that cures the cold of flu. Not a symptom, but the actual root cause of the cold of flu. Hint you will not find one.
Ask your pharmacist if he has any thing that cures a cold or flu; ask your doctor. They will either lead you to a treatment for issues like runny nose, stuffy head, couch, etc. But no they have no treatment to cure cold or flu.
Here is a fact you will have to prove to yourself. 500mg of D3 and 50mg of Zinc will stop a cold in less than 6 hours (no matter how bad it is). Add 500mg of licorice root extract and one slice of candied ginger (stores well and tastes good) and you stop the flu in 6 hours or less.
In all the family and friends that have tried the above suggestions it has never failed. As to why these work, colds and flu always occur when we are exposed to the least sunlight. Winter offers shorter days, a more distant sun and we hibernate inside the house or beneath heavy clothing. We are blocking the D vitamins we create in our body’s collagen from absorbed sunlight by being outside in the bright summer sun. Glass windows block this frequency of sunlight.
If you take 500mg of D3 and 50mg of Zinc every day of the cold flu season (11/25 to 3/15 in Northern climates) you will not get a cold or flu. But why, that is expensive. Instead at the first sniffle or sneeze take one of each and in less than 6 hours it is gone; before it really sets in. If it was not a cold or flu, it only cost pennies to use as a precaution.
In my research on aging I have targeted common health issues we see in life and found cures that work for me and others. No, I am not selling any products, memberships, or plans. I give my findings away as an opportunity to give back to society.
What I have found, more that I like, is that cures, real cures, inexpensive cures have been hidden from us to ensure profits for hospitals, doctors and Big Pharma. Yes, there are good doctors, but many are confined to guidelines set by the hospital, Big Pharma and insurance providers (they make money together).
Medical centers are PROFIT machines serving a need. Healthy patients are not profitable. Doctors receive incentives to recommend tests, procedures and drugs. If they do not follow guidelines they can loose their job and insurance coverage to practice. If the go to far afield they can lose their license to practice.
We have been conditioned to unfailingly trust the advice of our doctors. If you go back in history to the mid 1800s you will see the seed of a corrupt modern medial field including the scripts provided to medical schools and published medical books, as well as the organizations that oversee the “ethical treatment of patents.”
If you get ill from their treatment they provide further tests, procedures and prescriptions and everyone makes more money. If you die there will be other patients. To them it is a business that is why at most you have 15 minutes with the doctor.
If you follow their recommendations blindly, you could end up crippled or far worse. It is your body. The consequences are gravest for you. Shouldn’t you read the side effects and know why you are taking a medication or treatment, why tests are being run. You are the one that has the most to lose.
I take no pharmaceuticals, and avoid them like the plague. If you know what to do you don’t need antibiotics; problem is they are a profit center. If you know the truth you do not need any, ANY vaccines, they do not work, but are highly profitable. You did not need to learn how to care for yourself; you have doctors for that. Wrong you need to know how your body functions and how it is impacted by the environment and what you do. You are the keeper and guardian of the host you live within.
Did you know taking antibiotics for 2 weeks kills your good bacteria for 5 weeks? Good bacteria reside in your gut and help digest foods. Some excrete vitamins you need. For 5 weeks your own immune system is down and you are not absorbing important vitamins. That is a cure that is rife with risks.
The problem is antibiotics are the only solution offered by the modern medical field. There are better and safer options that work very well and have no side effects. I have my own medical lab and can do most of what comes out of medical labs at a fraction of the cost and far faster with the assurance I know it was done right.
I have book cases full of medical books doctors study, books on chemistry, biology, microbiology and on and on. This is not something everyone can do, but the findings are devastating when you see just how corrupt the medical field has become over the last 150 years.
My posts look more like books, than comments (sorry), but this information has to get out. People need to know how to resolve medical issue so that they can exercise and be active. An illness at any age can make you feel “old” and conditions or injuries can prevent you from not only exercise but feeling good in the first place.
It starts with you taking responsibility for your body and the doctor’s recommendations are just that suggests for you to evaluate and consider. You need to learn more about alternatives so that you have a choice. If you think minerals and herbs are so much BS remember where all those synthetic medicines originated; roots, bark, leaves, fruit, seeds etc. They all came from nature. The synthetic versions are more dangerous because they are often separated from critical segments of the source cure. Isolated chemicals can be more harmful than the natural ingredient, but are cheaper and more convenient to make. What is more important, the patient or the potion?
I am running on again, but without a healthy body you cannot exercise. Each illness is like a bruise the body has to overcome. In some case the damage is more serious. Medications and treatments that are unnecessary cause those same bruises or more serious damage. The only difference is you chose to accept the medicine or treatment.
Humans as a lot are very smart and can think for themselves. In the light of propaganda we may drop our guard as is true of the recent PLANdemic. It should be a life long lesson that you need to do careful research before accepting any treatment, vaccine or otherwise.
Exercise and what you consume is critical in our life. So is making intelligent decisions through active research that builds insight so that you benefit from right choices YOU MAKE.
We may not live any longer, but shouldn’t we enjoy the years we live. We all can prove living in the later years of our lives is not a near death sentence. It can be just as vibrant as any other phase of our life. It is a lesson we can benefit from and one we can share with the youth, the future of the human race, our children and grand children.
Dr. John: Thanks…..
Hello, did you mean 500 mcg of D3, as this seems to be the standard measurement.