Endurance

Endurance is the ability to keep going and stay active for a long time. It also means being able to handle tough situations and still recover. People often talk about endurance when doing exercises that need a lot of energy, like running or swimming.

The time someone needs to show endurance changes depending on what they are doing. For very hard exercise, it might only be a few minutes, but for easier activities, it could be hours or even days. Training can help someone improve their endurance. By slowly doing more repetitions or spending more time on an exercise, a person can build up their endurance.

Twins Tashi and Nungshi Malik on endurance trek at the foothills of the Himalayas

Working on endurance through physical activity can help people feel better. It can lower feelings of worry and stress. Better endurance helps the heart and blood flow, but it does not always fix health problems related to the heart. One big result of improving endurance is that the body uses energy more wisely.

Sometimes, the word "stamina" is used to mean the same thing as endurance. Endurance can also describe the ability to keep going through hard times, showing strength and patience in difficult situations. In the military, endurance means a group's ability to keep going well over a long period.

Philosophy

Aristotle said that endurance is like self control. Self control means not choosing things that feel good right now. Endurance means not giving up when things get hard or uncomfortable.

Endurance training

Different types of endurance activities can be trained in special ways. Training plans should match each person's goals.

Regulation of transcription in mammalsAn active enhancer regulatory region is enabled to interact with the promoter region of its target gene by formation of a chromosome loop. This can allow initiation of messenger RNA (mRNA) synthesis by RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) bound to the promoter at the transcription start site of the gene. The loop is stabilized by one architectural protein anchored to the enhancer and one anchored to the promoter, and these proteins are joined together to form a dimer (red zigzags). Specific regulatory transcription factors bind to DNA sequence motifs on the enhancer. General transcription factors bind to the promoter. When a transcription factor is activated by a signal (here indicated as phosphorylation shown by a small red star on a transcription factor on the enhancer) the enhancer is activated and can now activate its target promoter. The active enhancer is transcribed on each strand of DNA in opposite directions by bound RNAP IIs. Mediator (a complex consisting of about 26 proteins in an interacting structure) communicates regulatory signals from the enhancer DNA-bound transcription factors to the promoter.

When figuring out how hard someone should exercise, their own abilities matter. Good training starts at about half of what they can do best. The best results happen when exercise is done at about 55% to 65% of the highest heart rate someone can reach. How hard someone exercises can be checked by looking at their heart rate.

Endurance-trained effects are mediated by epigenetic mechanisms

Between 2012 and 2019, many reports showed that special changes in body cells help muscles respond to exercise.

A nucleosome with histone tails set for transcriptional activationDNA in the nucleus generally consists of segments of 146 base pairs of DNA wrapped around nucleosomes connected to adjacent nucleosomes by linker DNA. Nucleosomes consist of four pairs of histone proteins in a tightly assembled core region plus up to 30% of each histone remaining in a loosely organized polypeptide tail (only one tail of each pair is shown). The pairs of histones, H2A, H2B, H3 and H4, each have lysines (K) in their tails, some of which are subject to post-translational modifications consisting, usually, of acetylations [Ac] and methylations {me}. The lysines (K) are designated with a number showing their position as, for instance, (K4), indicating lysine as the 4th amino acid from the amino (N) end of the tail in the histone protein. The particular acetylations [Ac] and methylations {Me} shown are those that occur on nucleosomes close to, or at, some DNA regions undergoing transcriptional activation of the DNA wrapped around the nucleosome.

Gene activity in muscles is controlled by parts of DNA. After exercise, these changes affect how many genes work in the muscles for a long time. These changes can affect many body systems, like blood clotting, thinking, heart health, and kidney function. Studies with people showed that after exercise, many genes start or stop working in new ways.

Exercise can also change how genes work by adding or removing small pieces to certain parts of DNA. This helps muscles change in ways that support better endurance.

Philosophy

Endurance training

Endurance-trained effects are mediated by epigenetic mechanisms

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