There are lots of advantages of upping your stamina. You’ll feel better during the day, be able to exercise for longer periods of time and generally feel better. Increased stamina also helps outside of the gym; it gives you more energy for the entire day. Here are some great ways to increase your stamina.

Set Goals: First things first, you must set a goal. Do you want to increase running stamina, or strength and endurance? Knowing this will help you effectively plan your workout routines in the future so you can gradually work your way towards that goal. Overall stamina cannot increase overnight, start small and work your way towards that goal. It’s also important to develop achievable goals that you can actually reach.

Don’t underestimate walking: Walking can improve the efficiency of your heart and lungs, increase your energy level, strengthen the muscles in your legs and help promote a good night’s rest. It may seem like it’s not the most effective, but remember it’s still important to start small. If you feel it isn’t working efficiently enough, try walking further, or at a quicker pace.

Walk to run: If you feel that walking still isn’t doing the trick, get on a treadmill or find a running path and start jogging or running. It’s important to decrease the distance as you increase the pace, just because you can walk a certain distance does not mean you can run the same distance just as easily.

Zumba: If you want to increase your stamina and have dance parties at the same time, then look no further. Zumba will give you a great workout and help you increase your stamina for not only future cardio workouts, but also when you go out for a night on the town.

Swimming: Water aerobics and laps are a great, low-impact exercise that can be done at Future Fitness and other health centers and is a great way to cool off in the summer heat while getting a good workout. Jogging and even walking can put a lot of undue stress on knee and ankle joints and you might find it hard to build stamina if you can’t build on your distances because of ankle and knee joint problems.

It’s important that you don’t go too hard too fast, but you also need to push yourself and not fall into a routine of walking/running/swimming at the same pace for the same distance every day. Strike the perfect balance of pushing yourself hard without putting yourself in danger. High stamina is very useful, so why not get started today?