“Endurance isn’t about how far you go — it’s about what keeps you going.” Many of us have a misconception that endurance means only running or sweating in the gym. But the truth is, the ability to build endurance is a complex game in which not only the body, but also the brain and faith play an equal role. In simple words, it stands on three pillars – Body, Brain, and Belief.
In this article, we will see how physical strength of the body, mental strength of the mind, and emotional control work together to create our endurance. Along with practical techniques, scientific research, and practical habits, which will not only give you the ability to work for a long time but also help you stay calm, stable, and focused under pressure
What is Endurance?
There were so many research papers published on Frontiers in Psychology in 2025. Those studies show that mental exhaustion affects physical performance, and physical activity improves emotional health. That means all three have an impact on each other, and when they work together, it enhances our overall capability.
Most people believe that endurance only means physical strength or power. But the reality is, this is just a tiny part of endurance. Endurance doesn’t just mean muscular endurance, but our mental and emotional strength are also connected with this.
That’s why we can classify endurance into three parts.
- Physical Endurance: This one is your muscles, lungs, and heart strength. These body parts are the reason that you can do something for a longer period of time, like running or hiking. These parts then help you to keep going without any breaks.
- Mental Endurance: When you feel tired, exhausted, or frustrated, your mental endurance fuels your strength to keep going. Mental endurance helps to increase willpower and come over from any mental stress.
- Emotional Endurance: Most of the time, people ignore this part, but if you can make yourself emotionally strong, then you can handle any kind of pressure, pain, and frustration.
Without strengthening these three components together, you won’t be able to build your endurance. But when you learn how to use them together, then you can handle any kind of situation peacefully.
Physical Endurance
1. Build Your Aerobic Engine First
The first step of endurance is strengthening your aerobic energy system. If I explain simply, the aerobic system is a process where your body produces energy with the help of oxygen. When you exercise slowly and over a longer period of time, like brisk walking, cycling, or jogging, oxygen is supplied to your muscles from your lungs through your blood.
Then this oxygen helps your body to produce more ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which provides you with more energy. And this is such a type of engine that can work for a long. Here comes another thing, which is VO2 Max. This is the maximum limit of how much oxygen your body can absorb in one minute. The more your VO2 Max, the better your endurance is.
The best way to increase aerobic endurance is low-intensity steady-state (LISS) cardio. Especially zone 2 training. If you understand the heart rate zone, then it’s very easy for you. Zone-1 and Zone-2 cardio are best for the heart, where you’re not forcing but teaching your heart how to work better for a long time. I would suggest for zone 2 at least 30 minutes for 4-5 times a week, and must keep a rest for recovery. It will increase your lungs and heart’s ability and also supply more oxygen and blood to your body.
People who have started anew often go for the intense training without building an aerobic base. As a result, they become exhausted quickly and can’t give their 100% potential to other workouts. Besides, if you use any fitness tracker, then it becomes very easy to find out what heart rate zone you’re in right now. This is very important for those who have any heart disease.
2. Strengthen Your Mitochondria
As we know, “mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell.” They produce energy for your cells like an engine produces energy for a car. That’s why if your mitochondria are working well, it will help to generate more energy for you, and you will feel less fatigued.
So, you must train your energy system to increase mitochondria. A study was done in 2020 called Cell Metabolism Research. It found that HIIT (high-intensity interval training) increases the number of mitochondria. Also, tempo runs and zone 2 cardio are before mitochondrial production. This type of exercise teaches your body how to use oxygen more effectively to create more mitochondria.
These are very easy exercises. You can do 30 30-second sprints, then 90 90-second brisk walks, and continue this for 6-8 times. It will strengthen your mitochondria. And also, to keep this in good health, you’ve to eat coenzyme Q10 and antioxidant-rich food. You can find this in nuts, green veggies, berry-type fruits, and fish oil. And most importantly, maintaining proper deep sleep and reducing stress are also essential.
3. Train for Strength-Endurance
You’ll find some people who either only do weight training by the name of muscle building or run on a treadmill by the name of fat loss for hours. But both of them are doing wrong. They don’t understand the difference between these three
- Strength (it means the ability to lift heavy weights, like deadlift)
- Endurance (this means doing something for a longer period of time without stopping)
- Strength-Endurance: (This one is the mix of both – such a condition where you can do something intense without being tired or frustrated)
Some very effective exercises for Strength-Endurance, like farmer’s walk, where you walk with the weight, Kettlebell carries that increase your muscle, and at the same time improve your balance, another one is EMOM (every minute on the minute), where you do a specific work for every minute and take rest after that. Sets and reps should be between 8-12 reps with 3-4 sets and less rest time so that your body gets more fatigued.
You can do Strength-Endurance training twice a week, like Monday farmer’s walk and Thursday EMOM. But don’t forget about recovery. Do some stretching and stay hydrated, and if you feel muscle pain, then a homemade method is a hot pack massage. Moreover, studies also say that hybrid training helps to increase muscle endurance and keep you fit in the long run.
4. The Nutritional Role in Building Endurance
Foods are also mandatory with exercise to build endurance. Because for any long-term work our body needs energy, it takes it from glycogen, fat, and also from a small amount of protein.
Though the role of protein is very little, mostly it is taken from carbs, which provide instant energy. And fat is a source that you use when you do need slow energy, but for a long time.
Along with these macros, micros are also equally important, such as sodium, potassium, and magnesium. When you sweat, these minerals get depleted from your body, and muscles start cramping and twitching. So, always maintain your mineral level.
Focus on carbohydrates like oats or fruits before starting any workout session. And if you’re going for a long session, then sip electrolyte water between workouts. Then, when you finish, focus on fast replenishment, which means fast-digesting carbs and proteins.
The study in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition says taking proper carbs and electrolytes at the proper time increases endurance significantly.
5. Recover Better, Last Longer
You can’t strengthen your endurance without recovery. Because during your session, you’re actually damaging your cells, and the nervous system also becomes exhausted. And it definitely takes some time to recover.
You can actively recover your body with moderate-intense cardio, mobility exercise, or foam rolling. It increases your blood circulation and keeps your muscles flexible, so they can recover faster.
If your training split is very intense or you don’t take enough rest, then you will fall into the overtraining trap. Some overtraining symptoms are excessive fatigue, continuous muscle soreness, sleep problems, and decreased concentration power.
Keep a recovery session after a workout, and always listen to your body. The best way to recover is to sleep. It maintains your hormonal balance and reduces stress.
Sometimes you can use a cold plunge or contrast bath. Studies show that these methods can reduce your muscle soreness and help you recover quickly by boosting your blood circulation. According to NSCA guidelines, recovery improves physical ability and reduces injury risk.
Mental Endurance
6. Build Toughness by Embracing Discomfort
We always try to escape or skip the work that we feel uncomfortable doing. But what we need to do is always embrace discomfort (it has to be something good). Because discomfort makes you disciplined. There is a region in our brain called the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC). When we face something that is beneficial for us, but just because our body and brain are not familiar with the process, they start sending negative signals not to go for that.
But if somehow you start to do that and finish that successfully, that specific region in your mind grows a little bit, let’s say 1%. And this 1% helps you to do the next task that you feel is difficult. And day by day, everything seems too easy for you, no matter how hard the problem is. So, the moral of the story is, if something seems difficult for you, just go for it, and it’s called Stress Inoculation Training. And this small step will build your mental endurance.
You can increase your discomfort zone. For some examples, dip your body into the ice water, take an intentional break, and slowly walk a long distance. In this way, you can improve your mental toughness and eventually improve your endurance.
7. Train Your Focus to Last Longer
Attention span is another important component if you’re trying to build your endurance. Attention span means how long you can work at a place with your full concentration. Since you’ve to do something for a long time here without mental focus, you can’t stay last long.
There are some techniques to improve your focus, one of which is called the Pomodoro Technique. Here, you have to work for 25 minutes nonstop, then take 5 minutes rest. Another one is Mindfulness Meditation, where you train your mind by breathing slowly.
A 2014 Science Direct study shows that prolonged attention training can help to sustain focus for a long time. Also, it reduces your mental fatigue.
There is a region in our mind, the prefrontal Cortex.” This part is responsible for keeping our attention on our work. There are some easy hacks to improve focus in your regular activity, like less screen time and keeping your workplace clean. Also, you can use some brain training apps.
8. Reset Your Motivation with Dopamine Cycles
There is a chemical in our brain, “Dopamine”. It mainly runs your motivation and reward system. When you do something good, get a prize, or get appreciated, this hormone is released in your brain, and for that reason, you feel joy and a sense of lightness.
But in today’s world, the ecosystem is built in such a way that everyone wants fast rewards, and that’s exactly what you get when you scroll or eat junk food. These give you instant pleasure. But in reality, this short-term feel-good booster is reducing your endurance. Because when your body gets dopamine easily, it starts losing motivation for any big opportunity.
Well, dopamine fasting or reset might work as an antidote for you. This means stop yourself from getting any fast reward. So that your brain can learn to take big challenges easily. One of the best steps for this might be a digital detox, which means staying away from any kind of digital device and social media and trying to do something outside.
I’m not the only one saying this. Because research also finds something similar. In 2011, Frontiers in Psychology found in their research that keeping dopamine regulation helps people to stay motivated, and they can continue their work for a long time.
9. Use Olympic Visualization to Program Your Mind
If you’re serious about building endurance, then you have to keep yourself prepared both physically and mentally. For this reason, visualization or mental rehearsal is very important. For example, imagine you’re living your dream life or have already achieved what you’ve been chasing for a while. This imagination will always push you to complete those assignments that you have to do for success.
Most interesting part is, Olympians use this technique to prepare themself not just physically but also mentally. This helps them to build confidence and also boost their performance while they’re on the stage. This method takes their mindset to a different level, where they can deal with any situation with a calm and peaceful mind.
There are 3 different ways to visualize,
- Process Visualization (repeating the process frequently)
- Outcome Visualization (thinking that you’ve achieved)
- Motivational Visualization (Something that keeps pushing you to go)
If somehow you can add guided imagery, then no one can stop you from achieving success. guided imagery is a trainer or mentor who helps you to think through the process step by step. He aids in,
- Positive Affirmations (talking about positive things all the time)
- Mindfulness (To calm your mind)
You can do this on your own. Just sit down for 5-10 minutes every day, close your eyes, think about those methods that you’ll implement, and draw a roadmap that you’re going to follow. Global-renowned athletes Michael Phelps and Serena Williams build their mental endurance with this technique.
Emotional Endurance
10. Identify Your ‘Why’
This is one of the most powerful methods to build your endurance. Just find out the answer “Why are you doing this, or why do you have to do this?” When you have any in-depth and strong reason, then you can easily overcome all the pressure, all the pain, and all the obstacles. Because you know the reason and you know what you’re going to achieve. And that’s become your biggest willpower.
There is a famous theory named “Start with Why”. It tells us that those who have a clear ‘why’ never give up in any situation. ‘Why’ is the stair to cross the limit, which makes people go from ordinary to extraordinary.
You can easily find your ‘why,’ always think about your ambition. Journaling with yourself, do a Q&A session in front of a mirror. Ask yourself, “Why am I walking on this path?” “How important is this for me?”
And finally, always be flexible with your ‘Why’ because it can change at any time. So, review this every time and if needed, do some updates.
11. Turn Pain into Fuel
Life is all about ups and downs. Pain and frustration are a part of this journey. All you need to do is learn how to turn your pain into energy and motivation.
There are two powerful concepts in psychology.
- Post-Traumatic Growth: The concept shows how humans become more powerful after an incident.
- Adversity Quotient: It shows how cleverly you overcome obstacles, and VO2 Max is the maximum limit of how much oxygen your body can absorb in one minute. step toward your goal.
When you learn to tolerate, it activates some hormones and neurotransmitters, like endorphin. It gives you a natural satisfaction, what we know as “runner’s high”. It gives you the power and reduces the feeling of pain.
If you can learn mindfulness or ‘Cognitive Reframing’. Which means seeing pain from a different perspective. Then it no longer appears as a pressure. Rather, it becomes a challenge that you’ll love to play with.
12. Master to Control Emotion Under Pressure
It’s a very important part of building endurance. Because it affects both you physically and mentally, and if you’re unable to control this, then fatigue and frustration will rise quickly.
Let me tell you an easy method to control this. Emotional compartmentalization or emotional regulation. This is basically the ability to break down and manage your emotions separately. So that you can make wise decisions even during tough times.
Here, the breathing technique will help you. For example, taking deep breaths or grounding techniques that bring you back to the present. Another method that can help you is cognitive behavioural strategies that keep the negative thoughts under control.
From a neuroscience perspective, if you want to lower the stress response, reduce the mental stimulation. You can start with meditation, biofeedback, or if you want to relax your muscles, use progressive muscle relaxation. These techniques will reduce your stress and build emotional endurance.