The American Council of Exercise outlines seven diverse forms of strength training, each catering to distinct functional applications. While each type enhances physical fitness, athletic abilities, or overall well-being, their stark differences explain why a track runner and a bodybuilder, both labeled "strong" and "fit," frequently exhibit contrasting appearances and training routines. What is Strength Training? Strength training, also called weight or resistance training, involves doing exercises to get stronger and last longer. It's not just about lifting weights; you can use your body weight or try different exercises like isometrics and plyometrics. The goal is to make your muscles stronger over time.  Strength training is mainly a type of exercise that doesn't require a lot of air, but some forms like circuit training also get your heart pumping. It helps make your muscles, tendons, and bones stronger, boosts metabolism, and reduces the chance of getting hurt. Athletes and older people can benefit from it to improve their joints, hearts, and lower their injury risk. Many sports and activities include strength training in their practice to make people better at what they do. Read more: How Does Physical Activity and Exercise Affect Testosterone Levels? Benefits and Risks of Different Types of Strength Training  Agile Strength Training Agile Strength Training is a fitness approach that blends traditional strength exercises with practical movements for daily activities. It emphasizes adaptability and flexibility, incorporating dynamic workouts like weightlifting, bodyweight exercises, and flexibility drills. The primary goal is to enhance overall strength, flexibility, and agility, adapting to individual needs and progress. Benefits of Agile Strength Training This approach improves overall strength, flexibility, and the ability to move with precision in different directions. It's valuable for daily tasks, promoting quick and controlled responses to your surroundings, ultimately aiding injury prevention. Read more: Why You Should Try Walking Backwards

With the world being turned upside down due to the pandemic, many have been forced to work at home and have not gone back to the office for a year now. Depending on the leniency of the area, some companies have been overly guarded with their procedures and have just made working from home the default. With that, many workers are under confinement with limited ways to exercise. Thankfully, the epidemic arrived in the midst of a digital age, which means all is not lost if you just have a phone with you. Are you are looking for an app to give you workout pointers while stuck at home? Here are some of the best fitness apps for Androids and IOS.  Top Mobile Apps to Assist You in Workouts at Home Map My Run It’s no surprise that Under Armor has become a mainstay in the fitness community due to its quality products, meaningful collaborations, and extremely aggressive marketing. What is a surprise, however, is how good their Map My Run app is. If you’re all about the running/jogging life, there are few apps out there that can compare to this one. The app tracks your running route and accurately measures the duration of your jogs. If your running is consistent, Map My Run also gives you a breakdown of your performance and even has an online feature that lets others know about your running routes and progression. This running tracker is one of the few out there that understands the weight of establishing an online community and looks to be one of the best choices for veterans and novices alike. This app is free to download.  Read Bodybuilding Supplements to Avoid when Gyming Fitness Buddy What Map My Run does in running, Fitness Buddy does for weightlifting. The app is critical for those who are looking to take their weightlifting routines to the next level. Fitness Buddy is rather contemporary and has recognized the importance of providing regimes that are designed around home-based exercises. The name this app has chosen wouldn’t be fully accurate if they didn’t factor in diet plans as well. Fitness Buddy also zeros in on elaborate meal plans and an array of recipes to help fitness enthusiasts keep themselves accountable to every aspect of this lifestyle. Diets like Keto, Paleo, and more are available for your reference. There are over 400 exercises on the app, that include videos, step-by-step photos, and detailed instructions so that even the newest member of the fitness community can get a good sweat in. This app is free to download.  Read: Best Fruits for Fitness and Bodybuilding JEFIT Workout Planner The app’s name says it all. JEFIT Workout Planner will be best suited for relatively seasoned fitness buffs who are thrilled to mix up their workout routines ever so often. The software functions more like a digital journal rather than a workout instruction manual. The currently has over 8 million users and also has trackers and programmes available, but serves more as an assistant to your design, rather than the main feature. If you’ve taken a shot at personalising your own workouts, but want some inspiration, the app has got your back on this too. Beginner, Advanced, Sports, Equipment-based, Bodyweight and so many more options are available at your fingertips. The best part is that its jack-of-all-trades approach may not be for those who are leaning heavily towards a specific fitness style but is great for anyone confined at home. This app is free to download.  Read Kettlebells: The Best Equipment for Home Workouts Workout for Women Women have their own types of workouts that are better suited for them and many apps only provide a general guide that doesn’t quite factor body type in. Workout for Women puts its purpose in its name and provides some of the best workouts for ladies who are either tight for time or would gladly commit hours into it. The interface is cleverly compartmentalised and everything you could want is easily accessible. The app won the award of being Google’s best Free Female Exercise app in 2020 and Google’s Best Health and Fitness App in 2019. If you’re a woman who wants to keep fit, this app is an absolute must to try at the very least. This app is free to download! Read Pandemic Yoga: How to strengthen lungs, ease breathing problems with yoga 30 Day Fitness Challenge - Workout At Home The community giving this app a 4.8 out of 5 stars should show you how wonderfully packed the 30 Day Fitness Challenge app is. While not the most elaborate of programmes, the 30-day challenge does provide coaching tips and training plans that focus on home-based workouts. This app has more than kept up with the times and will do you good. The interface is extremely easy to use and the exercises suggested are predominantly bodyweight; meaning that you won’t be caught off guard halfway through the routine, realising that you need to run out to buy some dumbbells. If you don’t need a workout for your entire body, you could also commit an entire month to their butt and abs challenge. If you’re happy with the results, there is an inbuilt online platform that can let your friends know that the home is just another gym for you. This app is free to download. Read: Arm Exercises: Why Beginners Don’t Need Them For Bulking Nike Training Club It’s nice being included in things, especially when it’s the community of one of the world’s leading fitness brands. Nike has transcended the status of being just an apparel/equipment brand for fitness but has become a name that holds the highest status in fitness knowledge as well. The app houses workouts led by professional trainers and explore all forms of workouts, including yoga and HIIT. The lessons can be studio-based, meaning that the instructor on the app will do the actual workout with you, such as one would in a class. This application has everything and is reflective enough to know that there will always be novices who are in need of more guidance for fitness. This application is free to download. Read Tips to Get Marathon Level Endurance and Stamina

From team sports to martial arts, almost every form of exercise requires some level of physical endurance and stamina. Learning techniques in games like tennis and football for example, certainly holds a lot of value, but is eventually moot if one does not have the fundamental stamina to last an entire session of said sports. Here are some tips to get marathon levels of stamina and endurance and why it’s so important. Why Are Stamina and Endurance So Important? A comparison can be drawn to music to explain the necessity of both stamina and endurance. If one does not know how to read music or know what notes are, it is certainly not possible to even move to more advanced lessons. Stamina and endurance are the same: without both, you won’t be meeting the basic standard in the activity you are practicing. Read How to choose the best shoes for running Running out of breath after the first dance routine in an hour long class or being burnt out on the third round of an 11 point game in badminton are examples of how the basic tasks your sport sets for you can’t even be met. Naturally, not everyone can attain the peak level of human performance in sports or fitness, but some level of performance is required in order to fully participate in the fitness activity of your choice. Thankfully neither are purely genetic and can be trained with enough motivation and discipline. The deed of getting better endurance stems from the openness to break barriers. Constantly setting goals with time and pacing of your regime and surpassing previous goals is the definition of training and is the essence of building both these attributes up. Read Running vs. Swimming vs. Cycling: Which Is Best for Burning Fat? The Partnership of Stamina & Endurance When thinking about said goals, stamina and endurance have a large part about how you establish your goals in the first place. While stamina focuses on muscle groups and its ability to perform at the height of its capacity, endurance is defined by time and how long the specific muscle group can perform optimally. Dr. Sullivan from Nova Chiropractic and Wellness Center gives the comparison between doing a push up versus running laps. Failing at the former is the result of poor stamina as the targeted muscle group is not capable of executing the task, while running out of breath after a certain number of laps is where endurance starts to dip. Read Off Road Vs Road Cycling: Know the Difference While both have technical differences, stamina is linked to performing at an optimal level, while endurance is about performing a task as long as possible - both are equally important and go hand in hand with each other for any physical activity. On a more cardiovascular front, endurance will be tested, but muscular durability will be where your stamina will be relevant. Training Stamina As it is muscle related, Strength Training is possibly one of the most direct ways to train your muscles to better endure any form of exercise. While it may appear to mirror the types of exercises done in bodybuilding, working on back, shoulders, legs, arms and core are all critical for a well-rounded improvement in stamina. Read How Effective Are Machines At The Gym? Exercises like barbell walks, lunges, shoulder raises and even deadlifts are good exercises to train specific muscle groups, but that doesn’t mean that you need to go heavy. Seeing as aesthetics are not the goal, light weights that allow you to only tire after 20 repetitions are ideal to train your muscles to be under tension for a set amount of time. Alternatively, you can approach the weights HIITS style and time your weight-based activities to a minute and rotate between a variety of exercises. Dumbbell squats, kettlebell swings and even planks are all effective ways to either isolate or work on multiple muscle groups. Read Which Swimming Style Is Best For Fat Loss? When first starting, there could be feelings of discomfort from the sheer amount of pressure your muscles are going through. The shock will wear off after consistent practice and enough patience. You will start seeing results when your legs or back stop aching as you continue with your sport. Running, throwing, jumping and more will be seamless as you progress further into your strength training. Training Endurance Not everyone is a fan of cardio; thankfully running a marathon isn’t quite your goal either, which means starting with brisk walking, jogging and static cycling are viable options. The goal is to expand your cardiovascular system and condition your lungs in order to ensure that you don’t run out of breath after a certain amount of time. Read Benefits of Leg Workouts: Why You Should Never Skip Leg Day Tempo runs are a great way to get started if jogging and brisk walking are too slow paced for you. Running certain short distances in bursts, and reducing the pace for double the time is a classic HIIT move that has proven to work wonderfully in countless fitness surveys. On a practical standpoint, it can be identical to playing team sports, where the tempo of sprinting and brisk jogging are often alternated. Unfortunately, cycling and swimming are the only other options that yield the most effective training. Both will require some time and a basic understanding of technique in order to properly train the muscles. Read Effectiveness of Compound Exercises for Muscle Definition However swimming is more for the whole body and is a popular pick for those looking to elevate their heart rate for a gradual amount of time without pouring out tons of sweat or worrying about travelling. There is no way to escape cardio if you want to continuously improve your endurance, but setting the time alone to try and better yourself far surpasses not trying at all.