You know strength training, you know endurance training – but what exactly is meant by strength endurance training? Today we are clarifying terms like hypertrophy training, maximum strength training, and strength endurance training. In the following, you will learn why these three forms of training are meaningfully connected and why you, as a strength athlete, shouldn't hesitate to periodically integrate strength endurance phases into your training plan.
Types of training: strength endurance training, maximum strength training, and hypertrophy training
Before we get into what makes strength endurance training so valuable and why you should definitely include it in your workout routine, let's first clarify the key terms. Muscle training is not just muscle training. There are different approaches and training styles to get closer to your goal: building muscle. What does it mean when people talk about hypertrophy training, maximum strength training, and what exactly is strength endurance training?
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Hypertrophy training: This type of training is all about increasing the size of the muscle or muscles. It focuses on muscle growth and building, aiming to increase the circumference and thickness (cross-section) of the muscle through specific exercises. You achieve this through intensity. Put simply, it's about using heavy weights. Strength athletes often refer to 1 RM in their plans. That stands for 1 Rep Max, or One Repetition Maximum. This is the maximum weight you can manage for exactly one rep of a specific exercise—essentially your current upper limit. In hypertrophy training, you work in the range of 70 to 80 percent of your 1 RM. For example, if your maximum deadlift is 100 kg, you would train here with 70 to 80 kg for approx. 8 to 12 reps.
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Maximum strength training: This is primarily focused on increasing your muscle strength or improving your maximum strength. The goal here is not to build more muscle mass, but to boost the performance of existing muscles. There are various ways to structure such maximum strength training. As a rule of thumb, maximum strength training is performed at approx. 80 percent of your 1 RM over several sets. The repetition count is often debated. Some recommend 4 to 6 reps per set, others 6 to 10. You shouldn't perform more than 12 reps. Typically, you train your maximum strength over 3 to 5 sets. Many people also use a pyramid routine where the number of reps gradually increases. What works best for you may not be right for someone else, and vice versa. So try to work out a customized plan with a trainer.
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Strength endurance training: Many (strength) athletes are somewhat hesitant to do strength endurance training. Yet training strength endurance is a vital building block for making progress. Here, you generally train with less weight than in maximum strength or hypertrophy training. You work with lighter weights while performing a high number of reps. It is recommended to train at approx. 50 percent of your maximum capacity with about 20 to 40 reps per set over a total of three sets. Keep the rest periods between sets fairly short, around 60 seconds. Here you focus on the endurance capacity of your muscles. Your muscles are meant to sustain exertion for longer periods. Muscle can be built with this type of training, but that is not the primary focus. Muscle failure should not be reached here.
For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that for each of these training types, a proper muscle warm-up beforehand, a mobility section, and a final cool-down section are, of course, mandatory.
The two major benefits of strength endurance training
To anyone who is still a little skeptical and wondering if training with lighter weights and higher reps for a while is actually effective: Yes, it makes absolute sense to integrate strength endurance training into your workout plans! Imagine you are constantly striving to push or lift as much weight as possible. Eventually, a point will come where your body has adapted to the heavy weight. Your muscles have gotten used to the weight and the type of stress, and you get stuck in a training plateau. Nothing moves anymore. That is precisely when a varied training routine helps. That is why smart athletes rotate their workout plans every few weeks. A rotating training plan like this could look like this: 8 weeks of hypertrophy training to build muscle and increase muscle mass (hypertrophy). Then 6 weeks of maximum strength and explosive strength training to increase your maximum performance (1 RM). This is followed by a four-week phase to train your strength endurance. Finally, you treat your body to a week of complete recovery, which could include things like saunas, walks, and plenty of sleep. Simply a break for body and soul. The strength endurance phase offers two truly major benefits for returning strong to heavy training afterwards. And you really should not underestimate these.
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Benefit 1 of strength endurance training: Muscle capillarization. What exactly is that? Simply put, capillaries are the tiny blood vessels running throughout your body, organs, and muscles. During strength endurance training with lighter weights, the growth of this capillary network is stimulated and promoted. As a result, more fine capillaries run through the muscle, supplying it better with oxygen and nutrients. This has a positive effect on your muscles' ability to recover. In addition, more metabolic waste products are carried away (including the lactate or lactic acid created by high muscle exertion).
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Benefit 2 of strength endurance training: Increased fatigue resistance and improved lactate breakdown. A more moderate workout with rep ranges between 20 and 40 reps is primarily characterized by a stronger burning sensation in your muscles. This is due to the increased formation of lactic acid (lactate) in the muscle. The muscle becomes hyperacidic, as the saying goes. Strength endurance training ensures that your muscles are effectively trained to break down higher amounts of lactate—improving the muscles' acid tolerance. This in turn benefits you in later maximum strength and hypertrophy training, because more reps become possible in those ranges before the muscle shuts down due to acidification.
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A positive side effect during a strength endurance training phase is that working with lighter weights allows you to focus more intensely and deliberately on the correct technical execution of each exercise.
So you see, strength endurance training makes absolute sense and brings a lot of benefits. It relieves muscles and joints, allowing them to recover slightly from the previous maximum strength and hypertrophy cycle. At the same time, blood circulation in your muscles is improved, preparing them to endure more and last longer under maximum stress. It is therefore an important building block in strength training – helping you break through your performance plateau so your muscles can achieve more in the next maximum strength phase thanks to proper preparation.
