Cardiovascular endurance is a key component of overall fitness. On top of improving your athletic performance, having strong endurance supports your energy levels and productivity. There are two main types of endurance: muscular and cardiovascular. 

Muscular endurance is a muscle’s ability to complete multiple reps against resistance for a sustained period. “Cardiovascular endurance, or aerobic fitness, is how well your heart and lungs can supply the oxygen you need while you exercise at medium to high intensity. If you have good cardiovascular endurance, you can exercise at medium intensity for a long time (and high intensity for a while) before it makes you tired. This is because your body is able to keep getting the oxygen it needs during exercise” (Cleveland Clinic, 2025). 

At Nielsen Fitness, our in-home personal trainers in Toronto, Collingwood, London, Hamilton, and Ottawa (and virtual personal trainers everywhere) prioritize cardiovascular endurance to maximize health and longevity. Better endurance reduces risk for chronic diseases by strengthening the heart and lungs, improving brain function, reducing cholesterol and blood pressure, and creating a general sense of ease during daily tasks. Read on to learn how you can start boosting your cardio with our team.

BUILDING YOUR AEROBIC BASE

The most challenging aspect of cardio endurance training is building your aerobic base. If you’re just getting started, your stamina may be on the lower end, which means exercise may feel more challenging or uncomfortable. It’s important to take your time and ease into a program that doesn’t feel overwhelming. The difficulty of each workout should creep up at a pace that makes sense for you and your goals. 

Our in-home and virtual personal trainers often recommend starting with a goal that feels relatively easy to obtain. If you’re sedentary, this could be as simple as walking for 10 minutes at a sustained pace a few times a week. Once the routine feels easy, you can add more time and/or higher frequency. The last thing you want to do is push way past your comfort zone too fast, as this almost always leads to quitting altogether.

ADVANCED TECHNIQUES

Once you’ve built your aerobic base, there’s the option of integrating more advanced techniques. The use of HIIT (high intensity interval training) or circuit training are both great ways to begin elevating your aerobic capacity by training in a higher heart-rate zone. Our in-home and virtual personal trainers can adjust the intensity of your workouts based on breath-rate, speech patterns, and form. A heart-rate monitor is another option if you prefer to work with more specific numbers, but it’s not necessary to invest in one to see progress.

MAINTENANCE

It’s important to remember that aerobic endurance is lost relatively quickly. “No exercise throughout a period of weeks means your heart will not be working as hard, and you will start to see reductions in your cardiac muscle size, so your stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped from the left ventricle of the heart per beat) decreases. In addition, your body becomes less efficient in the way it uses glycogen. While these changes sound dramatic, many can be reversed quickly when you return to training” (Runner’s World, 2023). However, if you stop training for a period of months, you may need to rebuild your aerobic base from square one. 

For adults, the general recommendation is to complete at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise per week. This can also be substituted with 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise. Our in-home and virtual personal trainers usually suggest spreading this over 2-3 workouts.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Regardless of your fitness goals, improving your aerobic endurance will benefit your long-term health and quality of life. If you’re not a fan of high intensity exercise – or a medical professional has suggested you avoid it – plenty of benefits can be gained from moderate aerobic activity. 

Find a mode of exercise you most enjoy, and slowly build the amount of time you can sustain an even pace. If you need someone to help hold you accountable, our trainers can help! Book your free initial consult and mini workout with Nielsen Fitness, here.