Muscular endurance exercises: what it is, how it's trained, and a list to start with

Muscular endurance is how long a muscle, or a group of muscles, can keep working. It's the push-up count you can reach before the last one slows, or the seconds you can hold a plank. It's different from cardio endurance, which is about keeping a whole-body effort going for minutes of walking, running or cycling, and different from strength, which is tested by the heaviest load you can lift for one rep.

This page covers what muscular endurance means in the research, what the guidelines and the trials say about training it, where the evidence is mixed, and a practical list of exercises and a session. The rep range side of it is on how many reps.

What muscular endurance is

A 2021 review, citing another source, operationally defines local muscular endurance as the ability to resist muscular fatigue when using a submaximal resistance, a load lighter than the most you could lift.¹ In practice, it's measured by counting: how many reps you can do to failure. The review separates two ways of testing it. Absolute endurance is as many reps as possible at a fixed load, the same weight for everybody. Relative endurance is as many reps as possible at a set percentage of each person's one-rep max.¹

The American College of Sports Medicine's 2026 position stand, an overview of 137 systematic reviews, found that resistance training improved muscular endurance compared with no training, and that home-based resistance training did as well.² It found too little data to say whether load, volume or set structure changed that.²

What the guidelines say

For local muscular endurance, the ACSM's 2009 position stand recommends light to moderate loads, 40 to 60% of a one-rep max, for high repetitions (more than 15) with short rests (under 90 seconds).³ That is the range this page's session uses. For muscle size the same stand emphasizes 6 to 12 rep maximums, and for strength heavier loads.³

What the trials found

Two trials compared training in different rep ranges and then tested how many reps people could do.

• Three rep ranges, 32 untrained men, eight weeks. One group trained with 3 to 5 reps per set (four sets), one with 9 to 11 (three sets, two minutes' rest) and one with 20 to 28 (two sets, one minute's rest), alongside a group that didn't train. Training was two days a week for the first four weeks and three days a week for the last four. The maximum number of reps at 60% of a one-rep max improved most in the high-rep group, and maximal strength improved most in the low-rep group.⁴
• Light against heavier sets, 18 young men with lifting experience, eight weeks. One group did 25 to 35 reps per set and the other 8 to 12, three sets of seven exercises, three days a week. Upper-body endurance, tested as bench press reps at 50% of a one-rep max to failure, improved 16.6% in the high-rep group and fell 1.2% in the other. Back squat strength rose more in the 8-to-12 group (19.6% against 8.8%), and muscle thickness rose in both.⁵

Both point the same way: the high-rep groups did best on the reps test and the heavier groups on strength. They are two small trials, in men, over eight weeks.

Where the evidence is mixed

The 2021 review looked at the whole body of rep-range research and calls the evidence for a load-specific effect on muscular endurance "equivocal", with what support there is mostly for the lower body.¹ The ACSM's 2026 stand found insufficient data to say whether load changes muscular endurance gains.² So high reps are a reasonable way to train endurance, as the guideline says, but the studies cited here don't show they are the only way. The review also notes that results can depend on how endurance is tested, for example against a one-rep max measured before training or after it.¹

Muscular endurance exercises: a list to start with (practical)

This list is practical. It picks exercises you can take to many reps or a long hold without a heavy load or a spotter, so you can count reps or seconds and beat last time. The studies above didn't test these exact exercises.

Holds measure endurance in seconds rather than reps; isometric exercises covers them. At the gym, the same idea works with machines and light dumbbells: pick a weight you can lift 15 to 25 times.

A muscular endurance session (practical)

Built from the ACSM's 2009 range, not from a trial: more than 15 reps at a light to moderate load, with rests under 90 seconds.³

1. Choose five exercises, one each for legs, push, pull, core and whole body from the table above.
2. Do 2 or 3 sets of each, 15 to 25 reps (or a hold of 20 to 40 seconds), and rest 60 seconds between sets.
3. Stop each set a few reps short of failure at first. (Reps in reserve.) Take the last set closer to it once the movement feels steady.
4. Beat last time by one rep. When you hit the top of the range on every set, add a set, slow the movement or use a harder version of the exercise. (Progressive overload.)
5. Train it two or three days a week, or run the same five exercises as a circuit or an EMOM to make the session shorter.

Common mistakes

• Counting sloppy reps. A push-up that stops at half range doesn't beat last week's full one. Pick a standard and keep it.
• Mixing it up with cardio. Muscular endurance is about a muscle group; a 30-minute jog is a different goal. How to build endurance covers cardio.
• Changing the exercise every week. A count only tells you something if the exercise stays the same.
• Dropping heavy work entirely. The trials above show heavier training built more strength, so if strength matters to you, keep some of it.^4,5

Common questions

What is muscular endurance?

A 2021 review operationally defines it as the ability to resist muscular fatigue when using a submaximal resistance, in other words how many reps, or how long, a muscle can keep going against a load below its maximum.¹

What are muscular endurance exercises?

Any exercise you can take to many reps or a long hold. The list above has bodyweight and band options for the legs, push, pull and core. The ACSM's 2009 stand recommends more than 15 reps with rests under 90 seconds for training it.³

Are there muscular endurance exercises for beginners, at home or for the upper body?

Yes. Most items in the table need little or no equipment. Start with incline push-ups, bodyweight squats, inverted rows and short planks, and add reps before you add anything else. The ACSM's 2026 stand found home-based resistance training improved muscular endurance compared with not training.²

Do high reps build muscle?

The two trials disagree. In the second trial, 18 men with lifting experience trained for eight weeks, and muscle thickness rose in both the 25-to-35-rep group and the 8-to-12 group, with no significant difference between them.⁵ In the first, 32 untrained men trained for eight weeks and muscle fibres of all three major types (I, IIA and IIB) grew in the low- and intermediate-rep groups, while the high-rep group (20 to 28 reps) and the control group showed no significant increases.⁴ The trials differ in who was studied and how growth was measured, so I won't call a winner. How many reps has the wider evidence.

Is muscular endurance the same as cardio endurance?

No. Muscular endurance is how long a muscle keeps working against a light load; cardio endurance is about keeping a whole-body effort going for minutes. Training one doesn't replace the other: how to build endurance covers the cardio side and cardio and lifting how to combine them.

If you'd rather have the week planned

A list of exercises is the easy part. Setting the reps, the rests and the progression for the days you actually have is the part a page can't do. If you'd like a plan built around your week, coaching to build muscle explains how it works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise, pick five exercises, write the counts in your log and beat them next week.