This week, my NCC Squadron started practising rifle drill for our upcoming camps. After the drill, one of my seniors (who has attended the Republic Day Camp and was a part of the Indian delegation to Nepal in Youth Exchange Programme) told us that what we are practising is nothing in front of the labour done by the military cadets.
He even went on to inform us that the para-commandos, during republic day parade high-jog (unche kadam taal daudke, as we say it in military) for over 7 km in one stretch! Can you believe that? 7 whole km with a heavy rifle in hand and jogging with unche kadam taal !
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To keep things in perspective, it is similar to High-Intensity Interval Training that we do in gyms, except, we do it for a fraction of the time and the para commandos, for about 1 hour continuously!
Hats-off to their stamina! They give us some serious goals to achieve. And with this, here are the tips to increase your stamina like a military cadet:
- Gradually build up to your target level of stamina: Any attempt to improve your stamina through exercise should be approached somewhat gradually – try to do too much too early, and you may exhaust yourself or give up. Instead, set simple, specific goals as stepping stones to your major goal.
- Eat right: Eat a healthy, balanced diet. Food is the fuel your body gets its energy from. A healthy, well-balanced diet keeps your body healthy and energised, raising your stamina. Eliminate all junk food and fast food from your diet. Filling your body with empty calories can make you unhealthy and decrease your stamina.
- HIIT: High-intensity interval training—aka quick bouts of intense exercise—can help improve endurance in conjunction with traditional training. When you exercise at an extremely rapid pace, it will not only improve your strength but also carry over to improve your endurance activity.
- Stay hydrated: Drinking lots of water can help you lose weight, prevent kidney stones, and much more. Water can also increase stamina by fighting muscle fatigue. Muscle tissue that is under-hydrated can under-perform, so keep your stamina up by drinking about 17 ounces of water a few hours before strenuous exercise.
- Get Physical: Push yourself physically to improve your stamina. Do something you genuinely enjoy, rather than something you dread. You may discover, for instance, that you prefer low-impact exercises, like swimming and biking, over your previous attempts running, or you may discover the opposite!
- Add some strength: When it comes to endurance training, variation is important. Resistance training can strengthen our bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscles—helping improve overall fitness and helping with that final sprint to the finish. Mix up aerobic exercise with kettlebells, dumbbell, and bodyweight exercises to help improve stamina.
- Get plenty of rest: While it’s important to stay active with exercise, if you’re shooting for high stamina it’s just as important to stay well-rested. Your body needs REM sleep so that both your body and brain get the energy necessary to power you through your activities. To go long and hard, you need fresh muscles. Feeling fresh can help anyone go the distance.
Are you up for it?
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