Essentials: How to Build Endurance

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I explain how to build endurance and describe targeted protocols to enhance different types of endurance. I discuss how endurance—the ability to sustain effort—requires the coordination of physical and mental systems driven by energy availability, brain willpower, and specific training adaptations in the muscles, heart, lungs and neurons. I explain conditioning protocols designed to enhance four types of endurance, from long-duration steady state to muscular endurance and high-intensity intervals, and how each training style triggers unique adaptations in the body and brain, such as improved mitochondrial function and oxygen utilization. Additionally, I highlight the crucial role of hydration and electrolytes, which are essential for neural function and influence the brain’s willpower to sustain effort. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman Follow Huberman Lab Instagram Threads X Facebook TikTok LinkedIn Timestamps 00:00:00 Huberman Lab Essentials; Build Endurance 00:00:50 Energy Sources, ATP, Oxygen 00:04:14 Neurons & Willpower, Glucose & Electrolytes 00:09:19 Heart, Lungs; Physiology & Performance Limiting Factors 00:10:35 Sponsor: AG1 00:12:30 Muscular Endurance, Protocol, Concentric Movements, Mitochondria 00:19:10 Sponsors: LMNT & Eight Sleep 00:22:00 Long-Duration Endurance, Efficiency, Mitochondria, Capillaries 00:25:54 High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), Anaerobic Endurance, Protocol 00:32:33 High-Intensity Aerobic Endurance, Adaptations 00:35:30 Sponsor: Function 00:37:26 Brain & Body Adaptations, Heart 00:40:40 Hydration, Tool: Galpin Equation 00:42:21 Supplements, Stimulants, Magnesium Malate 00:43:11 Recap & Key Takeaways Disclaimer & Disclosures

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable
0:05.8	science-based tools for mental health, physical health, and performance.
0:11.4	I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
0:17.4	This podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford.
0:21.6	It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science
0:26.6	related tools to the general public. Today, I'd like to talk about endurance and how to build
0:32.0	endurance and how to use endurance for the health of your entire body.
0:40.8	Endurance, as the name suggests, is our ability to engage in continuous bouts of exercise
0:45.1	or continuous movement or continuous effort of any kind.
0:50.2	It is clear that cardiovascular exercise,
0:54.0	exercise where you're getting your heart rate up continuously
0:56.7	for a period of time is vital for tapping into and enhancing various aspects of our biology
1:03.5	in the body and in the brain such that our brain can perform work for longer periods of time,
1:11.1	focused work, learning, et cetera.
1:14.0	The key thing to understand about energy production
1:16.9	in the body is this thing that we call ATP.
1:21.6	ATP is required for anything that requires energy,
1:25.5	for anything that you do that requires effort.
1:28.3	So our muscles and our neurons use different fuel sources
1:33.6	to generate ATP.
1:36.7	The ones that are used first for short bouts of intense activity
1:40.2	are things like phosphocreatine.
	...

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