When people think of stamina most often they think of endurance as well. Although both are important and are related in terms of physical fitness and activity, both terms accomplish also different tasks in the body. 

So in a nutshell, what is the difference?  While stamina is defined as the amount of time that a given group of muscles can perform at or near maximum capacity, endurance is defined as the maximum amount of time that a given group of muscles can perform a certain action. Another difference includes the idea that endurance is the ability to process and deliver oxygen to the body, while stamina is the ability to process and deliver energy to the body.

Although they sound similar, the main difference between stamina and endurance is one of focus: while stamina is limited to performing at maximum capacity, the focus of endurance is on maximizing time regardless of the capacity at which a given group of muscles is performing.

For example, if your goals is to do 20 push ups in a row as you can and your arms fail at 10, you've encountered a failure of stamina. If your goal is to run 20 many laps around the track and you can only do 10 and your lungs fail, you've encountered a failure of endurance. So depending on the workout or the goal of the activity being performed, the person may be focusing on one or the other, or perhaps both. 

The types of endurance are cardio endurance, anaerobic endurance, speed endurance and strength endurance. Endurance training is big for longer paced events such as marathons and tri-athlons.

Cardio training is an important for all physical activity. Having better cardio means you can do more physical exercise without getting out of breath. You'll not only have more energy but also perform better. Having just strong muscles won't do you any good if your body can't absorb oxygen fast enough to fuel your muscles.

If you are trying to increase endurance for any event or reason, one of the best ways is to include high intensity workouts in addition to the longer, slower to medium paced cardio workouts. Just running 5 miles a day won't mean as much as you think if you are relaxed the whole time. You need to be able to raise your heart-rate. You will be able to reduce body fat as well as train your body and lungs to be able to accomplish an exercise for a long period of time. 

Some examples of training for endurance include:

• Performing your aerobic exercises for longer distances
• Maintaining your interval efforts for longer periods of time
• Increasing the weight or repetitions in your strength training
• Making your balance exercises more challenging
• Jump roping
• Running
• Swimming
• Cycling