GENERAL ENDURANCE:The Foundation of Unstoppable Strength and Performance
by: Josh Bryant
No one 440 pounds has close to the general endurance of Julius Maddox.
Without general endurance, you’re like cheap whiskey—might get the job done, but you’ll never be top-shelf.
Work capacity. General endurance. Call it what you want, but without it, your training, performance, and recovery will suffer.
Too many lifters and athletes overlook this fundamental quality, chasing glitter-covered distractions like TikTok workouts and secret-sauce programs. The reality? Without a solid base of general endurance, when it’s time, you’ll perpetually end up sucking hind tit!
Build General Endurance with Josh’s ACFT Program HERE.
WHAT IS GENERAL ENDURANCE?
General endurance isn’t some vague buzzword dreamed up at a local circle-jerk sports symposium conference. It’s your ability to perform extended work that engages large muscle groups while placing demands on your cardiovascular, respiratory, and central nervous systems.
Soviet sports scientists figured this out decades ago, breaking down athletic qualities into two categories: general and special. General endurance is your base level of conditioning that supports every physical effort you make.
Special endurance? That’s the sport-specific stuff—your ability to perform under conditions unique to your activity, like fighting through the last round in a boxing match or recovering between heavy squat sets. But here’s the bottom line: Without general endurance, you’re getting right swipes on Tinder but don’t have the gas money or the game to seal the deal.
What we’re really talking about when we say “work capacity” is your ability to handle, recover from, and adapt to physical stress. Call it general endurance if you want to be precise (who the hell cares) this is not a final exam at Leningrad and Moscow Sports Institute or a fitness seminar for the Stasi! This applies to you across the board—lifting, fighting, running, and everything else. It’s the baseline that allows you to perform consistently and recover effectively.
WHY GENERAL ENDURANCE/WORK CAPACITY MATTERS
Here’s why this foundation is critical for every athlete, from lifters to tactical athletes:
- Recovery: General endurance allows you to recover faster between sessions and between sets. If you’re always wiped out after a hard training day, you’ll never build momentum in your training and be able to properly progressive overload.
- Higher Volume: With better general endurance, you can handle more volume without overreaching and eventually overtraining. This is the backbone of progressive overload and long-term gains.
- Resilience Under Fatigue: Training hard means getting tired. General endurance helps you keep your technique sharp and your effort consistent, even when the tank runs low.
- Tapering for Peak Performance: You can’t taper effectively for a meet, contest, or game without a solid foundation of hard work and high workloads, you won’t peak—you’ll detrain and performance will fall flat or even decline.
- Injury Risk: Poor general endurance means you’re more likely to get sloppy as you fatigue. Sloppiness leads to injuries, and injuries kill progress.
- Efficient Energy Management: General endurance improves your ability to sustain output during long training sessions without running out of steam.
- Specificity Foundation: A broad general endurance base gives you the capacity to layer on sport-specific training without constantly feeling overtaxed.
- Smoother Work Capacity Building: With strong general endurance, you can gradually push harder in specific endurance/work capacity training, hitting new thresholds without overloading too quickly.
- Performance in Repeated Efforts: Whether it’s back-to-back sets, rounds, missions, or throwing belligerent patrons out of the ol ‘kick n’ stab bar, work capacity ensures you don’t fade when shit hits the fan and it’s go time!
- Sustained Focus: Fatigue affects more than your muscles—it clouds your mind. Work capacity helps you stay mentally sharp under fatigue and duress.
Building General Endurance/Work Capacity
Think of it building General Endurance/Work Capacity as crafting a fine barrel-aged whiskey: every step matters, and rushing the process won’t get you top-shelf results.
Start simple: Brisk walking is enough for many, as you progress over time add a weighted pack (aka rucking) which aids in building a solid aerobic base and mental toughness without wreaking havoc on your joints. When the outdoors isn’t an option, gym cardio machines like the sled drags, incline treadmill, stair stepper (my favorite), elliptical, bike, or rower are great tools to stay in that 60-70% max heart rate zone. While I prefer rucking for the mental and physical benefits, these machines can still build a solid endurance base with minimal joint stress.
As your aerobic base expands, you can progressively tap into lactic and alactic energy system training. This includes high-intensity interval training (HIIT), hill sprints, repeated sprints, resisted sprints, strongman events, higher-volume off-season lifting, extra workouts, density training, and cross-training. And that’s just scratching the surface of what’s possible.
Advanced General Endurance Training. Learn more HERE
THE FINAL WORD
Eventually, the cream rises to the top. The strongest strength athletes, the most durable traditional athletes, and the most badass tactical athletes all have one thing in common—they can outwork everyone else. General endurance is the engine behind their dominance. Build it, respect it, and let your work capacity kick your personal records and the competition square in the arse!
Explosive Power Factors into General Endurance. Learn more HERE.