
SARMs for endurance: what can they do for you?
Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMs) are being touted by many as a safer alternative to steroids. They help with a few key areas, most notably in promoting hypertrophy and increasing stamina and endurance. They will also help with recovery, meaning that you can increase your overall workload when you take them.
Unlike steroids, they do not target other hormones. They only work on the body’s androgen receptors, and so fewer, if any, side effects result from their usage.
For these reasons, SARMs have quickly been adopted into the fitness industry. Bodybuilders and athletes alike are utilising them as part of their supplement regimes, making the most out of the performance enhancement that SARMs bring.
One of the greatest areas of performance enhancement from SARMs is in muscular endurance.
Muscular endurance
Whatever discipline you’re a part of- track and field, bodybuilding, powerlifting, boxing, team sports… the list goes on- muscular endurance is vital to your performance. It functions in allowing you to perform multiple sets or lengthier routines, staying active for a long period. It will allow you to more easily overcome the trauma and fatigue caused by intense exercise.
Improving your muscular endurance, as SARMs can do, will help you to perform for longer at any given activity.
It’s widely and incorrectly assumed that muscular strength and muscular endurance are the same thing. They aren’t at all. Muscular strength helps with small, intense bursts- think of performing a 3-rep set of heavy squats. Endurance is your ability to go on and on- think of doing mid-weight squats continuously for a minute or more.
SARMs will improve both strength and endurance, but this article will focus on the latter.
Top SARMs for muscular endurance
It’s fairly uncontroversial to say that ostarine (MK 2866) is amongst the most popular, best known SARMs- probably even topping the list. This is with very good reason. Not only does it have the most clinical data backing up its research, but it also has reams of anecdotal evidence attesting to its ability to greatly enhance hypertrophy, strength and endurance.
Ostarine is generally considered to be a weaker SARM, especially compared to compounds like RAD 140 (see below.) However, it is also considered to be one of, if not the, safest and least suppressive. It’s quite a good one to start off with, therefore.
That’s not to denigrate its effects in any way, however. It still helps users to build lean, effective muscle, fast. Significant numbers of athletes have reported a fantastic increase in muscular endurance when taking ostarine, thanks in no small part to its potent anabolic effect.
I have always been a fan of Ostarine: I find it to be a good, safe SARM for improved athletic endurance and performance, and for decreasing post-training fatigue.
Stenabolic (SR9009) is a popular SARM that helps in boosting endurance, increasing fat burning potentials and increasing energy levels with low chance of side effects. It will not need any kind of PCT as it is not suppressive at all.
Stenabolic helps in intra-cellular mitochondria production. This can result in a 50% increase in energy production. It boosts your metabolism, so you will use energy rather than storing it as fat, and you will burn through calories at an increased rate even at rest. It also builds your endurance by building macrophages in your cells- this will allow you to increase your workload, your set lengths, and your cardiovascular output.
You will also find less incidences of DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness) after training, as Stenabolic helps to decrease inflammation post-training.
Cardarine is also fantastic for your endurance. Though it is often labelled a SARM- and should be treated as such, due to its similar effects- in actual fact it’s a PPAR agonist. Bodybuilders and athletes have used it as a way to increase their stamina since the 1990s with good reason.
Cardarine helps to burn through excess body fat whilst improving endurance and enabling athletes to recover from training faster. It does this by allowing your body to utilise glucose more efficiently and increasing insulin sensitivity. This means you will have more energy and will burn fat at an increased rate.
There are next to nok potential side effects and cardarine is also non-suppressive, meaning that no PCT will be likely needed.
Cardarine is perfect for those reaching plateaus. If everything else is on point- training, diet, rest and recovery- but you need something to give you a boost, it does the trick perfectly. You will be able to train harder, for longer, with guaranteed good results.
In my experience, RAD 140 is just about the best SARM for improving muscular endurance. It is often used by athletes and bodybuilders who are wanting to increase either endurance capabilities or workload.
RAD 140 will help you to increase muscle mass, and it will help you to do so very quickly. This alone will aid with endurance, especially if you couple it with high rep or track work. It will also help to increase your metabolic rate, meaning that you will burn energy faster. This will both give you more utilizable energy and help to keep calories from turning to fat/burn through existing fat.
RAD 140 will also increase the anabolic effect of anything else you might take it with. It will reinforce the effects of testosterone, therefore, without any suppression or side effects. This in turn will give you more energy- especially for men- and allow you to train harder, for longer, with a decent amount of (controlled) aggression.