The Engine That Keeps You Going: Endurance, Stamina &

Flexibility

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Let’s start with the three skills that most people think of first when they hear the word “fitness.” But I’d be willing to bet most people don’t know the difference between

the first two — or why the third one is probably the most underrated quality in your long-term health.

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Skill #1: Cardiovascular & Respiratory Endurance

The ability of your heart, lungs, and blood vessels to gather, process, and deliver

oxygen.

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This is your engine. It’s what’s working when you’re breathing hard on a row piece or

grinding through a longer workout. It’s the system that determines how efficiently oxygen

gets from the air into your muscles — and how well your body can sustain effort over time.

Here’s why it matters more as you get older: cardiovascular disease is still the number one

killer in America. Your heart is a muscle. It responds to training the same way your legs do.

When we put you through longer, lower-intensity efforts — think a 20-minute AMRAP, a

steady row, or a paced run — we are literally strengthening your heart, improving your

circulation, and training your lungs to work more efficiently.

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But we’re not just doing it for longevity stats. We’re doing it because a strong cardiovascular

system means you don’t get winded walking up a hill. You can play with your kids — or

grandkids — without stopping to catch your breath. You recover faster between hard efforts

at work, at home, and in life.

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Every time you finish a workout breathing hard and think, “That was rough,” that’s your

cardiovascular system getting stronger. That’s the point.

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Skill #2: Stamina

The ability of your body’s systems to process, deliver, and utilize energy over

extended time.

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Stamina is closely related to endurance, but they’re not the same thing. Endurance is about

oxygen delivery. Stamina is about energy production — specifically, how long your muscles

can sustain output before they give out.

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Think of it this way: endurance is the highway, stamina is the fuel in the tank.

When we do workouts with moderate loads over longer time domains — like thrusters in a

longer piece, or a kettlebell carry followed by pull-ups for multiple rounds — we’re building

stamina. We’re teaching your muscles to keep producing energy when your body is already

fatigued.

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Why does this matter in real life? Because life doesn’t give you rest breaks. A long day on

your feet, a day of yard work, a trip where you’re walking 10 miles through a city

— those demand stamina. The person with good stamina finishes the day still moving well.

The person without it is on the couch by noon.

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I can tell you with confidence that some of our best “stamina athletes” in this gym are in

their 50s and 60s. They built it here, over time, one workout at a time. And it shows in how

they live outside these walls.

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Skill #3: Flexibility

The ability to maximize range of motion at a given joint.

I know. You’ve heard it. “I can’t do CrossFit, I’m not flexible enough.” I’d argue it’s the other

way around — you can’t afford not to train flexibility, especially after 40.

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Here’s the hard truth about flexibility and aging: we lose it faster than almost any other

physical quality if we don’t actively work to maintain it. Muscle tissue gets stiffer.

Connective tissue becomes less pliable. Range of motion decreases. And when range of

motion decreases, movement patterns change — and when movement patterns change,

injury risk goes up and quality of life goes down.

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When you see us doing mobility work before class, or when I cue you to sit deeper in a

squat or keep your chest up in a deadlift — that’s flexibility training. When we do movements

like overhead squats, goblet squats, or even just a solid hip hinge on a Romanian deadlift,

we are actively working to maintain and improve your joint range of motion.

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This isn’t about being able to touch your toes. It’s about being able to get off the floor

without help at age 70. It’s about bending down to pick something up without your back

seizing. It’s about being able to reach overhead, rotate through your thoracic spine, and

move through full ranges of motion in daily life.

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Flexibility is what keeps your body a body — not a rigid structure that hurts to move.

These three skills — endurance, stamina, and flexibility — form the aerobic and mobility

foundation of everything else we do. Without them, the next six skills we’re going to talk

about don’t work nearly as well.

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Next up: the ones that get a little more exciting. We’re going to talk about strength, power,

and speed — and I’m going to explain exactly why I have a 62-year-old doing power cleans

and why that is one of the smartest things she does for her health every week.

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