Stamina versus Endurance

Got a good question tonight: what’s the difference between stamina and endurance?  In everyday speech, probably not much – they’re largely interchangeable.  In CrossFit (and probably the larger fitness community, though I honestly have no clue) stamina refers to the capacity of a muscle or group of muscles to repeat an action.  Endurance refers to the capacity of the cardiovascular system to deliver oxygen to the body.

Or to put it another way: if you are doing as many push ups in a row as you can and your arms fail, you’ve encountered a failure of stamina.  If you are doing as many laps around the track as you can and your lungs fail, you’ve encountered a failure of endurance.  Of course, your lungs could give out on you during push ups and your legs could give out on you doing laps then you’d have a failure of endurance during your push ups and a failure of stamina for your running.