What kind of endurance are you talking about? Anaerobic (muscular) endurance or aerobic (cardiovascular) endurance? And why do you think this is more useful in real life?
...
Again, this depends on exactly what kind of endurance you are interested in. Having said that, what does your routine look like exactly? What exercises? How many sets & reps?
My routine is based on realism. For some reason, I cannot stomach gyms. I've tried four completely different gyms seriously and entered a few others on occasion. In all cases I get queasy within minutes of entering the room (even if I haven't started working out yet). I know of no other gyms that I'll use. So gyms are out of the picture.
Also, since my main goal in life is to be happy and that includes keeping the wife happy, expensive or bulky equipment at home is out of the picture as well. I can and do have the capability for using dumbbells, several forms of aerobic exercises, and for non-equipment based workouts. Everything else is out of the picture until I can somehow overcome the gym sickness or become a millionaire with a dedicated room for exercise at home. I'm working on the latter, but that'll take a bit of time.
A typical week looks like this: One evening dancing (aerobic fast swings and fast latin is common but also foxtrots and waltzes), 10 to 20 miles brisk walking (I walk for fun and to/from work), and two days of each of the following: squats, bicep curls, tricep presses, crunches with weights, wrist curls (solely to balance out the look of my arms), calf raises, bench presses (although I'm switching to wide pushups due to a shoulder that randomly collapses with weights falling towards my body), and one of several forms of deltoid lifts. If I'm feeling up to it I'll add in the occasional minor lift (such as something for the rotator cuff or other neglected muscles in the lifts above). On some occasional weeks I like to add in ice skating or biking for fun, not so much for the exercise.
I've reached the strength goals (and thus looks) that I wanted from the weights. I may be off a bit with the number of reps, but if I try weights where I can only do 1-5, I can tell my form is WAY off. I'd rather do 6-12 reps correct than 1-5 where I'm really fudging my way through. Typically I do one set of 6-12 due to time constraints. But when I do have the time I'll do one set of 6-12 lower weights and a second set of 6-12 of the heavier weights.
My main physical problems are in the fact that I can't do things that I'd like to do. Those things always tend to be in the form of endurance. Even if I had infinite strength, I still would never be able to keep my arms up properly by the end of the night while dancing (since strength is the wrong goal in that case). The best way to describe it is to put your arms straight out to your sides (like if you formed a letter 't') and then lift your left forearm up 90°. Now hold that position for 3 hours. That is where I fail and the strength training doesn't help. I need the endurance to hold that position effortlessly for hours (with dance partners tugging down on occassion).
Or for another endurance example, I went ice skating last weekend. I'm not very good, but it was fun. After 15 minutes I wasn't even winded but my quads were toast. I just am not training properly to stand in a partially squatted position for hours on end.
So, I'd like to stop doing so much focus on strength and focus the same lifts in ways that will help endurance. Endurance defined as holding one position for hours. But, I don't want to lose my looks, so strength is still of some importance.
Note: Performance for sports is meaningless to me since I don't do sports. I don't want aerobic endurance to run marathons. I want to look strong (not like a marathoner). But I need more endurance than I have.
