Strength Training for Runners: What Actually Matters?

If you want to become a better runner, the most important thing you need to do is still fairly obvious: run.

Strength training does not replace easy kilometres, long runs, intervals or gradually building your running volume.

But it can complement them.

Appropriately programmed strength training can improve how much force your muscles can produce, increase the capacity of the lower limbs and may improve running economy and performance.

For some runners, strength training is also an important part of managing an existing injury or rebuilding the capacity required to tolerate more running.

The challenge is deciding what type of strength work actually matters, how much you need and where it fits alongside running.

At RHP, our Running Physiotherapy service looks at running training and strength as parts of the same physical system rather than treating them as unrelated activities.

Why Should Runners Strength Train?

Every running stride involves your body accepting force, storing and releasing energy and then producing enough force to propel you forwards.

Do that thousands of times and the physical demands become substantial.

Strength training gives us another way to expose muscles and tendons to load without simply adding more kilometres.

Depending on the runner, useful adaptations may include:

• Greater lower-limb strength.
• Improved ability to produce force.
• Improved running economy.
• Greater calf and ankle capacity.
• Improved tolerance to hills, speed and harder running.
• Better maintenance of strength during high running volumes.
• Improved rehabilitation after injury.

Importantly, strength training does not seem to improve running by substantially increasing aerobic fitness.

Your VO2 max may barely change.

Instead, one of the more consistent findings is improved running economy: using slightly less energy to maintain a given running speed.

What Is Running Economy?

Think of two cars travelling at the same speed.

One uses less fuel to maintain that speed.

Running economy is a similar concept.

Two runners can have similar aerobic fitness but require different amounts of oxygen and energy to run at the same pace.

Recent systematic reviews suggest that higher-load strength training, plyometric training and programs combining different strength methods can improve running economy in middle- and long-distance runners.

That does not mean every runner will suddenly become dramatically faster after starting squats.

But over time, small improvements in efficiency can become valuable, particularly when combined with appropriate running training.

Strength Training Should Complement Your Running Volume

One of the easiest mistakes to make is treating strength training as simply another workload to pile on top of an already full running week.

If you run five days, add two gym sessions, increase your long run and introduce intervals at the same time, it becomes difficult to know what your body is responding to.

Strength training creates fatigue too.

A good program therefore considers:

• Your weekly running volume.
• The number of hard running sessions.
• Your long run.
• Your current gym experience.
• Your injury history.
• Your upcoming races.
• Your recovery between sessions.

More training is not automatically better training.

The aim is to create enough stimulus to improve without continually arriving at your important running sessions fatigued.

Which Muscles Matter Most for Runners?

There is no single “runner's muscle”.

Running involves the entire lower limb, but several areas deserve particular attention.

The Calf

The calf complex performs an enormous amount of work during running.

The gastrocnemius and soleus help control the body as it moves over the foot and contribute substantially to propulsion.

A runner may therefore benefit from both straight-knee and bent-knee calf exercises.

Depending on the goal, this can include heavier calf raises, endurance-based sets, faster work and eventually plyometric exercises.

This becomes especially relevant in runners managing Achilles tendon symptoms or returning from a foot or ankle injury.

The Quadriceps

The quadriceps help absorb and produce force around the knee.

Exercises might include:

• Squats.
• Split squats.
• Step-ups.
• Leg press.
• Leg extension.
• Single-leg squat variations.

For runners with knee pain, quadriceps strength is frequently an important part of rehabilitation.

The Hamstrings

The hamstrings contribute during both stance and swing phases of running and are exposed to particularly high demands as running speed increases.

Strength work can include both hip-dominant and knee-flexion exercises, such as:

• Romanian deadlifts.
• Deadlift variations.
• Hamstring curls.
• Bridges.
• Nordic hamstring exercises.

The Hips

Hip strength is often discussed in running rehabilitation.

That does not mean every running injury is caused by “weak glutes”.

But hip extensors, abductors and other muscles around the pelvis contribute to force production and control throughout running.

Exercises such as split squats, lunges, step-ups, deadlifts and loaded single-leg work can train the hips while also strengthening the rest of the lower limb.

Heavy Strength or High Repetitions?

Both can have a role, but they train slightly different qualities.

If the goal is to improve maximal strength, eventually lifting relatively heavy loads is useful.

Recent reviews suggest that higher-load resistance training may be particularly effective for improving running economy.

That might involve lower repetitions with a weight that feels genuinely challenging rather than completing endless sets with a very light resistance.

But runners also need endurance.

Your soleus, for example, has to produce force repeatedly across thousands of running strides. Higher-repetition calf exercises may therefore still be useful when building local muscular endurance.

The answer does not need to be heavy or endurance work.

A well-designed program may contain both.

What About Plyometrics?

Plyometrics include exercises such as hopping, jumping, bounding and other fast stretch-shortening movements.

They are particularly relevant to running because running itself is essentially a repeated series of spring-like contacts with the ground.

Plyometric training may improve running economy and reactive strength, but it also creates substantial load.

For a runner who is new to strength training or currently injured, jumping is not necessarily the first place to start.

Often it makes sense to develop basic strength first and then progressively introduce faster and more elastic exercises.

How Often Should Runners Strength Train?

For many recreational runners, two strength sessions per week is a sensible starting point.

This is enough frequency to provide a meaningful training stimulus without requiring the gym to take over the week.

Some runners may benefit from three sessions during a dedicated strength phase.

Others may maintain strength effectively with one good session each week when race-specific running volume becomes high.

The research supporting improved running economy has used a range of approaches, commonly between one and four strength sessions per week, with two to three sessions often used in successful programs.

The best number is the one that fits the rest of the program and allows you to train consistently.

Does Strength Training Prevent Running Injuries?

This needs some nuance.

Strength training clearly makes runners stronger.

It can also improve physical qualities that are useful when rehabilitating many running injuries.

However, that is not the same as proving that a generic strength program will prevent all running injuries.

A 2024 systematic review of exercise-based injury-prevention programs in endurance runners found no significant overall reduction in injury risk or injury rate.

Interestingly, when the researchers looked specifically at supervised exercise interventions, injury risk was lower.

Individual trials have also reported positive results. A 2024 trial in novice runners found a supervised hip and core program reduced lower-limb injury incidence compared with a stretching control.

So strength training is certainly worth doing for its many other benefits, and it may contribute to injury-risk reduction in some runners.

But we should avoid promising that doing a particular list of exercises makes a runner injury-proof.

Running Injuries Are Usually More Complicated Than Weakness

A common story is:

“Your glutes are weak, therefore your knee hurts.”

Real running injuries are usually more complicated.

Factors may include:

• A recent change in running volume.
• A rapid increase in intensity or hills.
• Previous injury.
• Sleep and recovery.
• Strength and physical capacity.
• Overall health.
• Running experience.
• Other sport or gym loads.

Strength may be part of the solution without necessarily being the original cause of the injury.

What Happens to Strength Training When You Have Pain?

You do not necessarily need to stop.

Often the exercise can be modified.

That might involve changing:

• The exercise.
• The weight.
• The repetitions.
• The range of movement.
• The speed.
• The number of sessions.

For example, a runner with irritable knee pain may temporarily tolerate a different squat depth or exercise variation.

A runner with Achilles pain may need calf loading adjusted rather than abandoned.

The aim is usually to find a level of loading the body can currently tolerate and progressively build from there.

Do Runners Need Fancy Exercises?

No.

Running strength programs can become unnecessarily complicated.

You do not need to recreate running while standing on an unstable surface holding three resistance bands.

Simple exercises performed consistently and progressively can work very well.

A program might include:

• A squat or leg press variation.
• A split squat or step-up.
• A hip-hinge exercise such as a Romanian deadlift.
• A knee-flexion hamstring exercise.
• Straight-knee calf raises.
• Bent-knee calf raises.
• Appropriate jumping or hopping work.

Not every runner needs every exercise.

The program should reflect the athlete's current ability, injury history, goals and available equipment.

A Simple Strength Template for Runners

Strength Training Is Not a Replacement for Running

This sounds obvious, but it matters.

If your goal is to run a faster 10 km, half marathon or marathon, you still need enough running to develop the cardiovascular fitness, running-specific endurance and pacing ability required for that event.

Strength training is an adjunct.

It supports the runner rather than replacing running itself.

The most useful program therefore balances:

• Easy running.
• Higher-intensity running where appropriate.
• Longer runs.
• Strength training.
• Recovery.

So, What Actually Matters?

You do not need a complicated runner-specific gym program.

You need enough resistance to create adaptation, enough consistency for that adaptation to occur and a program that does not destroy your ability to run.

For most runners, the priorities are fairly simple:

• Strengthen the calves.
• Build quadriceps and hip strength.
• Train the hamstrings.
• Use meaningful resistance rather than always staying light.
• Add faster or plyometric work when appropriate.
• Fit strength around the running that actually matters to you.
• Progress gradually.

If pain is limiting your running, or you are unsure how to combine gym work with your current training, our Running Physiotherapy team can assess your running demands, strength and injury history and help develop a program around your goals.

For runners returning from a more significant injury, our Return to Sport service can also help bridge the gap between basic rehabilitation and full training.

Author in the know

Sam Donaldson

Director, APA titled Sports and Exercise Physiotherapist. Sam loves to treat athletes with lower limb injuries and has a special interest in knees of all ages; adolescent knee pain, athlete with knee pain, ACL injuries, ACL rehabilitation, Knee Osteoarthritis and Knee Replacement recovery. He is a Dad, Football enthusiast and loves to move. BAppSci (HMS), MPhtyStudies, MPHTY (Sports)