Strength Training for Runners | What Type Should You Be Doing and When?

Strength training for runners is one of those topics where the advice can become confusing pretty quickly. Lift heavy. Do plyometrics. Don't do too many reps. Build your core. Work on mobility. Do single-leg exercises. Lift two or three times per week. Make sure you're recovering. Then, somewhere amongst all of that, you're also supposed to actually go running!

Most of that advice isn't necessarily wrong. The problem comes when we take one particular style of strength training and decide that this is the way runners should strength train, regardless of who the runner is, what they're training for, how experienced they are in the gym, or where they currently sit within their training cycle.

This is where I think we need to add a little more context to the conversation.

Strength training should support your running, not compete with it. If running is your primary sport, then ultimately we are using strength training to help you become a stronger and more durable runner, tolerate your training, and move well. The type of strength training we use can change depending on what we're trying to achieve.

Just like we periodise run training, we can periodise strength training too. There might be times during the year when we have the capacity to really develop strength, and other times when maintaining what we've already built is more than enough.

So rather than asking "What is the best strength training for runners?", I think the better question is: What type of strength training is most useful for me, right now?

Prefer to Listen?

This article is based on our NZ Nomad Runner Podcast conversation where Char and I dive deeper into the different styles of strength training for runners, and how the right approach can change depending on the athlete and where they are in their training.

Strength Training Doesn't Have to Be Complicated

CMF Coach Charlotte Milne has spent close to 20 years in and around gyms, starting when she was a teenager, before becoming a Personal Trainer and eventually combining that background with Run Coaching. Over that time she's done everything from gym classes and functional training through to heavy strength work, circuits and all sorts of modalities picked up along the way.

Her philosophy around strength for runners today is actually pretty simple, and like many things in life — simple, effective, maintainable, and achievable is good!

Most runners don't have unlimited time or energy available for strength training. Running is already taking up a reasonable chunk of the week, particularly once you're also running 4–6 times per week, adding a long run, perhaps working towards an ultra, and trying to fit all of this around work, family and life.

We're looking for bang for buck.

We're not necessarily trying to become the strongest person in the gym. We're trying to create and maintain enough strength, stability and movement capacity to support what we're doing out on the road and trails. Consistency with something relatively simple is generally going to be much more useful than having the world's most scientifically perfect strength programme that you're too cooked to actually complete.

Here are six different styles of strength training we discussed in our recent podcast. There's quite a bit of crossover between them, and an individual workout could easily contain several of these at once, but separating them helps us understand what we're actually trying to achieve, and when and how they can be applied into your training schedule alongside your running.

1. Heavy Strength / Heavy Lifting

Heavy strength training is high-load resistance training designed primarily to improve maximal force production. Put simply, we're trying to increase how much force your muscles can produce.

We're generally talking about weights you can lift for somewhere around 3–6 repetitions with good technique. Exercises could include deadlifts, heavy squats, leg press, leg extensions and Bulgarian split squats, although it's important to understand that an exercise itself isn't necessarily "heavy strength". The load is what makes it heavy. You could perform a Bulgarian split squat as a heavy strength exercise, hypertrophy exercise or even plyometric exercise depending on how you execute it.

There is good evidence behind heavy strength training for runners, particularly around improvements in running economy. Research comparing heavy resistance and plyometric training has found benefits from both, with heavy resistance training producing greater improvements in running economy in some analyses.

When Does Heavy Strength Make Sense?

Firstly, I think you need some strength training experience before going properly heavy, as technique matters.

If you've never strength trained before or haven't for a while, I wouldn't have you heading straight into low-repetition heavy deadlifts simply because you've read online that heavy lifting improves running economy. Spend some time learning the movements, develop some general strength, and gradually increase the load.

Where heavy strength can become particularly useful is when your overall running load gives you the capacity to absorb it.

If you're in a base phase, an off-season, or earlier in a training block where your running volume and intensity are relatively controlled, you'll likely have more energy available and time to make genuine strength gains. That's an opportunity worth using.

It can also make a lot of sense for runners training towards shorter distances such as 5K, 10K and half marathon, where force production becomes increasingly relevant.

For an ultra runner, I'd look at it slightly differently. Early in the training cycle, when the big long runs and high-volume weeks haven't arrived yet, there can be a really nice window to build strength. But once the running load ramps up, our priorities start changing.

If you're four weeks out from your 100km and doing your biggest long runs of the training block, do we really want you absolutely destroying your legs with heavy squats two days beforehand? As an advanced athlete training technique there is merit with this theory in part, but as a general rule the answer would be no. (To destroying the legs anyway — time and place!)

At that stage, I'd be more interested in maintaining the strength we've already developed rather than continuing to chase strength gains. That's where another strength modality can become more appropriate.

2. Plyometrics

Plyometrics are fast, explosive movements designed to train the body to absorb and produce force quickly. Think jumps, hops, bounds, jump squats, box jumps and jumping variations of exercises such as lunges or Bulgarian split squats.

Plyometrics get quite a lot of airtime in the running world, and again, there's good reason for that. Research supports plyometric training as one potential way of improving running economy.

Personally though, I don't prescribe huge amounts of plyometric strength work. I'd see more benefit in having a runner execute a light to moderate drills session, or even skipping. (As in, skipping down the road!)

It's a relatively demanding form of training, so I think about the energy cost and what else I'm asking the runner to do. If I am prescribing plyometrics, I generally see them as a small part of a wider strength programme, rather than having a runner smash out 30 minutes of high intensity plyo.

While we're here, CrossFit and HIIT class lovers, if running is your primary sport you want to improve at, then I'm generally not a fan for the same reasons as described above. Too much cost in conjunction with running, although some merit exists for HIIT class if overall running volume is low and light such as base phase.

Who Might Benefit From Plyometrics?

Plyometrics can make plenty of sense for 5K, 10K and half-marathon runners, particularly once they've developed a reasonable strength background and we're trying to improve their ability to produce force quickly.

They can also have a place for more advanced athletes who naturally move at faster speeds and want to maintain some elasticity and reactivity.

Trail runners are another interesting group. There can be a neuromuscular component to plyometric training that helps teach the body to react and move quickly, which potentially has some transfer when you're bouncing around rocks, roots and technical terrain. This would be helpful if you were training for a technical trail race, but didn't have as much access to technical trail to train on.

But I'd also argue that the best plyometric and neuromuscular work for runners is running itself. Running drills, skipping, strides, short uphill repetitions and technical trail running all train qualities that have relevance to the actual movement we're trying to improve.

If I had the choice between giving one of my runners a big standalone plyometric session or getting them doing some good running drills and strides around an appropriate running workout, I'd choose the latter!

3. Hypertrophy Strength

Hypertrophy training generally uses moderate loads and moderate repetitions — something around 8–12 reps is a useful way to think about it. Coach Char uses and prescribes this style a lot in the 8–10 rep range.

Hypertrophy training is traditionally associated with developing muscle size, but that doesn't mean a runner doing 8–12 reps is suddenly training like a bodybuilder. For us, it's simply another way of applying resistance. Compared with very heavy, low-repetition lifting, we can reduce the load, increase the repetitions and still create a meaningful strength stimulus. It's a really useful middle ground in that sense — bang for buck!

You're still lifting enough weight to create a meaningful strength stimulus, but you're not working at the very heavy end where you need long recoveries between sets and potentially create a larger recovery cost afterwards.

You can move through the workout relatively efficiently. You can use supersets. You don't necessarily need a huge gym setup. A decent pair of dumbbells and a couple of kettlebell options at home can get you a long way, and importantly, you can still practice really good technique.

Sometimes adding more and more weight actually makes an exercise worse. You're holding onto massive dumbbells during a lunge, your forearms and shoulders are doing everything they can simply to stop you dropping them, your technique starts disappearing, and somewhere along the way we've forgotten what muscle group we were actually trying to train!

More weight isn't automatically more benefit. A moderate load performed with excellent control, range and technique can be really productive.

Hypertrophy as a Maintenance Tool

This is where I think hypertrophy-style strength becomes particularly useful for runners with bigger training loads.

Maybe earlier in your training block you've done some heavier strength work and developed good strength. Now you're running five or six times per week and approaching the more specific part of your marathon or ultra build.

We don't necessarily need to keep pushing the strength ceiling upwards. We want to hold onto what we've built without compromising the running.

One quality 40–60 minute moderate strength session each week, perhaps combined with a shorter, lighter secondary session, can give us a really good return for our time and energy input.

Coach Char describes this quite well from her own training. As her running load increases, she often doesn't have much desire to go heavy, but she still wants to get into the gym and do a moderately weighted session. She has a familiar pool of exercises like lunges, RDLs, squats, Bulgarian split squats and other movements, and changes the load, order or variation depending on where she is in her training.

Strength training doesn't have to be a completely different programme every four weeks. Developing a repertoire of good movements that you know how to execute properly, and then manipulating the load can be an excellent approach.

Heavy strength has stronger evidence for improving running economy, but moderate-load work can be a very practical way for runners to maintain strength when their running load is high.

4. Stability and Neuromuscular Training

Stability and neuromuscular training develops your ability to control joints, positions and movement, and improves coordination between the nervous system and muscles.

This can sound pretty technical, but in practice it can actually be quite simple. Think:

• Single-leg exercises
• Balance work
• Controlled core movements
• A BOSU ball
• Lateral step-downs
• Single-leg RDL variations
• Agility work

On our recent podcast discussing strength training, Coach Char shared how she thinks core stability is particularly important. We're not doing core exercises because we're chasing an eight-pack. We want a torso that can remain relatively stable and controlled while the limbs move around it. I think this becomes particularly important when running downhill.

If your upper body is excessively twisting or collapsing from side to side as you run, that's movement and energy that isn't necessarily helping you move forward efficiently. As fatigue builds during a long event, having the strength and control to maintain your position becomes increasingly valuable.

This is also where simple exercises can become surprisingly difficult. Stand on one leg and maintain your balance.

Easy?

• Now do it on an unstable surface
• Now raise the opposite knee
• Now move that leg behind you while hinging forward
• Now add a light kettlebell

Now we're working, and it's fun!

5. Functional Mobility

Functional mobility is probably the hardest of these categories to put neatly into a box, but it's one I personally use quite a bit. It's not really a universally established strength-training for runners category in the same way as heavy resistance or plyometrics is. Mobility Training or Loaded Mobility might be similar terms used, but the terminology I've coined over the years is Functional Mobility.

Low-load movement through useful ranges of motion, often with some light resistance and control. We're essentially talking about training that helps you access and actively control the ranges of motion you need for running and everyday movement.

For me, that can involve relatively light resistance through the cable machine, moving my arms and shoulders through a good range, lightly loading hip movements in different directions, and generally getting everything moving.

I'm not necessarily trying to get stronger in the traditional sense, I'm trying to move better and feel better. For me, as we're using myself in this example, I have a history of back issues and autoimmune health issues, so incorporating this style of training at the gym works particularly well because of its low energy requirement. It gets me moving for that next run, or it progresses me to heavier weights within the same strength session.

A lot of us also spend an enormous amount of time sitting. We sit at work, drive, look at phones and laptops, then go running, which itself is a highly repetitive movement. Over time, it's pretty easy to become tight and restricted. Having some strength work that encourages movement through the hips, shoulders and trunk can therefore be useful, particularly for runners who know they have certain areas that tighten up.

Not Every Gym Session Needs to Smash You

This is probably the bigger lesson I take from functional mobility work. There are days when I walk into the gym and don't feel particularly energetic.

Rather than deciding the session is a failure before I've started, I'll begin with some light movement. Cable work, mobility, range of motion, some activation. Ten or fifteen minutes later, usually I feel great and progress into a normal strength session.

Other times I don't. Maybe I do another couple of exercises and call it. Maybe I end up on the mat doing some mobility, stretching and rolling. That's completely fine — I went in, I moved, I left feeling better than when I arrived.

There's an intuitive element to strength training that I think runners can develop in exactly the same way we learn to become intuitive with our running.

Remember what we're trying to achieve — the strength work is there to support the running.

6. Muscular Endurance

Muscular endurance training develops a muscle's ability to repeatedly produce or maintain force before fatiguing.

In the gym, we're generally talking about lighter resistance and higher repetitions — perhaps 15–20 reps or more depending on the exercise. This isn't a style of strength training I use as heavily with established endurance runners.

There's a fairly obvious reason for that: we're already endurance athletes!

If you're an intermediate or advanced runner doing a reasonable amount of running each week, you already have a pretty substantial endurance stimulus coming from the primary sport. There can therefore be more value in using your limited gym time to develop qualities that running isn't giving you as effectively.

That doesn't mean muscular endurance training is useless.

For a newer runner, someone returning to running, or someone with limited strength-training experience, light or no weight higher-repetition work can be a really accessible starting point. As strength develops, adding repetitions is one way of increasing the stimulus, while adding resistance can allow the exercise to progress without simply doing more and more reps.

Some exercises also naturally lend themselves towards higher repetitions. Calf raises are a good example. Bodyweight glute bridges can be another, depending on the athlete.

Key Takeaways and Coach Tips

Strength Training Should Change Across Your Running Year

Your strength training doesn't need to look the same all year. When your running load is lower, such as during base training or earlier in a training cycle, there may be more opportunity to build strength. As running volume and specificity increase, the focus can shift towards maintaining those gains while ensuring the strength work doesn't take away from your key running.

The type of runner matters too. A 5K athlete may be able to maintain heavier strength and plyometric work further into their training cycle than an ultra runner approaching their biggest weeks of long runs, elevation and race-specific training.

Coach Tip: Strength training should fit the runner, their event, and where they currently are in their training cycle.

How Much Strength Training Should a Runner Do?

Like running volume, there isn't one perfect number for everyone. How much strength training is appropriate will depend on factors such as the athlete, their age, available time, current running load and recovery capacity. As a broad guide, Coach Char recommends 2–3 strength sessions per week, totalling around 90 minutes. This might include one key strength session, a secondary session, and a lighter mobility, stability or neuromuscular session.

During heavier periods of run training, this may reduce to one key 30–50 minute strength session, with shorter mobility or activation work added around runs where useful.

Coach Tip: 2–3 strength sessions per week is a good general target, but the amount should rise and fall with the demands of your running.

Barriers to Strength Training

One thing I've become increasingly conscious of as a coach is not making strength training another overwhelming thing for the athlete to worry about. A runner newer to being coached might already be learning how to slow their easy runs down, introducing structured workouts, changing their weekly training layout, and thinking more about elements like recovery and fuelling. Adding a complicated strength programme with a bunch of new exercises on top of that can become a barrier rather than something that supports their running.

So just be wary of that with yourself if you're self-prescribing your training. Spend less time worrying about what type of specific strength and exercises you'll be doing, and just prioritise cracking into it. Start simple and light and build from there.

Coach Tip: Strength training doesn't need to be complicated from day one. Start with something achievable, build consistency and progress from there.

Remember What Your Primary Sport Is

If you're reading this as a runner, then running is most likely your primary sport. Strength training is there to support your running, not compete with it. This is particularly important as your running load increases and your available time, energy and recovery capacity are already being stretched by long runs, workouts and race-specific training.

That doesn't mean strength training isn't important, or that you shouldn't challenge yourself in the gym. It means we need to consider the cost of the strength work alongside everything else we're asking the body to absorb. If a hard gym session is consistently compromising your key running sessions or leaving you too fatigued to complete the training that's most specific to your goal, then we need to question whether we've got the balance right.

Coach Tip: Strength training should help you become a better runner. Remember what your primary sport is.

About the Author

Chris Lucas coaches runners and athletes who are serious about levelling up their running. He also develops and mentors the CMF Coaching team, helping shape the coaching philosophy behind CMF Running. He's the host of the NZ Nomad Runner Podcast and is passionate about helping runners better understand the why behind their training.

Keep Learning

If you enjoyed this article, here are a few more coaching resources to help you continue learning.

• 🎧 Podcast: Strength Training for Runners | What Type Should You Be Doing and When?
• 📖 Related Article: Heart Rate Zones, Pace Zones & RPE (When to Use What Metric in Your Running)

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