A Runner's Guide To Strength Training

Here is a blog I wrote for the Bristol Run Series to help participants of this year’s running events with their strength training. Here I take a look at strength training specifically for runners and where to start with building the right training plan for you!

In a runner’s world, running often takes priority – understandably! However, in order for you to improve your running, to feel good whilst you’re running and essentially for you to be able to continue to run for as long as you want to, strength training needs to be part of your training schedule too. Runner’s can often neglect their strength training for numerous reasons. Perhaps it’s unfamiliar to them and they don’t know what they should be doing, or maybe they find it tedious and uninteresting. Whatever your own reasons may be, if you want to run to the best of your ability and stay injury-free, strength training is a non-negotiable. To help you get started, here’s a simple guide of why you need to and how you can implement your own strength work into your weekly routine.

Why is Strength Training so important?

Let’s first cover the reasons why strength training is a must for all runners. Running is a high impact sport, with lots of pressure being forced through your joints (especially your knees and ankles) as you pound the pavements for potentially hours at a time. Your muscles are also being put under a lot of stress through this continuous repetitive movement. Strength training – otherwise known as resistance training – is designed to make your muscles stronger and more resilient. By improving the strength of your muscles, you will consequently improve the strength and resilience of your joints and other parts of your body which work together in sync to allow you to run. Strong legs will mean you can endure longer runs, you will be more powerful when working on your speed and inclines, and perhaps most importantly – you will be able to recover in time for your next training session or event. It is also imperative to note that having a strong upper body and core will also help your running. Maintaining good posture throughout your runs will help you run more efficiently and this comes from ensuring your arms, back, chest and core muscles are all being worked on too.

Injury prevention is also a key reason for strength training. Not only do you want to recover well from a hard run, you want to keep any niggles at bay. As already mentioned, the impact of running puts a lot of strain on our body and if our muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons and bones are weak, we are more likely to injure ourselves during training. Try not to wait until you feel pain or weakness before you start looking into strength exercises. Get ahead of the game and remind yourself that you’re doing them because you don’t want to get to that point!

Where to start?

Try not to feel too overwhelmed by all the information out there about strength training. Start simply and go from there. Depending on how often you’re running (this will likely depend on when your next event is), aim to do between 1 and 3 strength workouts per week. Factor them into your training week and try not to think of them as a ‘nice to do’. They are a ‘must do’ and need to be part of your training plan so try to regard them as such.

Finding yourself a strength program to follow will help a lot with taking the stress of wondering what and how much to do. There are some great resources available on my Instagram page for you to use, such as follow-along strength workouts which you can do at home. You could also find yourself a simple strength training plan online. The internet is full of simple basic programs, some of which will be designed specifically for runners, so have a look around and find one that you like the look of. You could also invest in some Personal Training if you think you would benefit from some individual help. Deciding what is possible for you and what you can do consistently is the most important thing here.

Wondering what to include in your training?

Focus on full body workouts so that you’re able to target as many muscle groups as possible. As mentioned above, running is a full-body sport so make sure you’re not neglecting anything by including upper, lower and core exercises.

Your lower body should definitely be a main focus of your sessions and it’s key to include movements such as squats and deadlifts (if you’re able to). These are compound exercises which means they work a lot of muscles at the same time. Isolation exercises are also very effective as they are more muscle specific, so movements that work your hamstrings (Romanian deadlifts), glutes (hip thrusts, lunges), quads (leg extensions, split squats) and calves (calf raises) are great to incorporate. Your upper body work can be a bit more general, as long as you include some push and pull movements so that your back, chest and shoulders are all getting some work. Similarly with your core, aim to incorporate some core specific exercises – deadbugs and planks are great examples.

Hopefully some of these ideas will come in helpful with your running success. Try to keep in mind the reasons that you’re doing it all. Strength training will give you longevity in running due to the reasons above and it doesn’t have to be complicated. If you feel stronger, fitter and more efficient in your runs, you are more likely to want to continue in future. And you can only keep running if you’re injury-free, which is what having a good base level of full body strength will help you to maintain.