Why Strength Training for Runners is Important

For all runners, muscular strength plays a crucial role in your running performance. Strength training, specifically designed for runners, targets the muscle groups that need strength and endurance when running. This specialized training routine is not about bulking up. It is about building up the strength and endurance to last longer, as well as building speed and power through cross-training. It can help correct muscle imbalances and establish a foundation that supports progressive overload. By integrating a well-structured strength training routine, you’re running smarter, harder, and lowering your injury risk. The beauty of strength training lies in its dual capacity to elevate your performance while safeguarding your body through balanced muscle development. This article addresses the benefits of strength training for runners, reviewing strength training myths, and laying a foundation of where and how to start your your strength training regimen.

I’m in…so how do I start strength training!?

**This is not medical advice. Please consult your medical provider for more information.

Benefits of Strength Training for Runners

Runners who strength train doesn’t just enhance their strength. They also improve their running performance and reduce their risk of injury. Strength training allows you to build strength in your legs to cover longer distances with less perceived effort. Core training helps with the transfer of power from the upper body, through the core, and down into the legs. It creates a solid foundation to continue to propel your running performance forward (literally and figuratively). Your stride increases in power and your speed also increases.

Aside from strength, endurance, and power all improving, one of the most underrated advantages of integrating strength building into your workout regimen is injury prevention. Focusing on muscular imbalances and strengthening targeted areas needed for running, you’re less likely to succumb to common running injuries. This includes, but is not limited to, patellofemoral pain syndrome, IT band syndrome, ankle sprains, shin splints, Achilles tendinitis, and stress fractures. Strength training is a great way to cross-train to elevate your overall athletic capability and improve your running form and distance.

Understanding the Basics: Functional Strength

Functional strengthening in the context of running is about training our bodies in a way that enhances running performance and posture. This form of strength training gears towards exercises that closely simulate running movements or significantly improve running posture. This type of training is important because you want to train what you are competing in. With running, you want to simulate movements that involve cyclical patterns with the legs, hip flexion and hip drives, as well as single leg stability. All of these movements directly translate to running form. The stronger and more efficient these movements are, the more you will see it translate into your runs.

Functional strength training for runners should emphasize the core and legs. They should be strong to be able to last the distances you are looking to run. They should also be able to withstand the repetitive impact of running. The core can help with stability, strength, balance, and posture. As this is the center of the body, it not only helps stabilize your trunk, but also helps transfer power and strength to and from the lower body. If you are a runner, the core should not be forgotten in your regimen or underestimated.

Anatomical Focus: Core and Lower Body

Strength training for runners should emphasize the core and legs. The legs should be strong as they are what propel you forward. Focusing on various muscle groups should be of importance. This includes your proximal hip muscles, quads, hamstrings, and calves. Your hip flexors and extensors should be strong as running primarily occurs in the sagittal plane, meaning that your legs move forward and backward. Emphasizing strength training here is important. Now this does not mean to neglect the hip abductors or adductors. This helps aid in frontal plane stability and reduces the likelihood of hip drop, which can contribute to many injuries seen in runners (trochanteric bursitis, IT band syndrome, various types of knee pain, etc.). Focusing on strengthening all areas of the hip muscles will also help avoid muscle imbalances, which greatly impact how we move and can help reduce the risk of injury.

Focusing on the other muscles in the lower legs is also important and should not be neglected. Working on single leg exercises will help improve your stability and further address any muscle imbalances (as running is a single leg workout). However, balance exercises should be utilized and can help with not only balance, but also strengthening the small muscles within the foot. Most of us don’t think about these muscles, but they are super importance if you participate in a sport like running. It’s repetitive nature can lead to many different types of injuries and overuse issues, which many times, can come from problems within the foot. Check out this blog post here to see what types of balance exercises runners should be doing to help improve your running form!

Other Articles Related to Balance

• A Complete Guide to Mastering Balance Exercises
• 5 Reasons Why Balance Exercises are Important for Runners
• Why Single Leg Stability is Important for Daily Function
• Understanding the Connection Between Foot Posture and Back Health
• Best Gluteus Medius Exercises for Athletes

What should not be underestimated is the core. Consider the core as your body’s center and foundation. You need a solid foundation for anything that you do. A strong core helps not only with strength, but also stability, balance, and posture. The transfer of power and strength from your lower legs to your upper body also comes from your core. All of these elements of strength training are foundation in crafting a workout routine that elevates your running and performance.

Don’t Forget About Upper Body Strength Training

If you have only incorporated leg and core strength training in your workout regimen as a runner, then it is time to broaden your horizon. The rhythmic pumping of your arms is there for a reason—it’s an integral part of your running efficiency and balance.

Just as described earlier, your core acts to transfer power from the lower to the upper body and vice versa. Your arms play a big role in your running form. Upper body strength plays a pivotal role in maintaining upright posture and reducing unwanted lateral movements. These lateral movement can reduce your running efficiency over time, especially if you are a distance runner. While you may not think that your upper body has much to do with running, your posture will affect you a lot more than you think.

Imagine that you are out for a run and you can see your running form from someone else’s point of view. If you have this rounded posture with your upper back rounding and shoulders coming forward as your legs are working hard to keep propelling you forward, what would you think? Do you think this would be an efficient use of your energy? Or another scenario: as you run, your elbows and arms pump and flare straight out to your sides. So you have your legs moving forward and backward and your arms moving side to side. How much energy do you think this would use up and take away from the distance you could be running. these are all things you should be thinking about for your runs and how you can incorporate strength training into your regimen to help supplement these runs.

Debunking Strength Training Myths

Yes, there is a myth that keeps many runners from embracing strength training: the fear of becoming bulky or that added muscle mass will slow you down.

This could not be further from the truth. Strength training for runners is specifically tailored to what runners needs. Depending on what kind of runner your are (sprinter, mid distance, endurance, etc) helps determine how strength training should be implemented. Have you ever watched the Olympics and noticed the different body types the runners in different categories have? Sprinters are built with lots of muscle, whereas the distance runners are a lot more lean. When you start incorporating strength training, you are going to be training for what you need.

Distance runners will not get bulky from incorporating strength training into their regimen. Your body is smart and adaptable. It will adapt based on what you need. Physically it would not be able to sustain the same amount of muscle mass as a sprinter. Running longer distances takes a lot of energy over a long length of time and this energy consumption naturally cannot maintain as much muscle mass. Distance running uses a lot of slow twitch muscle fibers, whereas sprinting uses a lot of fast twitch muscle fibers. Slow twitch muscle fibers store lots of oxygen and generate slow force contractions over a long length of time without fatigue.

Distance runners are incorporating strength training into their workout regimen. They are simply adapting it to what they need in order to last for long distances. Their strength training routine will look different from a sprinter, for sure! But altogether, they are still strength training. If you want to take your running to the next level, regardless of the distance you enjoy running, strength training needs to become a part of your routine.

Starting Your Strength Training Journey

When you first consider integrating strength training into your running regimen, starting slow is the key. You wouldn’t leap into a marathon without ample preparation and the same principle applies here. Begin with incorporating a strength workout 1-2x/week. Allow your body to adapt to something new before jumping completely in the deep end. Start off with lighter weights—something that is somewhat challenging for you, but you are still able to complete. It can be as short as 20 minutes to start, increasing all the way up to about 45 minutes. The important thing here is to not overdo it. You also want to try to do something that you will want to stick with. There is no sense in forcing yourself to do extremely hard workouts you don’t enjoy because you won’t stick with it in the long run. You want something that is sustainable.

Equally important is emphasizing form over volume. It’s not about how many reps you can do, but how well you can perform each one. Poor form not only diminishes the effectiveness of the exercise but also increases your risk of injury. So, take the time to learn each movement correctly, even if it means lowering the weight or slowing down the pace. This meticulous attention to form lays down the track for progressive overload, allowing you to safely increase the intensity of your workouts over time.

A Sample Strength Training Routine for Runners

Starting your journey into strength training as a runner can profoundly affect your running performance, endurance, and help in injury prevention. Here are some ideas for what to include in your workout routine that is specifically designed to target areas crucial for runners. Moreover, it acknowledges the importance of dynamic warm-up and cool-down stretches to prep your muscles and aid in proper recovery post-workout:

• Dynamic Warm-Up: Begin with 5-10 minutes of dynamic stretches to prepare your muscles.
• Core Exercises: Focus on dynamic variations of planks, side planks, and bird dogs for core stability.
• Lower Body Strength: Incorporate squats, lunges, and calf raises to build foundational lower body strength. Also focus on single leg exercises to address muscle imbalances that may be present.
• Resistance Training: Use weights and resistance bands to enhance muscle strength. You can also use light weights to work on more explosive movements and power, such as broad jumps and squat jumps.
• Plyometrics for Runners: Plyometrics are great for getting the heart rate up and can be used in between weightlifting exercises as a dynamic rest break to push your workouts to the next level.
• Balance Exercises: Use foam pads and work on single leg exercises without shoes to work the tiny muscles of the foot and to work on balance and proprioception.
• Recovery Practices: Emphasize stretching, adequate hydration, and nutrition to aid in muscle recovery. Don’t forget the importance of sleep!

Remember, you don’t have to incorporate all of this into one workout. This is meant to spark ideas as to what to incorporate into your own routine. It should be individualized to what you need and what you’re looking for. Keep it interesting and challenge yourself in creative ways. Always prioritize form and progressive overload to gradually increase the challenge without risking injury.

Integrating Strength Training and Running Schedules

When stepping into the world of strength training for runners, it’s crucial to balance it with your running sessions to avoid overtraining and foster adequate recovery. Start by understanding that flexibility in your workout routine is key.

Allocate specific days for lower body strength, mixing them with lighter running days to prevent overloading the same muscle groups. Embrace resistance training on your non-running days to enhance running performance without exhausting the legs. Remember, cross-training activities like swimming or cycling can also serve as a bridge, offering a break from the pavement while still boosting cardiovascular endurance. Incorporating dynamic warm-up sessions before runs and cool down stretches after both strength workouts and running to further aid in injury prevention.

Periodic rest periods, including ample sleep and nutrition, are the key to progressive overload without the setback of injuries. Rest and recovery is also just as important as working on your running and strength training.

Recovery and Maintenance

Recovery practices play an indispensable role with any athlete in any sport. It’s not just about how you train and how much you practice your respective sport. It is equally about how you let your body heal and adapt. Sleep, for instance, is your body’s prime time for muscle repair and growth, making it a non-negotiable part of your regimen. Next, nutrition fuels this recovery process, providing the necessary building blocks for muscle recovery and energy replenishment. Moreover, active recovery days, where you engage in light movement or stretching, aid in flushing out toxins and keeping the muscles flexible and adaptable. Listening to your body’s signals is paramount, as is maintaining consistency in these recovery practices for sustained improvement and injury prevention in your strength training journey.

If you are looking to implement a strengthening programming into your routine and aren’t sure where to start, leave a comment down below and I’ll help guide you to best increase your strength gains while also focusing on injury prevention!

TL;DR

Strength training enhances running performance by improving endurance and speed through lower body and core strengthening. It aids in injury prevention, addressing muscle imbalances and contributing to a well-rounded runner’s physique. Incorporating proper strength-building exercises supports progressive overload and recovery practices, as well as injury prevention.