In fact, lift now and you may be able to delay the ultimate finish line. In one large study with data spanning more than 20 years, women who strength trained two or three days per week had a 30% lower risk of dying of heart disease. And combine cardio and weights—like we’re recommending in our program—and you could gain even greater life-lengthening benefits, even if you’re just lifting once a week, per the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The best strength exercises for runners are pretty similar to top picks for general lifters—with some nuances.
In general, anyone looking to get stronger should include compound exercises (big movements that have multiple muscle groups and joints working together) like deadlifts. Runners should also incorporate smaller, isolation moves (those that zero in one on smaller, more specific area), like banded clam shells, in their workouts, Whyte says. And because you’re pretty much never on both legs at once while you’re running, a strength training program for runners should also include plenty of single-leg exercises. “When you run, you’re pretty much jumping or pushing off and landing on one leg,” Dr. Mena says.
So while squats and squat variations definitely have their place for runners, eventually including some related exercises such as reverse lunges or split squats into your program can be particularly helpful. Not only do they help build single-leg strength, but they can also help you pinpoint and address any imbalances between sides.
Basically, when thinking about your lower body, you want to choose moves that work the big muscles there: hamstrings (with moves like Romanian deadlifts, good mornings, or leg curls); quads (like with squats, lunges, or leg presses); and glutes (say, with hip thrusts, glute bridges, or glute kickbacks). Then you want to give some special TLC to some key smaller areas. Runners tend to have weak hips, so hitting the muscles there (including the glute meds, along the sides of your hips) helps you stay stable, Whyte says—making moves like fire hydrants, side-lying leg raises, or the clam shell great program additions. And lots of folks tend to overlook their calves, which can be a problem, since studies show its larger soleus muscle does much of the work of propelling you upward and forward. So that means exercises like calf raises and all their variations can come in clutch too.
But strength training for runners shouldn’t only focus on your lower body. Core exercises can also help you maintain proper running form since stronger abs, obliques, and transverse abdominis (your deepest core muscles) keep you in a solid upright position when you stride. And working the muscles in your chest, back, shoulders, and arms can improve your arm swing and prevent you from slouching when you get tired, Dr. Mena says.
Because running is a forward-only movement, you also want to train side-to-side exercises, like lateral lunges, lateral step-ups, or banded lateral walks. This improves your stability both when you’re running and through the rest of daily life, Whyte says. Finally, add a dash of plyometrics—rapid, explosive movements like hops and bounds—to improve agility, power, balance, and tendon health. (You’ll see one plyo movement in each phase of Katz’s program!).
Your strength training routine should not feel like running.
Katz says she often has to remind runners that their gym time should have a different vibe from their mileage. “They are so accustomed to keeping a certain heart rate, leaving a run sweaty, not taking rests that they try to produce the same outcome in their ‘strength training,’” she says. But remember, these sessions aren’t designed to increase your endurance; that’s what running does. “The goal is for a heavy enough force to stimulate change in muscle to contract and grow.”
