Top 5 Strength Exercises for Runners
Have you ever started something new and made yourself feel silly?
For the majority of runners, it’s strength training as they feel either silly doing it or believe it will hinder their running performance.
However, this is the biggest mistake a lot of runners make when it comes to improving their running as there are undeniable advantages with incorporating strength training into your running program.
Strength training is a critical component for any powerful, successful runner as strength training helps with:
Staying healthy by preventing injuries that result from weak muscles, tendons, or ligaments, such as IT Band Syndrome and runner’s knee
Developing muscular power that enables speed and a fast finishing kick
Building neuromuscular coordination that improves running economy (i.e. efficiency)
A single tool - strength training - has the ability to help you get faster, prevent injury, and run more efficiently. Consider how many runners will get hurt this year. Depending on the source, 35-80% of runners will get hurt every single year
No runner wants to deal with injuries!
Unfortunately, runners don’t do the right type of strength training. The majority of runners take fitness classes, such as Body Pump, Bootcamps, or CrossFit classes. The problem is these fitness classes won’t allow you to develop the necessary speed and power necessary for running. Plus, you’ll be more likely to actually hurt yourself and compromise your running!
The best strength training exercises for runners have two characteristics
They prevent injuries by focusing on the specific needs of the runner (core stability, hips, and lower body strength)
They are compound, multi-joint movements like squats, deadlifts, and push-ups.
The 5 Best Strength Exercises for Runners
1) Kettlebell Deadlifts
The deadlift is one of the most effective running specific exercises as the deadlift will strengthen your glutes and hamstrings, helping you apply more force as you propel yourself forward after your foot strikes the ground. In addition, strengthening your glutes and hamstrings will help you avoid knee pain. Quite often, knee injuries are the result of being too quad dominant, meaning your glutes aren’t doing their job, causing your quads to work overtime.
2) Goblet Squats
The squat is a multi-joint exercise that primarily strengthens the hips, quads, and hamstrings. These muscles are important because they’ll power your stride. When these muscles are strong, you’re far less likely to become injured. Healthy, strong legs often equal to faster legs too.
3) Split Squats
This is one of the best exercises any endurance athlete should do. Running is a predominantly unilateral movement, meaning you use just one limb at a time to propel yourself forward. Split Squats closely mimics the actual running motion. In addition, lunges will help identify potential muscular weaknesses that can lead to running injuries down the line.
4) Hamstring Curls
Many people mistakenly believe that the hamstrings are not involved with endurance running but only with sprinting. However, the hamstrings play a critical role in stabilizing the knee from collapsing when the foot lands on the ground. Considering how many strides runners take with every race and training session, this makes hamstring curls another essential exercise for runners.
5) Leg Lowers
Having a strong, stable core is an underrated aspect of running. The main benefit of core strength for runners is increasing stabilization in the torso. Your core muscles keep your torso upright and reduce the “wobbling” when running That wobbling is also known as an “energy leak”, meaning you your wasting precious energy and opening yourself up for potential injuries.
Bonus Exercise: Band Glute Bridge Combo
So far, all the exercises listed are big compound, multi-joint exercises. However, runners can benefits from isolation work, especially in reducing knee pain. Strong hip muscles are essential for efficient running and injury prevention. This exercise works by directly targeting the smaller glute muscles that help stabilize and prevent your knee from collapsing inward while running.
Putting Everything together
When it comes to weight training for runners, there are three major goals:
Injury prevention: Toughen the connective tissues and strengthen the muscles to improve injury resilience
Muscular Power: Produce force quickly so you can run faster and finish strong with a fast-finishing kick.
Neuromuscular Coordination: Improve the communication pathways between the brain and muscles for a higher running economy, efficiency, and a smooth stride.
Strength training provides runners the best cross-training possible for improving performance and preventing injuries. With stronger muscles, connective tissues, joints, and more resilience to fatigue, you’ll be injured less often, while being stronger and faster simultaneously.
In fact, I don’t even consider weight training as cross-training. It’s just apart of the training that runners need to do!!