Do Runners Need Strength Training? A Practical Guide

If you enjoy running, strength training can feel like one more thing competing for your time. You may want to lift without turning your week into a second training program—or copying a routine designed for someone with very different experience.

A useful starting question is what you want the strength work to contribute. General strength, a more complete exercise routine, and running performance are related goals, but they do not require you to interpret every research finding in the same way.

What can lifting add to your running?

One potential benefit is better running economy: using less energy to run at a particular speed below your maximum. That is different from simply being able to use more oxygen at your hardest effort. It is also different from a guaranteed faster race time.

A 2024 review of strength training and running economy found that heavy resistance training, plyometric training, and combinations of methods could improve economy in middle- and long-distance runners. The results depended partly on the training method and the speed used for testing. Not every method showed the same benefit, and the certainty of evidence varied.

The runners in the included studies were moderately to highly trained. That matters when reading claims about which method works best: an improvement in a studied group does not tell a new lifter exactly which exercise, weight, or weekly schedule to choose. Think of the findings as a reason to consider strength work, not a ready-made personal program.

Does that mean you need to lift very heavy?

Research often describes demanding training because it is testing a specific question. That does not make the study protocol an entry requirement.

For example, a 2008 controlled trial in well-trained runners compared normal endurance training with the addition of heavy half-squats three times a week for eight weeks. The strength group improved running economy and time to exhaustion at maximal aerobic speed; maximal oxygen uptake and body weight did not change.

Those are useful findings, but the study involved only 17 runners overall. Its exercise choice and four-repetition-maximum sets describe what the researchers tested. They do not establish that someone new to lifting should begin with that load or copy that frequency. Nor does an improvement in a laboratory time-to-exhaustion test mean that every reader will take the same percentage off a race time.

You can understand the value of the research without treating its most demanding detail as your next workout assignment.

Build a starting routine you understand

For a general starting point, the NHS strength and flexibility guidance recommends strengthening the major muscle groups on at least two days a week and building up gradually over several weeks. That is broad adult guidance, not a runner-specific performance prescription.

Strength work can use body weight, resistance bands, or weights. The NHS gives squats and push-ups among its examples. Your choices should cover more than the legs: the guidance also includes the hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms.

When choosing a routine, separate three decisions:

• The movement: Do you understand what the exercise asks you to do?
• The equipment: Can you repeat it with what is actually available?
• The starting demand: Can you begin gradually instead of copying an experienced runner’s research protocol?

The NHS describes sets and repetitions as ways to organize strength work, but does not prescribe a fixed number of minutes for every session. A routine you understand is a more useful starting document than a long list of unfamiliar exercises.

Make room for lifting in your actual week

A 2018 review of strength training for distance runners concluded that adding two to three weekly sessions using different strength methods was likely to benefit performance. It also found inconsistent results across studies and highlighted methodological differences. The review considered runners with at least six months of experience; its conclusion is not a promise that adding more sessions always improves your result.

Use that evidence alongside your calendar. Write down the running you already plan to do, then consider where a repeatable strength routine could fit. If your proposed week needs time you do not have, revise the plan before making it your standard.

For example, someone might reserve two available appointments for lifting and keep their running appointments visible on the same page. Those appointments are an organizational example, not evidence that particular weekdays or gaps between sessions are optimal. The research here does not settle a universal schedule for every runner.

It also does not establish an injury-prevention guarantee. Judge a plan against its actual purpose rather than expecting strength work to solve every running problem.

Keep the plan and the record connected

A plan describes what you intend to do. A training log shows what you recorded doing. Keeping both makes it easier to notice when your routine has drifted from the one you meant to follow.

TandemFit supports reusable workout templates and programs, with access depending on your account, and an exercise library searchable by muscle and equipment. You can also review logged strength workouts and outdoor GPS runs in your training history. That gives the two sides of your routine a shared place to revisit.

For a simple review, compare the sessions you planned with the sessions you completed. Note when you changed an exercise or skipped an appointment, so a different-looking week has some context. A log can document those differences; it cannot prove which change caused a better run.

Start by choosing a routine you understand and space you can realistically give it. Then keep enough of a record to decide whether the arrangement is working for your life as well as your training.