It’s a common complaint from runners: You have plenty of energy, but your legs feel heavy and tired. While taking a rest day may help, avoiding this symptom may have another solution: Add single-leg exercises to your weight-training schedule.
Regularly doing leg exercises for runners will help you fight fatigue by building stability and power. This pays off in speed gains and injury protection, making it a pretty crucial part of a runner’s training plan. And that’s precisely why we put together this list of the best moves you can do to support your performance.
The Benefits of Leg Exercises for Runners
“Because running is a unilateral sport basically consisting of mini single-leg movements over and over again, these single-leg exercises can help improve motor control in the single-leg position, as well as stability, and they can prevent injury,” Dan Giordano, Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Bespoke Treatments tells Runner’s World.
Naturally, Giordano says, running without compensation from one side of the body or one muscle over another requires a lot of stability and strength. As you run, you need to absorb the impact and then propel yourself forward—all from the same leg. In order to accomplish this without aches and pains, he says, you need the strength to withstand that impact and the power to move you through the gait cycle.
To help you build the strength, stability, and power required to run your best, Jess Movold, run and strength coach, offers the best leg exercises for runners, all of which are unilateral (as in they work one leg at a time).
Consider dedicating at least one day a week to these moves, says Giordano. You can practice bilateral, or both sides, on different days, as this will allow you to optimize your training and legs feel heavy. Press through left heel to lift hips up toward ceiling, engaging glutes Health & Injuries—also important on the run.
5 Top Single-Leg Exercises to Add to Your Routine Today
It’s a common complaint from runners: You have plenty of energy, but your: Perform each exercise below for 4 sets of 8 reps. Each move is demonstrated by Movold so you can follow proper form.
You will need a step, chair, or bench, and a set of Health & Injuries foot muscle strength.
1. Single-Leg Glute Bridge
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- Lift right foot off the floor, bending knee and keeping knee over hip.
- Press through left heel to lift hips up toward ceiling, engaging glutes.
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2. Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift
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- Shift weight to right leg, and with a soft bend in right knee, hinge at the hips by sending glutes straight back. Keep back flat, shoulders down, and core engaged as torso reaches toward the floor and left leg lifts straight back behind you. Only lower until you feel a slight pull in right hamstrings; you don’t have to lower weight to ground.
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3. Single-Leg Step-Up
- With right foot on top of a box and left foot on the ground, step up onto the box by driving all your weight through the right foot, keeping knee over laces, body traveling directly upward.
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- Slowly lower back down.
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4. Single-Leg Squat
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- With chest lifted and shoulders back and down, extend both arms straight out.
- With control, send hips back and down and bend right leg to lower down and sit on the chair. Keep left foot lifted and upper body tall.
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5. Bulgarian Split Squat
- Stand in front of a chair, bench, box, or step, facing away from it. Take a small step away from the chair. Reach right foot back and rest laces on the chair.
- Keeping chest tall and slight lean forward, bend left knee to lower as far as you can with control. Left knee should stay tracking over toes and right knee should almost touch the floor.
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Monique LeBrun is a health and fitness editor who is based in Easton, Pennsylvania. She covers a wide range of health and wellness topics, with a primary focus on running performance and nutrition. Monique is passionate about creating content that empowers runners to become the best versions of themselves. As an avid runner and parent, she loves spending time outdoors with her daughter, who often accompanies her on weekend runs as her personal mini run coach.
