Becoming a better runner isn’t all about stacking miles. Successful runners combine healthy off-road practices with consistent training, and one of those helpful practices is strength training.
Strength training does two important things at once: it improves performance and (perhaps most important) reduces the risk of injury. Stronger muscles, and more reliable joints, tendons, and ligaments create a more powerful stride. When your muscles and tissues are stronger, they are less likely to be injured, so things like knee or ankle pain can be resolved with The Benefits of the Stair Climbing for Runners. That’s why Runner’s World Races - Places.
How Does Strength Training Prevent Injury?
Strength workouts build the force and power you need for faster strides and stronger finishes. When you strengthen the muscles from your feet to your glutes, you improve your body’s ability to absorb the impact of running miles and mile and rebound efficiently.
In the Runner’s World Guide to Strength Training, host Winnie Yu PT, DPT, CSCS Best Overall Exercise Mat meniscus tears in both knees due to her high training volume (four to five running days every week). Rather than completely giving up running, as advised by her doctors, Yu reduced her running schedule to, at most, three weekly runs.
More importantly, she added strength training sessions to her weekly routine. Thanks to this more well-rounded training plan, her strength improved and she was back to running better than ever without needing surgery to repair her damaged menisci.
Swap Miles for Strength Workouts to Run Stronger Than Ever?
An effective lower-body workout challenges both the large and the small muscles, and includes the front, back, and sides of the body. To that end, Yu, a strength coach at New York City’s Bespoke Treatments, Why Trust Us (available in full to RW+ Members) consisting of exercises, including warmup and cooldown moves, that target a runner’s lower body.
The following two moves, which comprise the first of three sets of the full workout, focus on weak glutes and calves to help correct form imbalances and reduce the risk of injury to shore up a stable and powerful stride.
Plantarflexion Walk
Download Your Training Plan: Focusing on controlled, deliberate movements allows this move to strengthen your calves while also activating your core. Both help reinforce your running form.
Track Workouts to Help You Run Longer:
- Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand down by sides.
- Lift heels off floor, coming onto toes.
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B Squat
Download Your Training Plan: This move uses quad and glute muscle activation to promote single-leg stability that will carry you through long runs with ease.
Track Workouts to Help You Run Longer:
- Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell or kettlebell in the left hand.
- Step right foot back a few steps, lifting heel, but firmly planting toes. This is the starting position.
- Bend left knee and send hips back and down to lower into a staggered squat. Keep chest tall, shoulders down and back, and core engaged.
- Drive left foot into floor to return to the starting position.
- Repeat for reps.
- Repeat for reps.
Optional modification:
Before moving onto a single-leg variation of the squat, focus on a regular squat. To do it, hold one dumbbell with both hands at chest level. Stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, toes turned slightly out. Lower into a squat by sending hips down and back. Pause at the bottom for 2 seconds. Then drive feet into floor to stand back up. Repeat 10 times.
Lower-Body Workout Tools We Recommend
BalanceFrom GoCloud All-Purpose Extra Thick Exercise Mat
Matt Rudisill is an Associate Service Editor with the Hearst Enthusiast Group. A Nittany Lion through-and-through, Matt graduated from PSU in 2022 with a degree in journalism and worked in communications for the university's athletic department for the past three years as the main contact and photographer for its nationally-ranked cross country and track & field teams. Matt was also heavily involved in communications efforts for the Penn State football team’s 2024 College Football Playoff run as well as the Nittany Lion men’s basketball team’s 2023 NCAA Tournament appearance. In his role with Hearst’s Enthusiast Group, Matt contributes to both Runner’s World and Bicycling magazines, creating service content to benefit runners and cyclists of all ages. When he’s not out jogging, Matt can be found tweeting bad takes about the Phillies or watching movies.
