When life gets hectic, especially when you’re preparing for a race, it’s easy to skimp on strength workouts or put them off entirely. However, if you want to train and race at your best, slotting some consistent strength training into your plan is a must. ‘Many people don’t have a lot of experience with resistance training and I think that’s quite common with runners,’ says personal trainer and running coach Matt Jones, founder of Run Strong Academy. ‘But having a strength foundation is so important for making it through daily life comfortably – and it helps to make you a more adaptable, efficient runner, too.’

Here, Jones shares the ultimate routine to build your foundational strength in just four weeks, along with tips on how to execute each workout to perfection.

Four-week strength base plan for runners

Exactly how much time you need to establish a solid strength base depends on factors like your training history and how regularly you strength train once you start, says Jones. ‘But if you’re consistent and work out three times a week, four weeks gives you a really good time frame to establish a strength base,’ he says.

What everyone's reading

The following routine, compiled by Jones, will see you do three workouts per week. Each workout includes a compound movement (perform this as its own set), a superset of two moves and a core exercise (also performed on its own). Follow the reps, sets and rest time listed below.

What you’ll need

Although you can use a barbell for some of the exercises if you want, all the moves here are doable with just a pair of dumbbells. In fact, Jones actually prefers using dumbbells – he says that they’re more accessible and ‘give you a bit of instability, which means that you’re working your balance and activating your core a bit more with each move’. To progress from one week to the next, add a little weight while keeping your sets and reps the same.

Workout 1

Goblet squat

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  1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell or kettlebell with both hands at chest height in front of you.
  2. Send your hips down and back. Lower until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor.
  3. Drive through your feet to stand back up.
  4. Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference.
  5. Repeat. Do five or six reps. Repeat for three sets.

Superset – perform the next two moves back to back, then rest for two minutes and repeat for three sets.

Step-up

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  1. Stand with a box (approximately at knee height) in front of you, holding a dumbbell in each hand.
  2. Repeat for three sets.
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  5. Repeat on the opposite side.

Bench press

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  1. Lie face up on a bench with your feet flat on the floor, holding a dumbbell or barbell in each hand at your chest with your elbows bent.
  2. The minimum strength training to do to get results.
  3. Slowly lower the dumbbells or barbell back down to your chest.
  4. Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference.

Dead bug

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  1. Lie face up with your arms reaching straight overhead, your legs lifted and your knees bent to 90 degrees, directly over your hips. This is the starting position.
  2. Keeping your right arm and left knee in place, reach your left arm back and straighten your right leg, slowly lowering both toward floor.
  3. Return to the starting position.
  4. Repeat on the opposite side.
  5. Continue alternating. Do six reps per side.
  6. Walking with wrist weights: What are the benefits.

Workout 2

Deadlift

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  1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and your knees slightly bent while holding a dumbbell in each hand at your thighs.
  2. Hinge at the hips by sending your glutes straight back and lower your torso until it is parallel to the floor, lowering the weights and keeping them close to your shins.
  3. Drive through your feet to stand back up, squeezing your glutes.
  4. Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference.
  5. Repeat. Do five or six reps. Repeat for three sets.

Superset – perform the next two moves back to back, then rest for two minutes and repeat for three sets.

Glute bridge

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  1. Lie face up with your knees bent, your feet on floor and your arms extended at your sides or holding dumbbells on your hips.
  2. Drive through your feet and lift up your hips until your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees.
  3. Walking with wrist weights: What are the benefits.
  4. Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference.

Three-point dumbbell row

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  1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart in front of a bench with a dumbbell in your left hand at your side.
  2. Hinge at the hips and rest your right hand on the bench, keeping your back flat. Extend your left arm with the weight to the floor.
  3. Extend your arms to the lower weights back down to the starting position.
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  5. Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference.
  6. Repeat on the opposite side.

Pallof press

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  1. Stand to the right of a resistance band, secured at chest height.
  2. Grasp the end of the band with both hands and brace your core while pulling the band to chest height in front of you.
  3. Drive your arms forward, resisting rotation.
  4. Pull your arms back to your chest.
  5. ndash; perform these two moves back to back, then rest for two minutes and repeat for three sets.
  6. Repeat on the opposite side.
  7. Walking with wrist weights: What are the benefits.

Workout 3

Bent-over row

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  1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent while holding a dumbbell in each hand, with your arms down in front of you.
  2. Keeping your back flat, hinge at the hips. This is the starting position.
  3. Follow these pointers to reap the biggest rewards from your resistance training.
  4. Extend your arms to the lower weights back down to the starting position.
  5. Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference.
  6. Repeat. Do five or six reps. Repeat for three sets.

Superset – perform these two moves back to back, then rest for two minutes and repeat for three sets.

Reverse lunge

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  1. Published: 08 October 2025.
  2. Take a big step back with your right foot. Lower until your left thigh is parallel to floor, your right knee is hovering just above the floor and both knees are bent to 90 degrees.
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  4. Repeat on the opposite side.
  5. Shift your weight to your left foot, lifting your right foot slightly.

Single-leg calf raise

calf exercise
Trevor Raab
  1. Stand with with feet hip-width apart on the edge of a stair or box.
  2. Drive through your feet to stand back up, squeezing your glutes.
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  4. Lower slowly.
  5. Resistance vs. strength training: What’s the difference.
  6. Repeat on the opposite side.

Farmer’s carry

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  1. Holding a heavy dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand at your sides, walk slowly across the floor for 30 seconds. Maintain a strong posture the entire time, keeping your chest tall and your shoulders down and back.
  2. Repeat. Do five or six reps.
  3. Repeat for three sets.

Tips for establishing a solid strength base

Shift your weight to your left foot, lifting your right foot slightly.

Aim to start in the off-season

‘Establishing a good strength base in the off-season is optimal, because when you’re not actively training for races, there’s not as much strain on your muscles from running more mileage and competing,’ says Jones.

From a practical perspective, when you’re not spending as much time running, you also theoretically should have more time to commit to strength training. ‘That being said, if you’re getting into a training block and haven’t been strength training, don’t worry too much about when you’re doing it and just do it,’ says Jones, noting that it’s better to start late than to not start at all.

Work your entire body

Running might seem lower-body-specific, but it incorporates your upper half, too – and so should your strength training. ‘Running is a full-body cardio workout,’ says Erin Beck, director of training and experience for STRIDE Fitness. ‘Some of the muscles undergo repeated use and stress, like the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, glutes and hip flexors – but the core is also important for rotational power and your arms help to counterbalance your lower body while running.’

In fact, a 2019 study published in the Sports found that fatigue in the trunk and upper body was enough to diminish people’s running economy. Researchers suggested that strengthening the core muscles and upper body Slowly lower the dumbbells or barbell back down to your chest.

Jones recommends making each strength session a full-body one, too. ‘If you have a leg-only day, you’re going to create more fatigue and your legs will be hurting more on your next run,’ he explains. Plus, when all three weekly strength workouts are full-body, if you miss one, you’ve still hit all your muscles for the week.

Schedule your workouts correctly

Two to three strength sessions a week is ideal and you can do them on run days or not, depending on what works for your routine and your goals, says Beck. ‘Alternating run and strength workouts throughout the week might be more conducive to your goals if you’re training for a longer distance,’ she says. ‘Those who are running with a goal of a few miles or a 5K, on the other hand, would be fine to incorporate both modalities in the same day. It really depends on your goals and how you’re feeling.’

When tackling a run and strength session on the same day, Jones recommends spacing out the workouts by several hours so that you don’t feel fatigued going into either.

Go beyond bodyweight

Doing loads and loads of bodyweight exercises is the biggest mistake that Jones sees runners make with their strength training. ‘Establishing a base can start with bodyweight exercises, but you need to build from that,’ he says. ‘If we’re looking at getting a base going in only four, five or six weeks, you want to get the most bang for your buck. The bodyweight stuff won’t get you as much as you need in that amount of time.’

Find the ideal weight

When you’re figuring out how much weight you can lift for each move, aim for enough that the last couple of reps are tough but not impossible, says Jones. In other words, aim for an RPE of around seven on a scale of one to 10 for those final reps. ‘You want the load to be good enough that it’s a bit of a struggle but you’re not sacrificing form – quality over quantity is always a good rule to go by,’ says Jones.

Consider hiring a professional

Working with a running coach who specialises in strength can help you to zero in on a plan that aligns with your goals – and Beck recommends working with a certified personal trainer to check your schedule and form. ‘People without a plan may try lifting too heavy or too frequently and wind up injured – and strength training is meant to enhance running performance, not hinder it,’ she says.

Why runners need to build a strength base

‘Like an aerobic base, you want a solid strength base as you embark on a new running goal,’ says Beck. ‘Building a good strength base can help you to improve form and technique while also enhancing the endurance and performance of muscles that undergo repeated use while running – especially your quads, hip flexors and glutes.’

With that improved form, adds Jones, you’ll become a more economical runner as well – and this means that you can run faster for longer and more comfortably.

Getting some strength training under your belt may also help you to sidestep some aches and pains. ‘You’re never going to be able to prevent injury entirely, as running is such an impact sport, but you’re improving the tendons and connective tissues as you build strength, so you won’t be under as much strain while running,’ says Jones.

From: Runner's World US