Strength training plan for runners

Choosing your starting weightEmerging evidence

Warm up, then pick a weight you think you could lift about 10 to 12 times at most. Do the bottom of the rep range (for 8 to 12, do 8) and ask: how many more could I have done with good form? Two or three more: that is your weight. Five or more: go up one step next set. None or one: go down one step.

For bodyweight moves, choose the version (the easier or harder option on each move's page) where you reach the bottom of the rep range with 2 or 3 reps to spare.

In the first two weeks, stop each set with 3 or 4 reps to spare. Most people misjudge how many reps they have left by about one, and you are still learning the movements.

Sources 1, 2, 3

Progressing week to week: double progressionEmerging evidence

Each exercise has a rep range, such as 8 to 12. Keep the weight the same and add reps, set by set and session by session, while still stopping 1 to 3 reps short of failure.

When every set reaches the top of the range, add the smallest weight step you have (roughly 2 to 10%, smaller jumps for the upper body and small muscles) and go back to the bottom of the range. Adding reps and adding weight both work; this rule uses both.

With body weight, add reps, then slow the lowering, then move to the harder option. If a lift stalls for 2 or 3 sessions, hold the weight, check your sleep and food, and consider a lighter week.

Sources 4, 3, 1

How hard each set should feelStrong evidence

You do not need to train to failure. Stopping 2 or 3 reps short, often written as 2 to 3 reps in reserve (RIR), gives similar results for most people.

Every set stops 2 to 3 reps short, including the last: leftover fatigue costs you runs, and the strength trials in runners didn't need failure.

Sources 1, 5

Rest between setsEmerging evidence

Heavy compound lifts in sets of 5 to 8 (squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, chin-up): 2 to 3 minutes. Other compound lifts in sets of 8 to 12: about 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Isolation moves such as raises, curls, extensions and calf raises: 60 to 90 seconds.

For muscle growth, resting more than about a minute gives a small advantage, with no clear extra gain past about 90 seconds. For strength the evidence on rest is mixed: 1 to 2 minutes is enough for beginners, and trained lifters may do better with longer rests on heavy lifts.

Short on time? Pair two moves that do not compete, such as a press with a row or a leg move with a core move, and rest after the pair. Supersets like this roughly halve session time while keeping the sets.

Sources 6, 7, 1, 8

Lighter weeks (deloads)Mixed evidence

Not compulsory, especially for beginners. Take one in your running cutback week, or sooner if your performance drops for two sessions in a row and you feel run down or achy: same days, same exercises, about half the sets, and weights that feel easy (4 or more reps in reserve). Then restart at your previous weights.

Deloads are common practice: in a survey of competitive strength and physique athletes they lasted about a week, roughly every 5 to 6 weeks. Direct evidence is thin. In the one trial, a full week off mid-programme did not change muscle growth but slightly reduced strength gains, so a lighter week looks better than a week off if strength matters. Whether recreational lifters benefit has not been tested.

Sources 9, 10, 11

Warm-up and cool-downEmerging evidence

Warm up with 3 to 5 minutes of easy movement, the moves listed at the start of each session, then 1 or 2 lighter sets of the first lift. A short warm-up specific to the exercise is enough.

The cool-down is optional. Its stretches are there for comfort and flexibility; they do not add strength or muscle.

Source 8

Missed days, soreness and when to stop

Missed a session? Do the next one in the order rather than doubling up. Muscle soreness for a day or two after a new exercise is common and fades as you repeat it.

Stop and get medical help for chest pain or pressure, unusual breathlessness, dizziness or fainting. If a joint pain is sharp, gets worse during a set or lingers into the next day, swap to the move's easier option, and see a clinician if it persists.

WHO notes that people without contraindications generally do not need medical clearance before light or moderate activity. If you have a heart, lung or metabolic condition, are pregnant, or have osteoporosis with fractures, ask your clinician first.

Source 12

Strength training makes running more economicalStrong evidence

Adding strength training to running made runners more economical, using 2 to 8% less energy at the same pace, in most of the 20 studies that measured it. Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), the size of your aerobic engine, didn't change: the gain is in how efficiently you use it. In the most recent analysis (31 studies, 652 runners), heavy loads had a small effect on economy, and heavy loads combined with jumps a moderate one.

Sources 13, 14

Faster races: likely, but less certainEmerging evidence

Time trials from 1.5 to 10 km tended to improve. In pooled trials, heavy lifting had a moderate effect on race-style performance and heavy lifting plus jumps a large one, but the certainty was very low to moderate. In a 2025 trial in well-trained men, 10 weeks of heavy lifting plus jumps twice a week kept running economy better late in a 90-minute run.

Most trials were small (10 to 30 runners), lasted 6 to 14 weeks, were mostly in men, and measured economy in a lab rather than in races, so expect real but modest gains.

Sources 13, 15, 16

How heavy? Heavy, but how heavy is unsettledEmerging evidence

The reviews disagree on how heavy is best. In pooled trials, loads of about 80% of your maximum or more improved running economy, while lighter loads (40 to 79%) did not beat running alone. One analysis found near-maximal loads (90% or more, sets of 4 or fewer) did best, but with wide uncertainty, and an earlier review found that trials using the heaviest loads did no better than those using moderate loads of 60 to 80%.

So the evidence supports lifting somewhere between moderately heavy and near-maximal. This plan's sets of 4 to 6 at about 80%, stopping 2 or 3 reps short, are a compromise: heavy enough to count, without the fatigue of maximal lifts. The hop totals and the rule of no lifting in race week are our editorial choices.

Sources 14, 17, 13

Two sessions a week, for at least 10 weeksEmerging evidence

Most successful trials used 2 or 3 sessions a week, and two looks enough. Programmes of 10 weeks or longer did better than shorter ones. Once you've built strength, one session a week held the gains: in a 40-week trial it even improved economy a little more after 20 weeks of twice-weekly training.

Sources 13, 17, 18

Where to put strength in your weekEmerging evidence

Strength sessions leave your legs tired for hours to days: after one, runners had more soreness and found running harder, and their time to exhaustion fell in every study that measured it. A review advises more than 3 hours between hard running and a strength session, and at least a day between lifting and your next hard run.

So lift after an easy run, or later on the day of a hard run, and never the day before intervals or a long run. If you lift and run in one session, lifting first builds more leg strength; run first if the run matters more that day. The week shown has four runs: move the days to fit yours, keeping these rules.

Sources 13, 19, 20, 21, 22

Cardio does not cost you muscleStrong evidence

Doing cardio as well as strength training does not reduce muscle growth or maximal strength. It can blunt explosive strength, such as jumping and sprinting, mainly when both are done in the same session; keep them at least 3 hours apart if that matters to you.

Source 23

Hops: start smallEmerging evidence

Jump training improved economy at easier paces, up to about 12 km an hour, and explosive training improved 5 km time in a 9-week trial. In trials, runners started with 30 to 60 foot contacts a session and built up over 6 to 9 weeks to between 110 and 228. This plan stays well below that, at most about 85 a session, which is our editorial cap. Keep contacts short and quiet, and end a set when landings get loud.

Sources 14, 24, 13

Calves, hips and trunkEmerging evidence

In recreational runners, gains in calf strength went with better running economy, so both sessions load the calves with a straight knee and a bent knee. Hip and trunk work is there for support: weak hips are linked with iliotibial (IT) band pain only in studies that looked at one point in time, and one small trial found 6 weeks of core training improved 5,000 m time.

Sources 25, 26, 27

Injuries: strength training may helpMixed evidence

Strength training may help prevent injuries: in pooled trials across many sports it cut injuries to about a third, while stretching did not help. In runners the evidence is thinner. The one large trial, in 720 first-time marathon runners, found that a short self-directed programme (10 minutes, 3 times a week for 12 weeks) did not reduce injuries.

Strength training doesn't seem to add injuries, but build your running gradually as well: new runners get injured more than twice as often per hour of running as established runners.

Sources 28, 29, 30, 31, 32

Your weight won't climbEmerging evidence

Body mass didn't change in 18 of the studies in one review, and in a 40-week trial body composition didn't change either, while strength and economy improved.

Sources 13, 33, 18

Older runnersEmerging evidence

Strength training builds strength at any age, and a small trial in masters marathon runners found better running economy with heavy training. Take the learn phase slowly.

Sources 1, 34

Upper body, for healthStrong evidence

Health guidelines ask for strength work for all the major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week. Each session ends with an optional push-up and row pair that covers it in about 6 minutes.

Sources 12, 35

Bone pain, fuelling and new runners

Pain in one spot of a bone that hurts to touch, gets worse with running or jumping and eases with rest can be a stress fracture: stop running, leave out the hops and get it checked. Stress fractures don't always show on X-rays.

Training hard on too little food harms health and performance in women and men (relative energy deficiency in sport, or REDs); if you're worried about your energy, your periods or repeated injuries, see a doctor. New to running? Start with a walk-run plan such as Couch to 5K, and speak to a GP first if you're worried about your health.

Sources 36, 37, 38