Do runners really need to strength train?

Well, this is going to be a short blog. The answer is yes.

Okay, okay, I’ll expand. When it comes to whether or not runners “just need to run” or whether they need to supplement their running with training other parts of their body, the debate has been going on for a long time. Coaches (and runners) generally fall in one of three camps: a categoric no, a “yes, but only your lower body”, and a categoric “yes”. Those who have followed my fitness journey for a while won’t be surprised to hear I fall firmly in the third category.

The number one argument that I’ve heard against strength training for runners is a strange one, to me - it’s that generally (to a point), running fast favours the lean, and you don’t want to put on excessive unused muscle that you’ll have to carry around. It’s worth pointing out that a runner cross training with weight lifting is unlikely to put on “excessive unused muscle” unless they’re eating in a caloric surplus, which isn’t easy to do when you’re also training at high mileage. In reality, most runners (yes, there are exceptions, before those exceptions @ me in the comments) who also strength train struggle to both put on and keep muscle.

An argument I could accept against strength training for runners would be, more to the point, time and energy management. You only have a certain number of minutes in a day, and a certain amount of energy to get yourself through them. When you’re training for big distances, which is when strength training is worth its weight in gold, that’s also when you’re at your most time poor to get workouts in. But like every other aspect of your training, it can be done - it’ll take sacrifice and management, but it is possible. I generally lift five times a week, but that can drop to three-to-four in my peak mileage times to manage fatigue - but I also have an extremely flexible schedule and no partner or non-Loki family that I might want to get time to see at some point.

So, we accept that the strikes against strength training for runners can be mitigated. Why would we train anything but our legs?

I wince a little when I hear runners with a strength routine that’s just a series of squats and lunges. While great, and necessary, and an essential part of a balanced strength regime, just doing lower body largely misses the point. Yes, it’s extremely important to have a strong and resilient lower body for running distance - just think about the amount of force you’re putting through your legs as you run. When I did the 100 miler at Tarawera, I took over 242,000 steps during the race. That’s a huge amount just mechanically going through my body. Strength training helps create stronger legs, and they’re important.

But what’s also important? The rest of your body. Particularly in ultras, trail running or mountain running, running is more of a full body activity than you’d expect. The whole posterior chain is involved in particular. If you’re carrying a pack, think about your back muscles. Poles? What about your arms and grip strength? How about your core, to keep you upright and running with good posture and form? And the stronger all these parts of your body are, the longer they’ll take to fatigue - and the better you will feel. When you’re at distances where ‘feeling good’ is in short supply, this will add up exponentially.

I’m not saying that being able to do a perfect push up on your toes is a pre-requisite for running an ultra marathon, but the stronger your body becomes overall, the better a runner you will be - and that’s all without mentioning the impact that strength training has on weight management (remember what I said about running favouring the lean?).

I never really considered strength training as a runner before I met my strength coach Don Saladino in 2022. I remember on our first call I mentioned that I was an ultra-runner and he laughed, “because ultra runners are just wired differently”. He’s coached other ultra runners before, most notably David Kilgore of On Running, but he and I have often discussed the fact there isn’t a coach out there who has a playbook on exactly what works for runners at different distances. It’s such a niche subset of an already niche subset, and so even much of what I’m saying in this blog is based more on observation and experimentation than scientific research. Between us over the last three years, we have undoubtedly proven what works for me - regular lifts, managing my intensity around my running schedule, and scaling back but not stopping during my tapers. Full bodys work fantastically well; when I do leg days I need to be more conscious of where they sit in a week (the same day as hill, trail or speed runs isn’t great). I always make sure I run first in the day, lift second, with as much fuel and recovery in between the sessions as I can logistically manage. And with all this, I know that my strength routine gives me an advantage in races - especially up at the 100k to miler mark. I have a strong, resilient body that can handle the mileage demands I throw at it, and I stay, touch wood, surprisingly injury averse.

So while I don’t personally program strength training for my runners (I’m not trained in that!), I heavily encourage it, and specifically encourage working with my coach because I know how right he gets it. If you’re not strength training, you’re leaving results on the table. Come chat to me about how to integrate it into your running any time - it’s one of my favourite subjects.