Runners of all abilities and experience levels can benefit from strength-training. Doing strength training on a regular basis can improve your endurance, speed, and efficiency, as well as reduce your injury risk.
You don’t have to lift heavy weights at the gym to make a difference in your performance and injury resistance. Here’s a strengthening workout for runners (no equipment required!) that you can do 2 to 3 times a week at home. You can even do them on a non-running day (do some warm-up exercises first) or after a short run.
Instructions for all of the exercises can be found at the following links:
Lower Body Strengthening Exercises (lunge, donkey kick, squat, calf raises, straight leg raise)
Core Strengthening Exercises (front plank, side plank, push-up, V-sit, reverse crunch)
Calf Strengthening Exercises (calf raise, toe raise)
Beginner Strengthening Workout
Lower body exercises:
15 Squats
15 Forward Lunges (on each side)
15 Donkey Kicks (on each side)
Wall sit (hold 30 seconds, repeat 3 times)
3 x 10 Heel raises (10 in each position – feet parallel, toes pointing out, toes pointing in)
20 straight leg raises (10 on each side)
10 Toe raises
Core exercises:
Front plank (hold 30 seconds)
Side plank (both sides, hold 30 seconds)
5 V-Sit ab exercises
Reverse crunch (30 seconds)
20 Push-ups
Once this routine becomes too easy, you can progress to the intermediate and then advanced routines.
Intermediate Strengthening Workout
If you have already been doing some strength-training, you can start with this intermediate regimen, rather than the beginner plan.
The first number stands for the set. So 2 x 15 squats means two sets of 15 squats. Take a 10 to 15-second break between sets to shake out your muscles and/or get a drink of water.
Lower body exercises:
2 x 15 Squats
2 x 15 Forward Lunges (on each side)
2 x 15 Donkey Kicks (on each side)
Wall sit (hold 40 seconds, repeat 3 times)
3 x 10 Heel raises (10 in each position – feet parallel, toes pointing out, toes pointing in)
20 Toe raises
Core exercises:
Front plank (hold 60 seconds)
Side plank (both sides, hold 60 seconds)
10 V-Sit ab exercises
Reverse crunch (one minute)
40 push-ups
Advanced Strengthening Workout
Once you’ve mastered the intermediate workout, you can move on to this more challenging routine. For an extra challenge, you can hold light dumbbells for the lower body exercises (except the wall sit).
The first number stands for the set. So 3 x 15 squats means three sets of 15 squats. Take a 10 to 15-second break between sets to shake out your muscles and/or get a drink of water.
Lower body exercises:
3 x 15 Squats
3 x 10 Forward Lunges (on each side)
3 x 15 Donkey Kicks (on each side)
Wall sit (hold 1 minute, repeat 3 times)
3 x 10 Heel raises (10 in each position – feet parallel, toes pointing out, toes pointing in)
30 Toe raises
Core exercises:
Front plank (hold 90 seconds)
Side plank (both sides, hold 90 seconds)
15 V-Sit ab exercises
Reverse crunch (90 seconds)
50 Push-ups
