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How Much Strength Training Should Runners Do Per Week?
Most runners know they should be lifting. Most are not lifting enough. Here is the evidence-based answer, and how to fit it in without sacrificing your runs.
Most runners know they should be lifting. Most runners are not lifting enough.
The evidence is clear: strength training improves running economy, reduces injury risk, and supports performance at every distance from 5km to ultramarathon. Yet the majority of recreational runners either skip it entirely or do two half-hearted sessions a week with no real structure. Here is exactly how much you need, what to focus on, and how to fit it in without disrupting your running.
What Does the Research Say?
Studies on concurrent training consistently show that two strength sessions per week is enough to produce meaningful gains in running economy and lower limb strength for recreational runners. Two well-structured sessions, done consistently, will make you a faster and more injury-resistant runner. More is not always better, particularly if running volume is high.
For runners in heavy training blocks (above 60km per week), even one quality session per week maintains the adaptations built during lower-volume periods. Maintenance requires less stimulus than building.
Session 1: Lower Body Strength
Build strength in the muscles that drive running performance and absorb impact.
Squats
Develop quad, glute, and posterior chain strength. Back squat, goblet squat, or Bulgarian split squat all work. Prioritise single-leg variations as your strength builds since running is a single-leg activity.
Romanian Deadlifts
Hamstring and glute strength under load. Crucial for injury prevention. Most runners are significantly weak here, particularly in the eccentric phase.
Step-Ups or Lunges
Single-leg work that replicates the demands of running. Use a moderate step height and add load progressively. These expose left-right imbalances that bilateral lifts mask.
Calf Raises
Achilles tendon loading is essential for runners. Slow, controlled eccentrics (lowering phase). Move to single-leg once bilateral is easy. Under-loaded Achilles tendons are a leading cause of running injuries.
Sets and reps
3 to 4 sets of 6 to 10 reps for compound movements. Heavier and lower rep is fine. Running already provides plenty of high-rep lower-body stimulus. Your strength sessions should feel different to running in terms of load and rep range.
Session 2: Full Body with Hip Focus
Hip Thrusts or Glute Bridges
Glute strength directly transfers to running power. Load these progressively. Most runners are glute-weak relative to their quads.
Single-Leg Romanian Deadlifts
Balance, hip stability, and posterior chain strength in one movement. One of the most specific exercises available for runners.
Rows and Pull-Ups
Upper body pulling strength supports running posture, particularly during the final miles of longer races when form breaks down.
Core Work
Not crunches. Anti-rotation and anti-flexion exercises: pallof press, dead bugs, plank variations. Running requires core stiffness, not just strength through range of motion.
When to Schedule Strength Sessions
Timing matters more than most runners realise. The worst time to run is immediately after a hard lower body strength session. Your neuromuscular system is fatigued, running mechanics degrade, and injury risk increases.
Better sequencing options
Lift in the morning, run in the evening with at least 6 hours between. Run on a different day entirely from lower body sessions. If combining on the same day is unavoidable, run first, lift second. Keep your hardest strength sessions away from your hardest running sessions. Quality should not be compromised on either side.
Common Mistakes Runners Make
Going too light
Runners often use weights that are far too low to stimulate strength adaptation. If you can comfortably complete 15 reps, the load is too light. Strength requires meaningful mechanical load.
Neglecting single-leg work
Running is a single-leg activity. Bilateral lifts like back squats are useful, but single-leg variations are more specific and expose the left-right imbalances that feed injuries.
Dropping it during race prep
Runners often cut strength training as race day approaches. Maintain two sessions per week until two weeks out, then reduce to one lighter session the week before the race.
Not being consistent enough
Six weeks of strength training will not produce the adaptations you are looking for. It takes 12 to 16 weeks of consistent work before the benefits to running economy become significant.
Dropping strength training entirely during high running volume phases is one of the most common errors distance runners make. Even one quality session per week maintains the adaptations you have built and keeps injury risk lower.
Train as a hybrid athlete, not just a runner
Edge builds your running and strength work into a single structured programme, sequenced correctly from day one. No guesswork on timing, load, or volume.
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