How Can Resistance Training Elevate Your Running?

When you imagine yourself training for a marathon, I bet it includes a lot of time spent on a trail or treadmill, putting miles under your feet day in and day out. It’s not far off from reality. You do have to spend a lot of time running to do it to the extent a marathon pushes you to. However, that’s not all you need to do. Resistance training can help you improve your running further while allowing for a little time away from the track. If you incorporate it into your training, you could find that it helps your training much more than an extra day on the track ever could.

Written by Lucas Collins
Edited by Pavlína Marek

What is Resistance Training?

‘Resistance Training’ as a term has grown to cover a large swath of activities, but we can pare it down to mean any exercise where the focus is improving your physical strength. The terms ‘strength training’ and ‘weight training’ fall under the same umbrella, and the most common example that probably springs to mind after hearing that is people in the gym lifting weights. For some newer runners, the correlation doesn’t make sense at first; “How does time spent away from running improve running?” But once you know the science behind it all, you’ll be confident that your time off the track isn’t hurting your progress.

How Does it Help?

The primary purpose of resistance training is to build muscle. While not usually a runner’s focus, this is more important than it might initially seem. An article from the Harvard Heart Letter tells us that

“Resistance training has also been shown to improve other factors closely tied to cardiovascular health. For example, it enhances blood vessel function, in part by keeping your arteries flexible. Resistance training also appears to lower levels of inflammation, which ignites the damaging, body-wide process that contributes to clogged arteries.”

Every single one of those things mentioned is a factor that contributes to your running performance. I can’t think of a single runner who doesn’t want a stronger heart or less fatigue and pain in their muscles after their runs.

Doing some resistance training can greatly help your performance. And even if building muscle isn’t your top priority, I hope enough value has been shown that you at least don’t want to lose any muscle mass you do have. Another factor that people often forget is that it also prevents the loss of already-present muscle mass.

The same Harvard Heart Letter states, “When people lose weight, they usually lose muscle mass along with fat; weight training helps preserve muscle mass.” Weaker muscles can’t push as much or as hard, nor can they recover as well after training or an event. It truly is to your benefit to focus at least some of your training time on making sure your muscles are worked out and taken care of!

What to Focus on

When it comes to what exercises will help your running the most, it’s probably not hard to guess that lower body training will be better than focusing on your upper body for your running goals. The areas we want to target specifically are the calves, hamstrings, quadriceps, glutes, as well as your back and core. If this seems like a lot of breakdown for just your legs, you’re not wrong. But don’t get overwhelmed, it’s a lot easier to follow than it seems. Below are example exercises that work on each muscle group:

Calves

Standing Calf Raises: Simple and effective, this exercise will make sure you know exactly what sore calves feel like. This will help build that explosive strength for push-off power and better endurance on long runs.

  • Stand straight with feet hip-width apart (If you can, find a step or ledge to hang your heels off of. This will increase the range of motion for the exercise by allowing you to drop your heels lower than the balls of your feet).
  • Slowly raise your heels off the ground, squeezing your calves.
  • Pause at the top, then lower back down with control.

Jumping Rope: By doing quick-repetition jumps, you’ll be bouncing on your calves like crazy. On top of that, jumping rope is one of the most effective cardiovascular exercises you can do.

Hamstrings

Romanian Deadlifts: This lift helps train your hamstrings to withstand more force to resist fatigue and injury, especially during the downhill portions of the San Francisco Marathon. It’s amazing how quickly your hamstrings can give out if they aren’t used to the movements.

  • Stand straight up, holding dumbbells or a barbell in front of your thighs.
  • With a soft bend in your knees, hinge at the hips to lower the weight down your legs. Your goal when doing a Romanian Deadlift isn’t to reach the ground, it’s to hinge forward only until your back is parallel to the ground.
  • Keeping your chest up and glutes engaged, slowly return to standing.
Kettlebell Swings: These build on that explosive power of your calves while working on your hip extension, enhancing your running stride. (This exercise has higher potential for injury if done incorrectly. Ask a gym buddy for advice or to check your form when you first try it out.)

  • Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding a kettlebell.
  • Hinge at the hips to swing the kettlebell back between your legs, then thrust your hips forward to swing it up to chest height.
  • Keep your arms relaxed and drive the motion with your glutes and hamstrings.

Quadriceps (Quads)

Step-Ups: These improve single-leg strength and balance, supporting the repetitive motion of endurance running.

  • Stand in front of a knee-height step or box.
  • Step up with one foot, pressing through the heel to lift yourself up.
  • Step down and repeat on the other side.

Squats: These are a popular exercise for a reason! Squats do great work on your quads and supporting muscle groups, and are extremely effective when done correctly. The ‘done correctly’ part is essential with a lift like this, so there are some extra details for if/when you want to try adding squats into the mix.

  • Set the barbell at mid-chest height on a squat rack. Stand facing the bar. Place your hands on the bar just outside shoulder width.
  • Duck under and position the barbell comfortably across your back and shoulders. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, toes pointed slightly outward.
  • Stand up to lift the bar off the rack using your legs, not your back. Take 2–3 controlled steps back to clear the rack.
  • Keep your chest up, back flat, and knees tracking over your toes. Flex at the hips and lower yourself until your quads are parallel with the ground.
  • Press through your heels to stand up, driving the bar upward as you extend your hips and knees.

Glutes

Hip Thrusts: These will help maximize the power in your strides and help support your back, reducing any potential strain.

  • Lay with your upper back flat on a bench, your feet flat and shoulder-width apart.
  • Rest a barbell or dumbbell across your hips.
  • Drive through your heels to lift your hips until your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knees.
  • Lower with control.

 

Squats (again): Squats do some great work on your glutes as well, especially the lower you get in your squat before resetting.

Back

Bent-Over Rows: Easy to complete before or swap to after your Deadlifts. These strengthen the upper back to help maintain upright posture and efficient arm swing during long runs.

  • Hold dumbbells or a barbell, bend at the hips until your back is flat.
  • Pull the weights toward your ribcage, keeping your elbows close to mimic a rowing motion.
  • Lower slowly.

Squats (yes, again): Back a third time because they’re better than ever! This exercise stabilizes and strengthens your lower back, too. It does some work on your core as well, but not enough to warrant being mentioned a fourth time on this list.

Core

Planks: Core endurance to the max! If you get good at planks, you’ll have a center that helps stabilize everything around it as you hit the pavement, improving your running in the process.

  • On a yoga mat or similar, lay flat on your stomach. Tuck your elbows in to make your forearms parallel with your body.
  • Lift yourself up so only your toes and forearms are touching the ground, and your back is flat. Hold for 30-60 seconds (planks are very difficult to maintain for a long time without a strong core, so do not be discouraged even if you can only hold yourself up for 5-10 seconds before resting!).
  • Slowly lower yourself back to the ground.
Hanging (or Laying) Leg Raises: These will force your upper core to flex so it can keep you stable while your lower core is lifting your legs 90° out.

  • Pull your elbows in so they are touching your sides. Rest your forearms and elbows on armrests and press your back against a flat surface. Make sure your legs are hanging above the floor.
  • Keeping your legs straight, lift them up so your toes swing out and up 90° so they’re parallel to the floor.
  • Slowly lower your legs back down until they’re hanging below you again.

Other Aspects to Think About

While the ‘what’ and ‘how much’ parts of resistance training are the first thing we cover, the secondary aspects of resistance training are just as important to keep your exercises effective and safe. For example, form is as critical to lifting weights as the actual lifting is. Lifting with bad form can be dangerous and won’t give you the results you’re looking for. You should always do a few warm-up repetitions with reduced weight (or even just your body) to make sure you can complete the movement correctly. Never sacrifice form to add extra weight, either! It’s always better to lift less properly than more incorrectly.

How many repetitions you’ll be doing matters as well. There are many different schools of thought as to how many is the best amount, and the answer is almost always “it depends”. But as a starting point, experts suggest between 12 and 15 repetitions should give you good results. Make sure to give yourself some time in between each set as well! A couple of minutes for your muscles to reset will make it much easier to finish without impacting your results.

The last point is simple, but it’s the one thing everyone forgets to focus on: BREATHE! Controlling your breath and syncing it with your movements is essential for finishing your set; your muscles need every little bit of oxygen they can get while they’re working that hard!

There’s a lot that resistance training can add to your running. By improving your muscles and making them as strong as they can be, you’re giving yourself extra stability, explosive force, endurance, and power in your strides, all things that will improve your performance at the San Francisco Marathon this year. So trade a little bit of that running time for time making your muscles burn, and see the incredible results it could have by race day.

Citations

Corliss, Julie. “Push Past Your Resistance to Strength Training.” Harvard Health, 1 Apr. 2024, www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/push-past-your-resistance-to-strength-training.

“Hop to It: 6 Benefits of Jumping Rope.” Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, 11 Oct. 2024, health.clevelandclinic.org/jump-rope-benefits.

Staff, Mayo Clinic. “Strength Training: Get Stronger, Leaner, Healthier.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 29 Apr. 2023, www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/strength-training/art-20046670.

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