The 10 Strength Exercises Top Coaches Want Every Runner Doing (And 3 They Should Skip)

Strength training for runners has finally moved past the debate stage.

The research is clear: runners who lift consistently run faster, get injured less, and hold form deeper into a race.

What is not as clear is which lifts actually matter, and which ones runners keep doing because a coach in a video said so.

The list below reflects what running coaches keep programming across marathon build-ups, track blocks, and injury rehab, along with three common favourites they wish would quietly disappear.

Why Strength Training Works For Runners

A 2017 systematic review in the European Journal of Sport Science found that heavy strength training improved running economy by around 2 to 8 percent across trained distance runners.

Running economy is how much oxygen your body uses to hold a given pace. A more economical runner holds the same pace at a lower heart rate, and that translates directly into more speed at the same effort.

The three benefits that stack

The first is force output. Stronger legs deliver more force to the ground per stride, which means fewer strides per kilometre.

The second is tendon resilience. Loaded strength work thickens tendons and makes them less prone to the overuse injuries that end most marathon builds.

​The third is late-race form. Strength endurance in the glutes, hips, and core is what keeps your knees from collapsing inward at kilometre 35.

None of that comes from more mileage alone.

The 10 Exercises Coaches Keep Programming

Every lift below meets two tests. It targets a movement pattern that shows up in running, and it responds well to being loaded.

​Exercise 1: Back squat

The king of lower-body strength for a reason. Heavy back squats train the quads, glutes, and hamstrings to produce force, and they teach the trunk to stay rigid under load.

Two to four sets of five to eight reps, once or twice a week, is the standard prescription for runners in a base or build phase.

Exercise 2: Romanian deadlift

The counterpart to the squat, focused on the posterior chain: hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.

Runners tend to be quad-dominant, and the RDL is the fastest way to rebalance that. Keep the bar close to the shins and hinge from the hips.

Exercise 3: Single-leg Romanian deadlift

Running is a single-leg sport. Every stride is one foot on the ground.

The single-leg RDL trains hip stability, hamstring strength, and ankle control at the same time, and it exposes side-to-side imbalances that a barbell lift will hide.

Exercise 4: Split squat

Rear-foot elevated split squats build unilateral strength in the quads and glutes and load the hip flexor of the trailing leg.

Runners with a history of IT band or knee trouble almost always test into this movement.

Exercise 5: Step-up

Deliberate, controlled step-ups onto a challenging box teach concentric power out of a deep hip flexion angle.

That is the exact angle you need on hills and in the final push at the end of intervals.

Exercise 6: Calf raise (bent-knee and straight-knee)

Calves take an enormous share of the impact load in running, and calf and Achilles injuries derail more training weeks than almost anything else.

Straight-knee raises target the gastrocnemius, bent-knee raises target the soleus. Runners need both.

Exercise 7: Hip thrust

The single best isolated glute builder there is, and glute strength is the difference between a runner who holds form and one who folds at the hips late in a race.

Load it heavy over time.

Exercise 8: Farmer carry

A loaded walk trains grip, trunk stability, and postural endurance under fatigue.

It is one of the simplest exercises on the list and one of the most translatable to running form at the end of a long effort.​

Exercise 9: Dead bug

A core stability drill that trains the anti-extension pattern, the ability of the trunk to resist arching under load.

That resistance is what keeps a running gait tight and efficient. Slow, controlled reps beat fast sloppy ones every time.

Exercise 10: Side plank with hip abduction

Targets the gluteus medius, the small hip stabilizer that keeps the pelvis level in single-leg stance.

A weak glute medius is behind more mysterious knee, hip, and IT band pain in runners than any other single muscle.​

The 3 Exercises Coaches Wish Runners Would Skip

Not because they are dangerous. Because they cost recovery without giving runners much back for the mileage they cut.

Skip 1: The seated leg extension

Isolates the quads without any of the coordination running actually requires.

A back squat trains the same muscles alongside the glutes, hips, and trunk. The leg extension trains one joint in a chair, uses recovery, and does not translate.

Skip 2: The BOSU ball squat

Popular in physio settings and often misapplied by healthy runners in general training.

You cannot load a BOSU squat heavy enough to build meaningful strength, and the balance element does not carry over into a running gait that already has plenty of stability demands.

Skip 3: Heavy plyometric depth jumps as a weekly staple

True depth jumps from a high box are a peaking tool for elite sprinters, not a base-phase habit for distance runners.

The eccentric load on the knees and Achilles is high, the recovery cost is significant, and most of the plyometric benefit runners actually need is already produced by low-box hops and pogo hops.

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How To Fit It Into A Running Week

The programming question matters more than the exercise selection.

​Two sessions a week is the sweet spot

Most coaches settle on two full-body strength sessions per week during base and build phases, dropped to one during a taper.

Each session runs 30 to 45 minutes, includes 3 to 5 of the exercises above, and stops short of failure.

Keep hard days hard, easy days easy

Stack your strength session on the same day as a hard run rather than the day after, so easy days stay easy.

For a full guide to that scheduling problem, our piece on how to combine running and strength training without burning out walks through the practical structure.​

Load it, actually

The single biggest mistake runners make with strength work is going too light for too long.

The point is not to get sweaty. The point is to build force, and force requires load.

​If you are already comfortable with the basics, our list of 7 essential strength exercises every runner needs gives you a tighter starter block to build from.

The Takeaway

Strength training pays off for runners in economy, durability, and late-race form, and the ten exercises on this list cover every movement pattern that actually shows up on the road.

Skip the three that keep sneaking into programs without earning their spot, and give the rest twelve weeks of honest effort before deciding whether they work.