Lower Body Strength Training for Runners

Running has different meanings based on whether you perform distance runs on a regular basis or if you’ve never run before. Either way, it is crucial to strength train in addition to running to remain physically healthy and able to run. That’s because strength training helps to prevent overuse injuries from occurring, and running, well, it’s a lot of steps, or in other words, a lot of repetition. There are multiple muscle groups that are critical to target while strength training when paired with running. We will discuss various groups of muscles by the end of this writing.

For starters, the lower leg, ankle, and foot musculature is critical to strength train to protect your ankles and assist with handling the high load they experience with running. If you have an exercise band, you can wrap it around your foot and then hold it by your hip to anchor it. Then, move your foot down/to the right/to the left as separate motions to target some of the various muscles that make up the lower leg, ankle, and foot musculature. You will need to use your other foot to change the direction of the anchor of the band for the motions to the left and right.

If you don’t have an exercise band, then you can lean against a wall and do a calf raise to target the medial side of your calf, perform regular calf raises to target the back side, and do a side plank to target the lateral side of your calf. Running requires a lot of steps, so performing these exercises is key to strengthening the muscles and building their stamina to help you stay running whether it’s the first mile or the 20^th mile. A guideline you can aim for is performing 2-3 sets of 20-25 repetitions per leg.

Then for the side plank, aim for 2-3 sets of 30-60 second holds. The side plank will also target your hips and core, which are also very important parts for running, although we will not dive into those areas in this writing. If you would like a deeper dive into them, let us know at Freedom, and we can get to work on that! Toe mobility and strength are other areas to focus on for training alongside running. In particular, the big toe. As a challenge, try moving only your big toe inwards (if trying with your right foot, try moving it to the left and vice versa if using your left foot). Are you able to move only your big toe?

The muscles that attach to the knee, such as the quads and hamstrings, are also important areas to train. Training the quads eccentrically in particular will go a long way to help strengthen your knees and make them more resilient. A way to train the quads eccentrically is to stand on one leg and then bend it while moving your other foot out in front of you. Aim for 2-3 sets of 20-25 repetitions per leg. Then, for the hamstrings, single-leg RDLs would be a great starting point for multiple reasons – they work on balance, strength, and lower-extremity controlled mobility, core strength, and foot strength, to name a few. Again, aim for 2-3 sets of 20-25 repetitions per leg.

As always, enjoy more Freedom! Feel free to come visit us at one of our Freedom Physical Therapy locations – Mukwonago, Fox Point, Grafton, and Brookfield.