Running more does not mean running better. To maintain pace, improve technique, and avoid injuries, strength training is a key complement that should be integrated without interfering with running sessions. During a half marathon, for example, the repeated impact multiplies the body weight several times. In this regard, Santiago Zevallos, head coach of the Functional Runners Team, highlights that incorporating strength training allows better response to this demand and maintaining a more efficient mechanics.
“If you don’t have enough strength to cushion the impact when running, the body becomes unbalanced and injuries appear. The benefit of strength training is precisely to prevent knee problems, periostitis, or plantar fasciitis, as well as to improve running economy. That is, it allows you to spend less energy and maintain pace over long distances,” explains the coach.
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It’s not just about lifting weight for the sake of it
Strengthening does not simply mean lifting more and more weight. The work must respond to the runner’s needs and the stage of their preparation. It can include weights, mobility, plyometric exercises, or explosive movements, depending on the goal.
Zevallos identifies three areas that should have special prominence. The first is the hip, particularly the gluteus medius. Strengthening it helps stabilize the pelvis and prevents the knee from tending to move to one side during strides, which can favor certain injuries.
The second is the core. It’s not about seeking perfect abs, but about strengthening the central area of the body. Obliques, transverse, and lumbar area allow better trunk stabilization, improve posture, and prevent fatigue from affecting technique in the last kilometers of a half marathon or marathon.
The third is the posterior chain, formed by hamstrings, calves, and soleus. It is also important to work the foot and ankle, which participate both in impact absorption and in the propulsion of each stride.
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Strength adapts according to the distance
Someone preparing for a 5K does not need the same as someone aiming for a marathon. The distance and race goal determine which abilities should receive more attention.
For Zevallos, a 5K runner needs to prioritize explosiveness, speed, and power, with maximum strength exercises, plyometrics, jumps, and explosive movements. In 10K part of that work is maintained, but muscular endurance is incorporated with greater emphasis, through specific exercises for runners such as glute bridges, lunges, and deadlifts.
In half marathon and marathon, preparation must be more complete. To base, explosive, and endurance strength is added work on core and mobility, a capacity that is often neglected and allows running with less stiffness, especially as the distance increases.
According to the coach, a well-structured strength training session can last between 45 and 60 minutes, with proper warm-up, a central work part, and a closing dedicated to stretching.
There is a big difference between going to the gym and doing strength training for runners. Although the gym helps at the beginning, the key is to plan according to individual needs.
For example, at Functional Runners, Zevallos explains that the work starts from a multidisciplinary evaluation. Thus, when a runner presents discomfort, they are referred to sports physiotherapy to identify the origin of the problem before designing their strength routine.
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How to combine both disciplines without getting fatigued
An intense strength session can leave the legs fatigued, so placing it immediately before intervals, repeats, or hill sessions can affect the quality of running training.
Zevallos recommends, whenever possible, leaving a rest day between a demanding session and another. A week could distribute three running days, for example Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and two strength sessions Monday and Wednesday. For more experienced runners, frequency can increase as long as the total load is manageable.
“The key is not to combine a demanding strength day with an intense running session, which can be intervals, repeats, or hills,” warns the running instructor.
When the schedule forces both activities on the same day, the ideal is to separate the sessions by several hours. If there is no other possibility, Zevallos recommends doing running first to avoid strength work wearing out the legs before running.
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Train strength and recover months of running
Daniel Rozas Núñez del Arco, runner of Functional Runners Team, first noticed it in his posture. The change did not appear only in the strength of his legs, but in the way he finished training sessions.
“The first change I noticed was not in the legs, it was more in posture. I started finishing runs more upright and I attribute that to strength training. My times also improved, I could run the same distance with more endurance and in the last stretch, where I probably slowed down more, it allowed me to maintain pace and even have strength to accelerate,” he says.
María Pía Pinto, also a member of Functional Runners Team, found another benefit in that combination. Her recent training processes, accompanied by strength, have allowed her to stay injury-free and avoid discomfort that had previously appeared in calves, heels, tendons, and knees.
Her experience led her to a simple conclusion. Strength training must accompany running because both complement each other and cover different needs.
“It is the best investment against injuries, as long as running sessions are accompanied by strength because really one could not exist without the other. If you only run, you will probably wear out more and if you only do strength you won’t have the agility nor the cardiovascular part that running gives you. So it is a complement of both,” says the runner.
Daniel’s experience also helps to see strength work as an investment and not as an additional burden for the runner.
“Strength does not take time away from running, it rather gives it back. Having two forty-minute sessions a week can buy you months of running without stopping. Running makes you fast, but strength is what keeps you running,” concludes the experienced runner.
