Does strength training help runners?
Yes for running economy: heavy strength work, especially combined with jump training, makes running cheaper in energy terms, with small to moderate effects in meta-analyses. No for injury prevention: home or self-directed programmes have not reduced running injuries in trials. Lift to run more efficiently, not as an injury shield.
What to do
- Lift twice a week in the base and build phases. Focus on heavy multi-joint leg exercises at 80% of your 1RM or more, roughly a weight you can lift 3–6 times.
- If your easy and marathon paces are 12 km/h or slower (5:00 per km or slower), add one short block of jumps a week. That is where plyometrics helped.
- New to lifting? Spend 2–4 weeks learning technique with lighter weights first. That is expert practice, not a tested rule.
- Keep heavy leg work at least 24 hours before a long run or key session, and never within 6 hours of one.
- In the taper, drop to one short maintenance session a week and stop heavy leg work 7–10 days before the race. This is convention.
- Expect the economy benefit after about 6 weeks. Don't count on fewer injuries unless the programme is supervised and you stick to it.
Two separate questions
Runners lift for two reasons: to run faster and to stay injury-free. The research gives very different answers to the two.
A few terms first. Running economy is how much energy you need to hold a given pace. Better economy means the same pace costs less. 1RM (one-repetition maximum) is the heaviest weight you can lift once. Plyometrics are jumping and bounding drills that train the legs to absorb and return force quickly.
Economy: the evidence is solid
The strongest summary is a three-level meta-analysis of 31 studies (Llanos-Lagos and colleagues, 2024). A meta-analysis pools many trials.
- Heavy lifting at 80% of 1RM or more gave a small improvement in economy (effect size −0.27; negative means less energy used).
- Combined methods, heavy work plus plyometrics, gave a moderate improvement (effect size −0.43).
- Plyometrics helped only at speeds of 12 km/h or slower. That covers most recreational marathon paces.
A separate meta-analysis agreed that heavy work beats plyometrics overall (Eihara and colleagues, 2022).
Older runners are included in this picture. In a small randomized trial in masters marathoners, maximal-strength training improved economy at marathon pace by 6.2% (Piacentini and colleagues, 2013). For runners aged roughly 40–50 and up, two sessions a week is a sensible default, graded B on that single small trial. See our page on masters runners.
As an example of what 12 km/h means: it is a pace of 5:00 per km, which would give a marathon of about 3 hours 31 minutes. If your marathon pace is slower than that, plyometrics are likely to help you.
Expert guidance on durability, meaning how well you hold your pace late in a long race, also lists heavy strength and plyometric work. That guidance is built on scant data (Jones and Kirby, 2025). More on durability in how long your long runs should be.
Injury prevention: not supported
This is where the popular message runs ahead of the data.
- Across 9 randomized trials and 1,904 runners, exercise programmes did not clearly reduce injury risk. The pooled estimate pointed slightly towards benefit, but the uncertainty included no effect. Only supervised programmes, with at least 88% compliance, reduced injuries (Wu and colleagues, 2024).
- In 720 first-time New York marathoners, a self-directed strength programme left major injury rates unchanged: 7.1% against 7.3% (Toresdahl and colleagues, 2020).
The plain reading: a strength routine you do on your own, on and off, should not be sold to you as injury protection. If you want the best chance of an injury benefit, the evidence points to supervision and high adherence. A guided class or coach is the closest everyday version of that; that is our suggestion. For the injury rule that does have support, see the long-run injury rule.
How to fit it around running
Lifting can blunt running for a while afterwards. Older small trials found running economy was impaired 6 hours after lifting, and next-day running was impaired after same-day combined sessions (Doma). That justifies some buffers.
| Rule | What it says | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| ST-1 | Twice a week in base and build. Heavy multi-joint leg work at ≥80% 1RM (aim 85–90%, about 3–6 reps). One low-volume plyometric block a week if your paces are ≤12 km/h. | A |
| ST-2 | 2–4 weeks of technique and lighter loads before heavy lifting if you are new to it. | D (expert practice) |
| ST-3 | No heavy leg work within 24 hours before a long run or key session, never within 6 hours. Lift after an easy run, or after a hard run when the next day is easy. | C |
| ST-4 | During the taper, one short maintenance session a week. Stop heavy leg work 7–10 days before the race. | D (expert practice) |
Grade A applies to the economy effect itself. The exact set and rep numbers are practical defaults, not tested optimums. The economy benefit is usually described as appearing after 6 weeks or more.
A sample week, as our suggestion only: lift on the afternoon of an easy-run day early in the week, and again two days later, keeping both well clear of the long run and the main quality session.
What we don’t know
- Injury prevention is unproven. The supervised-programme benefit comes from a subgroup of trials, not a separate head-to-head test.
- Most strength trials are in men. The female subgroup in the main meta-analysis contains only two studies.
- Economy is not race time. Better economy should help, but the trials mostly measure economy, not marathon finish times.
- The best dose is unclear. The set, rep and timing numbers above are defaults built from the trials and expert practice.
- The search behind our source report was capped, and this topic was one of those affected. Some studies may be missing.
Sources
- Llanos-Lagos et al. (2024). Three-level meta-analysis of strength and plyometric training and running economy.
- Eihara et al. (2022). Meta-analysis comparing heavy resistance and plyometric training in runners.
- Piacentini et al. (2013). Maximal-strength training and economy in masters marathoners.
- Wu et al. (2024). Meta-analysis of exercise programmes for preventing running injuries.
- Toresdahl et al. (2020). Strength programme and injuries in first-time New York marathoners.
- Doma. Lifting and running performance in the hours and day after; scheduling strength and running sessions.
- Jones and Kirby (2025). Expert guidance on training durability.
Last reviewed 13 November 2026.