We Run Ultras

(12) Winter Strength Work Should Earn Its Place in Your Running

By Francesco//7 min read/Training science & durability

Give the gym a running objective

A winter strength block can improve the energy cost of running, but stronger lifts alone do not establish better running performance. Its place in a runner's week should depend on transferable gains and tolerable recovery costs. Dark evenings provide a practical opportunity to use the gym; they do not change the standard of evidence required to claim that a programme works.

That distinction matters when the first successful squat progression encourages another exercise, another set and another demanding session. A runner can become demonstrably better at lifting while making the surrounding running harder to complete. The programme needs an objective beyond finishing tired.

Economy is a defensible starting point

Llanos-Lagos and colleagues pooled 31 studies involving 652 middle- and long-distance runners. Heavy resistance work, plyometrics and combined methods could improve running economy, with effects influenced by running speed and the method used. Evidence certainty was moderate to low. Blagrove's review and earlier syntheses by Balsalobre-Fernández, Yamamoto, and Rønnestad and Mujika support the direction while documenting varied protocols and incomplete transfer to performance. [1–5]

Running economy describes the oxygen or energy required at a given submaximal speed. It is one determinant of performance, alongside the aerobic ceiling and the fraction an athlete can sustain. An economy improvement therefore matters, but it is not a percentage that can simply be subtracted from a marathon finishing time.

Støren's small randomised trial found improved economy after eight weeks of heavy half-squats without changes in maximal oxygen uptake or body weight. Millet's triathletes and Guglielmo's runners provide related evidence. Li's combined training improved several outcomes in young male runners; Beattie's longer intervention extended the observation period to 40 weeks. These programmes support a sustained training commitment, not a particular branded circuit. [6–10]

The method and the runner both matter

Mikkola and Taipale compared different resistance approaches alongside running. Improvements in strength, speed and economy did not move together consistently, and some measures improved without significant differences between groups. Calling every gym session strength training hides those distinctions. [11–13]

Plyometric studies by Paavolainen, Spurrs, Saunders, Turner, Ramírez-Campillo and Berryman provide another route to improvement. Saunders found an economy benefit at the fastest tested speed, but not the slower speeds. Turner's economy gains were not accompanied by the proposed changes in elastic-energy indicators. A plausible tendon or coordination mechanism should therefore remain a hypothesis unless the experiment measured it. [14–19]

The strongest counterexamples are useful. In Eihara's middle-aged recreational runners, both resistance and plyometric training improved economy without significantly changing five-kilometre time. Vikmoen's female endurance athletes gained strength without improving economy or 40-minute running performance. Barnes also reported different competition responses between men and women during a cross-country season. These findings narrow the promise; they do not make the gym pointless. [20–22]

The practical implication is to keep the athlete's running context visible. A result from young, fast men cannot supply the expected improvement for an older woman preparing for a hilly 50-miler.

Late-run evidence is promising and bounded

Zanini's 2025 randomised trial gets closer to a distance runner's durability question. Twenty-eight trained men continued their running, with half adding maximal strength and plyometrics twice weekly for ten weeks. Economy at 90 minutes improved in the strength group relative to controls, and subsequent high-intensity time to exhaustion improved substantially. [23]

That protocol is more informative than a fresh five-minute economy test. It still involved 90 minutes of controlled running followed by a laboratory exhaustion task. It did not measure technical descending, overnight racing or ultramarathon completion. As with polarised training, an improvement in one determinant leaves other preparation unfinished.

Nor should injury prevention be inferred from these performance results. Harrison studied running kinematics in novice women, rather than establishing fewer injuries. Stenerson's survey found no difference in injury prevalence by resistance-training participation, but could not establish whether runners began lifting before or after injury. Neither design settles whether a particular winter programme prevents running injuries. [24–25]

Progress the work and inspect the transfer

My coaching application is to begin with a small, technically manageable programme and progress its demands as the runner demonstrates tolerance. Learn the movements before chasing heavy loads or adding substantial jumping. The heavy protocols in research describe trained interventions; they are not a first-session prescription.

Choose the schedule with the running week open beside it. If lifting repeatedly compromises the next important run, reduce its initial volume or change its placement. Protect food and recovery too: our article on protein for masters ultrarunners explains why adding a stimulus creates work beyond the session itself.

At the end of the block, inspect more than the weight on the bar. Compare a repeatable run under similar conditions, its late-session effort and the recovery needed afterwards. Keep the strength progression that fits those observations; revise the one that leaves a stronger runner unable to complete the planned running.

Sources

Evidence syntheses

  1. Llanos-Lagos C et al., "Effect of Strength Training Programs in Middle- and Long-Distance Runners' Economy at Different Running Speeds: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38165636/

  2. Blagrove RC et al., "Effects of Strength Training on the Physiological Determinants of Middle- and Long-Distance Running Performance: A Systematic Review" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29249083/

  3. Balsalobre-Fernández C et al., "Effects of Strength Training on Running Economy in Highly Trained Runners: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis of Controlled Trials" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26694507/

  4. Yamamoto LM et al., "The effects of resistance training on endurance distance running performance among highly trained runners: a systematic review" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18978605/

  5. Rønnestad BR et al., "Optimizing strength training for running and cycling endurance performance: A review" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23914932/

Resistance and combined training

  1. Støren O et al., "Maximal strength training improves running economy in distance runners" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18460997/

  2. Millet GP et al., "Effects of concurrent endurance and strength training on running economy and .VO(2) kinetics" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12165692/

  3. Guglielmo LG et al., "Effects of strength training on running economy" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18975259/

  4. Li F et al., "Effects of complex training versus heavy resistance training on neuromuscular adaptation, running economy and 5-km performance in well-trained distance runners" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31086736/

  5. Beattie K et al., "The Effect of Strength Training on Performance Indicators in Distance Runners" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27135468/

  6. Mikkola J et al., "Effect of resistance training regimens on treadmill running and neuromuscular performance in recreational endurance runners" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21854344/

  7. Taipale RS et al., "Strength training in endurance runners" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20432192/

  8. Taipale RS et al., "Neuromuscular adaptations during combined strength and endurance training in endurance runners: maximal versus explosive strength training or a mix of both" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22711181/

Plyometrics and running performance

  1. Paavolainen L et al., "Explosive-strength training improves 5-km running time by improving running economy and muscle power" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10233114/

  2. Spurrs RW et al., "The effect of plyometric training on distance running performance" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12627298/

  3. Saunders PU et al., "Short-term plyometric training improves running economy in highly trained middle and long distance runners" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17149987/

  4. Turner AM et al., "Improvement in running economy after 6 weeks of plyometric training" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12580657/

  5. Ramírez-Campillo R et al., "Effects of plyometric training on endurance and explosive strength performance in competitive middle- and long-distance runners" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23838975/

  6. Berryman N et al., "Effect of plyometric vs. dynamic weight training on the energy cost of running" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20543734/

Transfer, null results and injury boundaries

  1. Eihara Y et al., "The effects of plyometric versus resistance training on running economy and 5-km running time in middle-aged recreational runners" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39523854/

  2. Vikmoen O et al., "Effects of Heavy Strength Training on Running Performance and Determinants of Running Performance in Female Endurance Athletes" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26953893/

  3. Barnes KR et al., "Effects of resistance training on running economy and cross-country performance" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23698241/

  4. Zanini M et al., "Strength Training Improves Running Economy Durability and Fatigued High-Intensity Performance in Well-Trained Male Runners: A Randomized Control Trial" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40016936/

  5. Harrison K et al., "Effect of Strength and Plyometric Training on Kinematics in Female Novice Runners" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38489659/

  6. Stenerson LR et al., "Running-Related Overuse Injuries and Their Relationship with Run and Resistance Training Characteristics in Adult Recreational Runners: A Cross-Sectional Study" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37754962/

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