Weights on a vest, weights on a rack.
Weights on your chest, weights on your back.
Free weights, fixed weights. Weights, weights, weights.
It’s safe to say, most distance runners and their coaches know weight training, AKA resistance training can serve as a useful adjunct to endurance training. It is also safe to say that with the varying opinions and practical implementations of strengthening, you could write a whole Dr. Seuss book, filled with witty rhymes and silly depictions.
Many runners get their first taste of strength training in the rehabilitation setting after something goes wrong. Classic example: you got injured because of an imbalance between training load and what your body can handle and you ended up in physical therapy working on various lifts to address the injured tissue. Once you are back on the roads, the journey of strength training might end there if you aren’t guided by a professional who knows how to train runners. With the right objectives in mind and the right tools in hand.
There are certainly many ways to go about resistance training that can be effective for distance runners, but sometimes we miss the mark and end up spending time in the gym that does not yield meaningful improvements.
The first question to address is: what is your purpose?
Are you rehabbing from an injury?
Maybe you want to prevent one?
Have you been running for years and now you want to gain an extra performance boost with weight training?
The answer to the above question should dictate the approach to your strength programming. This approach may also change over time!
To elaborate.. Findings from Llanos-Lagos (2023) suggest that lifting at high loads which are defined as loads greater than 80% of your 1 repetition maximum can yield improvements in your running economy- essentially a measure of how efficient you are as a runner. This suggests a likely performance benefit associated with lifting HEAVY regularly.
Put in perspective, if the maximum amount of weight you could lift for a certain strength based movement was 200 lbs, you would need to be training at loads of 160 lbs or greater in order to see these types of benefits. It is important to note that this type of training should not be done haphazardly and only with intentional and guided progression. If you can get there, however, we also know that these types of loads can also help improve muscle-tendon stiffness and bone density which are both key attributes in injury prevention.
Don’t knock lower loads, completely, though. There are a wide variety of reasons why you could implement loads below 80% 1RM. As I mentioned earlier, low loads are what you need to start at in order to build proficiency with technique to avoid building suboptimal movement patterns which can increase your injury risk.
Speaking of injuries, in the early stages of rehabilitation from a running injury, you may need to start at a low weight in order to build tissue tolerance to load. You may also employ low loads as part of training to add extra volume and still get some of the benefits of strength training on days where your running loads are high.
Regardless of your goals as a runner, it is certain that most human beings would benefit from some form of resistance training to improve strength and endurance and to be more fit to engage in the environment we live in. With the high demands placed on your body as a runner, it is imperative you have the tools to meet them. Strength training equips you with those tools and if done with the right intentions can also yield performance benefits.