Do I need to be doing weights? Will it make me heavy? Is it going to knacker my legs for Tuesday? Or should I just be running more instead?

Most runners I meet are in one of two camps. Nowhere near a gym, or in one doing a general fitness circuit that’s got almost nothing to do with running quicker.

PT since 2010, running seriously since 2013. I’ve watched both for a long time.

Why runners need it

Running is a single-leg job. Thousands of times a session, always forwards, same load, narrow range of movement.

Two problems fall out of that. What you don’t use goes weak. What you use constantly gets hammered. Strength work sorts both.

Notice what that isn’t. It isn’t about getting bigger and it isn’t cardio. Come out of the gym sweating and out of breath and you’ve done a rubbish running session, not a good strength one.

The handful that matter

Not forty exercises. A few patterns, loaded properly, done for years.

Single leg work. Split squats, step-ups, single leg deadlifts. Nearly everyone finds an embarrassing gap between left and right the first time. Closing it is often worth more than the rest of the programme put together.

Calves and Achilles. Your calf takes and returns more force per stride than anything else you own. It’s also where a huge share of running injuries live. Heavy, slow calf raises, straight leg and bent knee. Dull. Seriously effective.

I learned that one the expensive way. Achilles surgery in 2025, and the calf work I’d always treated as optional became the whole programme.

Hips and glutes. Weak hips show up as a knee collapsing in, a hip dropping, and eventually pain somewhere with nothing to do with your hips. Hip thrusts, bridges, lateral work.

Trunk work that stops movement. Not sit-ups. Your middle’s job while running is to stop rotation and stop you folding sideways. Planks, side planks, dead bugs, anti-rotation holds.

How heavy, how often

Twice a week. That’s it.

Most runners go far too light. The last couple of reps should be genuinely hard, five to eight on the main lifts. Three sets of twenty with a little dumbbell is a warm-up with extra steps.

The weight you finish a block on should be well beyond what you started with. If it isn’t, you’ve been maintaining.

Where it goes

• Harder running days, not easy ones. Keep easy days easy, that’s their whole point
• Splitting them up? Run first, lift later, or leave six hours
• Never the day before a long run or a key session
• Race week, keep moving, drop the weight right back

The honest version

Strength work won’t make you quicker next month. It keeps you running, week after week, year after year. That consistency is what makes you quicker.

The strongest runner in the race is usually the one still running.

Lift heavy. Run easy. Sleep long.

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Want it writing out for you? My personalised strength and conditioning plan is four sessions built round your training, your kit and your injury history, every exercise illustrated with a starting weight. £30.