In recent years there has been quite a bit of research on strength training and it’s effects on running performance. Most studies have found favorable results indicating that strength training probably does improve running performance in distance events. However, nobody has been able to determine exactly why strength training makes you a faster runner.
It has been fairly well established that strength training doesn’t improve your VO2 max. This is the maximum amount of oxygen you can deliver to your muscles and is well correlated with distance running performance. It has been proposed that strength training may alter certain biomechanical factors like stride length or cadence. It has also been speculated that it may increase muscle tendon stiffness, muscle power and/or ‘neuromuscular control’.
To help us figure out what exactly strength training is changing in order to make you a faster runner, some researchers from Deakin University in Australia reviewed all the research…
Study
- 25 studies including 571 participants
- Average was strength training twice a week for around 10 weeks
- Evidence strength
Findings
- Strength Training does…
- Strong = increased gluts, hams and calf strength
- Moderate = increased quads strength
- Strength training does not…
- Strong = improve jump height
- Moderate = improve sprint performance
- May or may not… (conflicting / insufficient)
- Improve calf tendon stiffness
- Change running biomechanics
Limitations
- Findings that strength training doesn’t improve running performance conflict with those of the Blagrove 2017 systematic review
- This may be because this study excluded some of the studies included in the Blagrove 2017 review and then performed a meta-analysis of the results (pooled all the results and re-analysed them)
- This study didn’t look at running economy which is a very important consideration for distance runners
- The findings on performance were based on analysis of sprint performance over 20m. This may not translate to long distance running performance
- The studies analysed used a wide variety of strength training programs making it difficult to isolate the effects of different types of exercises
- 78% of the participants in the studies were male, meaning we may not be able to assume the same effects in women
Clinicians
- We don’t know if strength training improves running performance or biomechanics
- Strength training may improve calf tendon stiffness but the findings are mixed
Runners
- Strength training makes your legs stronger
- This may not be the most surprising finding ever reported