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Strengthening Your Run

Athletic Edge Physical Therapy

Running is commonly incorporated in many peoples’ exercise routines for it provides a plethora of physiological health benefits to the cardiovascular, respiratory, and musculoskeletal systems. While these benefits are universal to those who run, it is essential to recognize the proper training mechanisms involved in order to reap these benefits, maximize performance, and minimize risk of injury. There are several training recommendations that not only allow runners to strengthen their run, but also greatly reduce the risks of injury that may result from running with improper training mechanics.

There are five key muscle groups that are involved in running: calves/feet, hamstrings, glutes/lateral hip, core/abdominals, and quads/hip flexors (Dunne, 2021). Using a training regimen that incorporates exercises that target these five muscle groups will greatly improve the quality of running performance, as well as enhance endurance to achieve longer runs. However, when training these muscle groups, one should take caution in the training errors that could lead to injury such as improper footwear or overuse in frequency, intensity, or distance. Training errors account for 60% of running-related injuries, excluding the involvement of excess body mass, runner foot type, history of previous injury, foot strike pattern, and age in injury prevalence as well (Saxby, 2021). Becoming involved in strength training reduces the frequency of running-related injuries by one-third, especially when improving the strength and endurance of the five key muscle groups involved in performing a run (Saxby, 2021). 

Recognizing if you are doing too much too soon, not having enough variety in your training, and being cognizant of your initial training levels all aid in decreasing running training errors. While some factors to lower injury risk are controllable like reducing errors in training and lowering body mass, others are uncontrollable which is why it is essential to incorporate proper strength training tailored toward running not only to reduce injury risk, but to continue to perform at desired levels. Below are nine exercises that incorporate five key muscle groups for strengthening your run:

  1. Hip Mobility: Hip 90/90 with lift

    1. Sit with knees at 90 degree bend, hands behind for support (or no hands for more core challenge).

    2. Rotate hips/knees about, keeping feet in place, torso upright.

    3. Push into rotation, and lift rear leg up, engaging glute. 

    4. See video here

  2. Calf Focused: Deficit Heel Raises

    1. Stand on step/plate near wall/handrail for support if needed

    2. Start with 2 foot press up

    3. Lift 1 foot up, and descend in 3 seconds on the other foot.

    4. Repeat 15 reps each foot

    5. See video here

  3. Single Leg Balance: Hip Airplanes

    1. Stand on 1 leg, lean over and bring back leg up off the ground

    2. Slowly rotate hips out to the side, then return to center.

    3. Aim to complete 5 solid rotations both sides.

    4. **Can kickstand back leg down (toe down) at first to help

    5. See video here

    6. See modified position here

  4. Single Leg Balance Advanced: Banded Hip Airplanes

    1. Perform hip airplane but with band.

    2. Choose a light resistance band, wrap around back and hook with thumb at top, and around standing foot at bottom.

    3. Perform hip airplane, controlling motion back to center. 

    4. See video here.

  5. Hamstring and Single Leg Balance: Single Leg RDL

    1. Choose leg you’re going to step out on, and put that same side hand behind your low back. 

    2. Step out on leg, soft knees, reach down to touch below knee

    3. Kick opposite leg back up

    4. Maintain flat low back (monitor with hand.)

    5. See video here

  6. Hamstring and Single Leg Balance: Single Leg RDL + 1 DB

    1. Advance SL RDL by adding 1 dumbbell

    2. See video here

  7. Hamstring and Single Leg Balance: Single Leg RDL + 2 DBs

    1. Continuation of advancing SL RDL by adding 2 Dumbbells.

    2. Make sure you maintain even hips/flat back when coming over

    3. Keep a soft knee as you hinge forward

    4. See video here

  8. Quads/Glutes: Wall Sit

    1. Perform wall sit to parallel (squat to where hip/knees in alignment).

      1. Do not squat this low if it bothers your knees.

    2. Perform 5x30 seconds.

    3. ADV: lift 1 leg and hold 5-10 seconds, repeating 5 reps each side.

    4. See video here

  9. Core/Glute/Med/Hip Flexor: Side Plank + Hip Flexion

    1. Get into side plank position on forearm

    2. Maintain forward, stable hips (don’t let top hip roll back)

    3. Drive top knee towards chest, repeating 10 reps each side

    4. **Modify: drop bottom knee down to ground

    5. See video here

Dunne, J. (2021, March 2). Key muscles used in running: 5 main muscle groups. Kinetic Revolution - Run Strong, Injury Free - Running Blog. Retrieved from https://www.kinetic-revolution.com/key-muscle-groups-for-stronger-running/. 

Hastings, N. (2021, October 29). Own Your Run: Mobility & Strength. San Diego; Athletic Edge Physical Therapy.

Saxby, L. (2021, March 17). Causes and prevention of running-related injury: An engineering perspective. International Journal of Sports and Exercise Medicine. Retrieved from https://clinmedjournals.org/articles/ijsem/international-journal-of-sports-and-exercise-medicine-ijsem-7-185.php?jid=ijsem.