How often should runners strength train?

Updated August 26, 2026 · By the Runked team

Coaching articles on strength training for runners tend to give a single number without saying where it comes from. The table below lines up what the named peer-reviewed sources and one general guideline actually measured, by goal, so the 2-to-3-session figure can be checked against what each study's population and outcome actually was.

Strength training frequency by goal, and what each source supports

This is Runked's own compilation, built from each source's stated population, dose and outcome. No single table published anywhere combines these sources this way. The Vikmoen row, from PLoS One, is included deliberately: it is a well-controlled trial that found the same 2-session dose raised strength without moving running economy or time-trial performance in its own all-female sample, which is why the table above treats 2 to 3 sessions a week as a range that recurs across studies, with no single trial guaranteeing the effect.

Why 2 to 3 sessions a week, according to these sources

Balsalobre-Fernández, Santos-Concejero and Grivas, publishing in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, searched four databases in September 2015 and found 5 controlled trials meeting their inclusion criteria: competitive middle- and long-distance runners with a VO2max above 60 mL/kg/min. Across those 93 runners, programs combining low-to-high intensity resistance exercises and plyometrics, run 2 to 3 times a week for 8 to 12 weeks, produced what the authors call "a large, beneficial effect" on running economy, the amount of oxygen used at a given pace.

Blagrove, Howatson and Hayes, in Sports Medicine, reviewed a wider population, 24 studies and 469 runners ranging from moderately trained to national and international caliber, across events from 800 meters to ultramarathon. Their conclusion is that "the addition of two to three [strength training] sessions per week, which include a variety of [strength training] modalities are likely to provide benefits to the performance of middle- and long-distance runners." Running economy improved by 2 to 8% and time-trial performance by 3 to 5% at middle distances in the studies that found an effect, but the authors are explicit that this was not a consistent finding across all of the work they reviewed, and their review did not address injury outcomes at all.

Lauersen, Bertelsen and Andersen's meta-analysis, in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, measured a different outcome: injury prevention, studied across a general athletic population. Stratified by intervention type, strength training carried a relative risk of 0.315 (95% CI 0.207–0.480) for sports injuries overall, the lowest relative risk of the four intervention categories the review stratified, against a non-significant 0.963 for stretching. In a separate stratification by injury type, pooling all the physical activity programs in the review together, overuse injuries carried a relative risk of 0.527 (95% CI 0.373–0.746) and acute injuries 0.647 (95% CI 0.502–0.836). That overuse figure comes from the review's pooled physical-activity programs. It does not isolate the strength-training arm on its own, so it should not be read as "strength training alone halves overuse injuries."

How to apply it to your own week

Start from the ACSM floor of 2 sessions a week if strength training is new to you, and treat 3 as the ceiling both running-specific reviews above tested, without building past it while also increasing running volume. Balsalobre-Fernández and colleagues required a program duration greater than 4 weeks, and the five trials that qualified all ran 8 to 12 weeks. That 8-to-12-week span is what the meta-analysis actually observed, so it offers no evidence either way about a shorter block.

Keagen Hadley, writing for Strength Running, suggests scheduling sessions on the same days as easy runs, or at least two days before a high-effort run, so heavy legs never show up on a workout or race day. That scheduling advice is Hadley's own practical rule. It is not a finding from either meta-analysis above, so treat it as useful for fitting sessions into a week, separate from the dose-and-outcome evidence in the table.

Common mistakes runners make with strength training

• Expecting a running-economy change inside a few sessions. Balsalobre-Fernández and colleagues' reviewed trials ran 8 to 12 weeks; nothing in that meta-analysis supports a faster timeline.
• Treating any amount of strength work as equivalent to the reviewed programs. Blagrove, Howatson and Hayes's review covered a variety of strength training modalities at 2 to 3 sessions a week. Their own finding was not consistent across every study included, so picking one generic routine and expecting the same result overstates what the review found.
• Assuming strength gains automatically become running-performance gains. Vikmoen and colleagues' trial found a 40% strength increase in its 11-athlete strength-training arm, alongside no significant change in running economy or a 40-minute time trial across the full 19-athlete trial.
• Citing the injury-prevention figure as running-specific. Lauersen, Bertelsen and Andersen's 25-trial meta-analysis covered general sports injury prevention across a mixed athletic population. Its overuse-injury estimate applies to the review's pooled physical-activity programs. Strength training on its own was not broken out for that specific figure.

This page offers general guidance only. Talk to a doctor or physical therapist before adding strength training if you have an existing injury, joint pain, or a condition affected by load-bearing exercise.

What to do next

Strength sessions sit alongside a running week, and where they land depends on the rest of your schedule. Runked's rest days for runners guide covers where full rest and cross-training days sit around hard running efforts, and signs of overtraining covers what it looks like when total load, running and lifting combined, has outrun recovery. For the running side of the week that strength training is meant to support, running workouts covers the individual session types.

How much strength training helps your own running is worth judging against your own results, not someone else's log; in Runked the rank starts everyone at Bronze and only moves on your own runs. See how the rank works.

Frequently asked questions