Strength training for masters runners
Masters Running
If you are over 40 and you do one thing beyond running this year, make it this. The case for strength training gets stronger with every year, not weaker.
The short answer
Masters runners should strength train twice a week with heavy, low-repetition work — not light circuits. Muscle mass, power and tendon quality decline with age unless deliberately loaded, and that decline is largely preventable. Prioritise a squat or deadlift pattern, single-leg work, and calf work in both straight-leg and bent-knee positions. Add low-level jumping once you have three months behind you. Warm up longer, progress more slowly, and do not stop during race builds.
Why it matters more after 40
Three age-related changes are all addressed by the same intervention.
Muscle mass declines from roughly the fourth decade onwards, and the loss is disproportionately in the fast-twitch fibres that produce power. Resistance training slows and partially reverses this.
Tendons become less stiff and slower to adapt. Since a substantial proportion of the energy in each running stride is returned elastically through the tendon, this shows up directly as a loss of running economy — and as the calf and Achilles problems that seem to arrive from nowhere in your forties.
Bone density falls, particularly after menopause for women. Running helps; heavy loading helps considerably more.
Add the general injury-resilience benefit and you have four independent reasons, all pointing the same way.
Heavy, not light
The most common error in masters strength training is going light and high-repetition on the assumption that it is safer.
It is not more effective and it is not obviously safer. The adaptations you need — power, tendon stiffness, bone density, motor unit recruitment — come from high-force, low-repetition work. Three sets of twenty light lunges does not provide that stimulus at any age, and after 40 you have less margin to waste on training that does not do anything.
3 to 4 sets of 4 to 8 repetitions, at a load that is genuinely challenging, with one or two repetitions left in reserve. That is the prescription.
The caveat is technique. Get the movements right before you get them heavy, and if you have never lifted, spend four to six weeks learning the patterns with light load. Having someone competent watch your squat and deadlift once is worth the money.
Coach's note
I built my own home programme around a Smith machine, some loadable dumbbells, an ab wheel and an aerobic step, and it covers everything on this page. You do not need a gym membership and you do not need much space. Two practical notes from doing it myself: work the calves off a step so you get the full range, and if you are tall, be aware that some machine geometries simply will not let you perform certain movements properly. Find the version that works with your body and your equipment rather than skipping the exercise. The exercise you actually do twice a week beats the perfect one you do not.
The programme
1. A squat or deadlift pattern
Back squat, front squat, trap-bar deadlift, Romanian deadlift, or a Smith machine squat. Pick one and get strong at it.
3–4 x 5, heavy.
2. Single-leg strength
Rear-foot-elevated split squats and step-ups. Running is a single-leg activity, and side-to-side differences tend to widen with age unless you address them directly.
3 x 6–8 per leg.
3. Posterior chain
Single-leg Romanian deadlifts, hip thrusts, or Nordic hamstring curls. Hamstring injuries become more common with age and this is the main defence.
3 x 8.
4. Calf work — both versions
Straight-leg calf raises for gastrocnemius, and bent-knee calf raises for soleus. Off a step for full range, loaded.
This is the highest-value item on the list for a masters runner. The soleus takes several times body weight per stride, it is barely trained by a standard calf raise, and soleus weakness is behind a large share of the calf and Achilles problems that end masters runners' seasons.
3 x 10 straight-leg, 3 x 12–15 bent-knee.
5. Core, anti-movement
Ab wheel rollouts, dead bugs, Pallof presses. Resist movement rather than create it.
3 x 8–10.
A 40-minute masters session
- Warm-up (8 min): easy bike or walk, leg swings, bodyweight squats, glute bridges, calf raises. Longer than you think you need.
- Squat or trap-bar deadlift: 4 x 5
- Rear-foot-elevated split squat: 3 x 6 per leg
- Single-leg Romanian deadlift: 3 x 8 per leg
- Straight-leg calf raise off a step: 3 x 10
- Bent-knee calf raise: 3 x 12
- Ab wheel rollout: 3 x 8
Adding power work
Once you have three months of consistent strength training behind you, add a small amount of jumping. This is where the loss of fast-twitch capacity gets addressed most directly, and it is the piece most masters runners never get to.
- Pogo hops: 3 x 20, on the spot, stiff ankles, minimal ground contact
- Skipping with a rope: 2–3 minutes
- Low box step-offs and land: 3 x 6, controlled landings
Keep the volume low — 40 to 80 contacts — and build very gradually. This is the highest-risk part of the programme and also, done properly, one of the highest-value.
Practical adjustments for masters lifters
Warm up for longer. Eight to ten minutes, not two.
Progress more slowly. Add load every two or three weeks rather than every week. Tendon adapts more slowly than muscle, and at any age the tendon is usually the limiting tissue.
Leave more in reserve. Never train a set to failure. There is no additional benefit for an endurance athlete and there is real additional risk.
Space it from your hard running. Same day where possible, several hours apart, so your easy days stay easy.
Do not stop during race builds. Reduce the volume, keep the frequency. Your tissues need the stimulus most when your running load is highest.
What to expect
Strength gains within four to six weeks, mostly neural. Visible changes in how you feel running — better late in long runs, more solid on descents — somewhere around eight to twelve weeks. Injury resilience builds over three to six months and keeps building after that.
None of it is dramatic on any given week, and nobody will notice you doing it. That is the nature of the work that actually keeps people running into their fifties and sixties.
Put a recent 5k time in and get your easy, threshold and interval paces as real numbers.
Open the pace calculator →I coach a small number of runners one-to-one, in Wellington and remotely, and run AW Extra Mile group sessions for beginners at Waitangi Park. Ask me a question if you are not sure which fits.
