How I, as a coach, build a strength protocol for a runner
And how you can fine tune your own program.
Another crossover post here from Reddit that I wrote a while back that seemed to be helpful. The topic of strength work pops up a lot there. I see a lot of “what’s the best exercise/routine” and generally a lot of questions related to the space of gym work. You’ll often see me reply with “there’s no one size fits all” to a lot of these questions, so at least for now, I’m not going to try and post a sample strength block as an example to the below points because it’s just too dependent on the individual.
What I will do though, is talk you through the process I use as a coach when deciding how I’m going to build an athletes strength protocol. My hope is that you can then use this as a tool when building your own program, when looking at generalized programming or when working with a coach, to make sure you’re getting the best ROI on the work you’re putting in.
When I’m looking at an athlete I coach and am building out their strength program, I walk through the following questions/thoughts. Some seem obvious, but I think it’s valuable to say them out loud and to see them as part of the bigger process.
What are the specific objectives of this strength protocol?
This sounds very obvious, but it’s often the least examined with depth and arguably the most important. People TYPICALLY fall into two camps: I only want the bare minimum strength work to assist my running OR I have secondary objectives I’d like my strength work to help with (aesthetics, secondary activities like climbing, MTB, etc etc etc) in addition to making me a better runner. It’s really important to identify which you fall into and also to acknowledge that the answer can be different, at different times of year.
Maybe you’re a big back country skier in winter and then run ultras in the spring, summer and fall. You might have a period of time leading into the winter where the strength work reflects the need to transition from trails to ski’s and vice versa coming out of ski season into the spring. You may also have periods in the spring, summer and fall where the work should reflect solely the needs of your running.
All of this to say, look at your objectives both from a macro and micro level, and make sure you’re clearly identifying what you want to accomplish, because if you don’t, you’ll always have a less than optimal program.
What are the objectives, within the objectives?
This builds deeper on the concept I just discussed. Once you’ve identified the macro level objectives, you need to look deeper to then decide the specific tools you need to incorporate in a strength program.
Are you looking for purely performance related outcomes? Or do you also want to shore up that knee that’s been cranky for the last 4 months and work on your mobility a little so you can get your shoes on without risking throwing your back out? Are you strong ascending but weak descending on trails? Do you find your posterior chain breaking down deep into a race or notice your glutes aren’t firing well? These types of things are all the points you want to glance at while determining what the specific nature of your strength work will look like.
People often look at strength work superficially as “I want to get stronger to run better”, which, cool, but what that also looks like can mean improving durability, reducing injury risk, preventing old injuries from returning and generally improving your ability to “do the thing” in addition to “being better at the thing”. So look at both what you feel you need to be better at your objective, but also what you can improve to be able to DO your objectives more and what’s limited you in the past.
Nuts and bolts first
So now we’ve got an idea of the “why” and “where we wanna go” with a program. Now you need the identify the tools you need to get there.
This is a topic, as I alluded to at the start, that is highly individual and will look very different for everyone. But the approach you take to determine what exercises, rep ranges etc you need, is one a more generalized audience can follow to find their personal answer.
Look at your objectives you outlined, what are their demands? List them, then start with the most foundational way to improve them. Does your descending suck in the mountains? Cool, start with deceleration patterns. Do you keep rolling your left ankle? Cool, start with some low leg balance and stability work. Do you want to gain 5lbs of lean mass? Cool, make sure your reps are at least partially hypertrophy focused.
Start stupidly simple. Don’t get caught up in the shiny object of “WHAT’S THE BEST EXERCISE TO HELP ME RUN A SUB 24hr 100” or try to throw in every single exercise you see in a reel on IG. Strength is a long, steady, simple game. Build a program around the foundational work you need, sprinkle in a little extra fun and progress it month after month after month. There’s rarely a point in doing an extremely advanced version of a squatting pattern if you can’t perform a basic bodyweight squat, to depth, with quality. So check the ego a little and work through the progressions needed.
This stuff again, can sound obvious, but objectives aren’t reachable without the tools to get there.
What can I realistically dedicate to my strength work each week?
I believe you should always under promise, over deliver, even to yourself. So when looking at how you’re going to structure your weeks, it’s pretty important to be objective about what you think you can put into the gym work so that you don’t set yourself up to fail before you even start.
Typically, we want to see at least 2 days a week on the strength work. That’s enough to maintain and slow build some progress and won’t eat up too much of your time. That being said, 3, even 4 days for some folks, can really supercharge your ROI on the strength work, IF and WHEN you have the time.
When I look at an athletes weekly schedule and am building out their strength work, I start with what I know. If I know they can get 2 full gym sessions in a week and a 20 minute at home session, that’s my baseline. If I’d like them to get a 3rd gym session in, but know they have a busy life and can’t always make sure that happens, I put all the critical work in their 2 “for sure” sessions and literally label a third session “OPTIONAL STRENGTH” and toss in the accessory pieces I’d love them to get in, but that won’t be a big deal if they miss.
You can put this into practice yourself. Structure your weeks conservatively around what you KNOW you can do. Make sure the important nuts and bolts are in those sessions, then give yourself some grace to be a busy human, while also charting out a plan for if life lets you get some extra work in.
Just the visual of seeing a session listed as optional can both make the week less stressful but also have an option in front of you if life allows a little extra work. I liken it to people who make lists. Sure you know most of what you need to do today, but if it’s written in front of you, you’ll probably get it done more effectively than if you’re winging it from a busy brain.
Write it out
Put your plan on paper (or in an app, spreadsheet, etc). Obviously if you’re working with a coach or a program, this is most likely done. But if you’re DYI’ing things, it pays to chart out the path forward for at least a month at a time.
This doesn’t mean you need to draw out the specifics of every single workout for every single session for a month, but at minimum, create a calendar and label the days. “Tempo work, long run, gym day upper, gym day lower, rest day, mobility session” etc etc. Back to the list concept: if it’s in front of you, in writing, you’re far more likely to get it done, so just give yourself a path to follow. Put in the optional days, write in your vacations and races and busy work weeks. The more you can set yourself up for success, the more you will succeed.
And that’s (kinda) it, the TLDR version of the above is simply: identify objectives, outline needs of the objectives, pick the tools, determine your available bandwidth and chart out the path.
This is the exact blueprint I use when building a program for someone and like I said, is something you can use in your own design or when analyzing it a new program or coach is right for you.
As always, hope this can be helpful for even just one person.
Onward, always 🫡