Field notes · Strength
Strength training for runners over 40: two sessions that keep you racing
Darren Ware, founder and coach · 28 June 2026 · 6 minute read
Past 40, the gym stops being optional. Not because running stops working, but because two things get harder to keep: muscle power and tissue tolerance. Both decide how you feel at mile 40, and both respond to the same fix.
Across sport, well-designed strength programmes reduce injury risk. In runners specifically, the injury evidence is less certain, but heavy strength work has good support for improving running economy: the same pace can cost less. One study in masters runners found maximal strength work improved economy at marathon pace. That economy effect is about as well supported as anything in this sport.
What the sessions look like
The goal is not size and it is not exhaustion. You are training four things: maximal force, the speed you can produce it, tendon capacity, and single-leg control. Heavy, slow, simple lifts do most of it.
- Trap bar deadlift or squat: 3 to 4 sets of 4 to 6
- Split squat: 3 sets of 5 to 8 each side
- Standing calf raise: 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 10
- A row, plus carries or anti-rotation work
- Romanian deadlift or hip thrust: 3 sets of 5 to 8
- Step-up: 3 sets of 5 to 8 each side
- Bent-knee calf raise: 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12
- Hamstring curl, push work, trunk work
The calf rule
If you only keep one thing from this post, keep the calf work. Masters runners break at the calf, the Achilles and the hamstring more than younger runners do. Both sessions load the calves on purpose: straight-leg raises hit the gastrocnemius, bent-knee raises hit the soleus. The soleus does a huge amount of work on every running step, and climbing asks even more of the calf complex.
What about jumping?
Plyometrics work, but they come last. Add low doses of hops and bounds only after months of basic strength and only with pain-free impact tolerance. A 50-year-old tendon adapts; it just refuses to be rushed.
What to skip
- Circuit classes that leave you too tired to run. Fatigue is not the goal.
- Long lists of activation drills. A 2024 runner review found supervised programmes performed better than unsupervised ones. That's one reason I favour simple, progressive strength work over handing athletes endless activation drills.
- Dropping the gym in race blocks. It drops to maintenance, one or two short sessions, but it never disappears. Even taper weeks keep a touch.
In my athletes' plans the two strength days are fixed in the week and sit next to the harder running days, so the easy days stay properly easy. That placement matters as much as the exercises.
What I watch
- Whether the strength work progresses without damaging the key run sessions.
- Calf and soleus capacity, because that's where masters runners break first.
- Single-leg control under load.
- Whether strength holds as the race-specific running builds up.
None of that decides the plan on its own. It tells me where to look, and I make the call from there.
Evidence level: strength work reducing injury risk is well supported across sport and less certain in runner-specific trials; the running economy effect is well supported. The set and rep numbers are coaching practice, not laboratory constants.
Want this applied to your race?
Tell me what you're training for and where things break down.