Strength training for trail runners - 5 reasons why it's important

Trail running is fun, refreshing, and rewarding. But beyond those beautiful fields, forests, and mountain views, a lot of grit and determination is needed. Yet, to successfully master trails, recover, and thrive as a runner, you must look after your muscles.

That means putting the hours into strength training behind the scenes. Strength training isn’t just crucial for increasing agility but also essential for increasing bone mineral density, reducing injury risk, and helping your body endure the stress of the different terrains the trails offer. 

Research shows that trail runners typically experience injuries in the lower body, particularly knees, ankles, and limbs, which means they have to do everything they can to protect them. 

These limbs are essential to performing daily tasks, not just for running. In other words, strength training complements your daily lifestyle and running. 

In this post, today, learn how to reduce your injury risk and amplify your agility with top exercises for strength training for trail runners.

The types of stress trail running puts on your body

If you’re a trail runner, you’ll know this sport is more than just about running on uneven terrain. Compared to road running, where the ground is flat, trail running places a range of challenges on your body, due to: 

• Varied terrain: Whether it’s muddy trails, steep inclines, technical rocky paths, rivers, and more, your body has to work to adapt to the variation in real-time.

• Elevation: Climbing hills, running on flat terrain, and descending quickly down steep slopes target different muscle groups, which means you need extra strength, power, agility, stability, and mental resilience.

In other words, strength training is essential to support the physical demands of your body, from heavy loads placed on your joints to crucial muscular endurance for long distances. It’s your secret weapon to getting through those gruelling long distances.

An overview of basic strength training for runners

Just to remind you, strength training for trail runners is non-negotiable. Adding it to your routine can significantly provide the following benefits: 

Increased Aerobic Fitness

Strength training can enhance cardiovascular efficiency, helping you perform your best and push for longer on the trails. Research shows that a full-body workout can improve your muscular endurance, allowing you to maintain a steady pace for longer without feeling fatigued. 

Injury prevention 

As mentioned earlier, strength training supports connective tissues and joints and reduces the risk of injuries typically found in running. The right strength training can help correct muscle imbalances and improve joint stability. 

Better running form 

The right strength training can help improve joint stability, balance, and muscle coordination and may reduce fall risk. One of the major benefits of strength training is that it can increase body awareness, allowing you to maintain proper posture and alignment during runs. Moreover, a lot of strength training involves utilising the core, stabilising your pelvis, supporting an upright posture, engaging your glutes, and helping you have a smoother stride. 

Enhanced recovery 

Strength training supports your body's recovery process by improving blood flow, reducing inflammation, and eliminating waste products. The removal of waste products is essential for repairing damaged tissues. 

Reduces muscle wastage

If you're over 30, you face a significant risk of muscle wastage. Every decade after age 30, your muscle mass decreases by 3-8%. Moreover, trail running also causes a higher risk of muscle damage and strength loss (if you rely on running alone). So, combine the two, and you could have significant muscle loss. However, regular strength training integrated into your routine can help you rebuild your bones, decrease muscle wastage and reduce your risk of osteoporosis. 

5 Strength training exercises for trail runners

Now you have a quick insight into why Strength and conditioning for a trail runner is important, here are some of our favourite compounds to add to your routine!

1.Squats

Weighted squats target your quadriceps and glutes, which can enhance your running efficiency. They also help with dealing with hills and varied terrain. Strengthening these muscles helps improve your ability to push off the ground, increase strides, and maintain your form during your run. 

2. Deadlifts

Deadlifts are a compound lift you should be overlooking in your strength training routine. As long-distance trail running involves the usage of slow-twitch muscle fibres, it’s essential to train them. 

In particular, it’s important to train those muscles with deadlifts. They help strengthen the hamstrings, glutes and back. These muscle groups are essential for stability on unsteady terrain. Training them helps enhance your power on uphill climbs and downhills and improve your overall efficiency as a runner. 

3. Split Squats

As a trail runner, your glutes are one muscle group you must focus on. Bulgarian split squats are great exercises to strengthen and activate your glutes. This exercise also focuses on staggered positioning, which mimics single-leg loading providing added stability for running. 

4. Walking Lunges 

Weighted walking lunges can help with various factors you may face while trail running. Walking lunges can help strengthen essential muscle groups such as quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. As it’s a unilateral exercise, it can improve balance and stability. Walking lunges are also a great exercise as they can strengthen the muscles around your knee, reducing the risk of injuries from overuse on the trails. 

5. Pull-ups 

At the beginning of this post, we emphasized the importance of lower body strength and reducing the risk of injuries while running. But, one compound movement that supports not only your lower body but overall movement on the trails is pull-ups. Regular pull-ups, Australian pull-ups, or even using the pull-up machine in the gym can complement trail running. This exercise helps strengthen your shoulders, back, arms and chest, helping you maintain a good posture when running. Good upper body strength also enables you to generate power and balance on trails.

Wrapping up strength training for trail runners 

Overall, strength training for trail runners is non-negotiable. If you’re a trail runner, focus on adding strength training at least 2-3 times a week into your training routine. Add compound lifts as they help target multiple muscle groups, correct your posture, practice stability, and give you that extra power on the trails.

Equally important to strength training is recovery. Trail running can be testing on your body. One way to enhance your recovery is by taking creatine. After intense long runs, creatine can help reduce muscle damage and inflammation, speeding up your recovery between runs. Also, by delaying the onset of fatigue, it can support your muscle power and endurance, allowing you to perform better for longer.

Check out this post- The benefits of creatine inside and outside of the gym. 

FAQS

Should trail runners lift weights? 

Yes, trail runners MUST lift weights! Trails have a range of uneven terrains, so a little extra strength and balance can make a major difference. Weight training can reduce your injury risk, help you glide downhill, and even manage climbs more easily. 

What are the strength exercises for trail running?

There’s a range of strength exercises you can add to your routine to support trail running! However, to avoid getting overwhelmed, we suggest simply focusing on the compounds. Try incorporating exercises like deadlifts, squats, split squats, pull-ups, and weighted walking lunges. 

Can trail running build muscle?

Of course! Going on a trail run, whether on grass, pine needles, rocks, or anything else, can help work your muscles. Different terrains and movements target different muscle groups, which is way more effective than road running. Running on trails, both uphill and downhill, can strengthen your glutes, quads, calves, and core muscles.

Are squats good for trail running? 

Squats target your glutes and quadriceps, which are essential for running efficiently on hills and uneven terrain. Strengthening these muscle groups helps you push off the ground, increase stride length, and perform better.