By Jonathan Wong

Endurance athletes fear strength training.

"Spending time on strength training takes away time from clocking my mileage."
"Strength training will make me bulky and clumsy."
"Strength training will injure me and make me unable to run."

These statements are not true. This is not the 1950s. We now know that strength training benefits a marathon runner just like it benefits a sprinter, wrestler, rugby player or just about any other sports athlete. The key is to do it correctly! Research shows that taking 1/3 of a middle distance runner's training time away from running, and putting it into a proper strength training protocol will benefit them more than the extra running. This is true for runners of ALL distances from 100m to the marathon.

Much of the perceptions we have about strength training come from the sport of bodybuilding. There is nothing wrong with bodybuilding but we are looking for function and performance, not just appearance. That makes most bodybuilding ideas incorrect for performance enhancement.

So here it is: 12 weeks of strength training, twice a week for 30 minutes each.

  • Week 1-4 - We will focus on the development of general physical preparation i.e. the capacity to train so that we don't tire out after just a few sets.
  • Week 5-8 - We will focus on developing overall strength while maintaining the gains you made in week 1-4.
  • Week 9-12 - We will focus on developing power that translates your overall strength gains from week 5-8 into running performance.


I am assuming you have no medical conditions or past injuries or postural problems. If you do, get healthy first! See a sports doctor (if you are seriously hurt), a physiotherapist (if you need rehab), or a corrective exercise/injury prevention specialist (if you feel you have imbalances or inefficiencies).

Also make sure that you have read:

so you know how to train and maintain your glute function.

Each week we will do 2 strength training sessions which I will call Day 1 and Day 2. In each session we will do different exercises. I will label them A through Z. (of course we may not get as far as Z!) If I put them A1 and A2, etc that means do those in a circuit, i.e. A1 then A2 then A1 and then A2 again etc until you finish the required number of repetitions. Do all the A exercises before moving on to B.

Start each training session with the warmup below:

  • Skipping – Make sure your movement is light and bouncy
  • Walking Lunges – Keep your chest up and weight on the heel of the front foot
  • Side lunges – Keep weight on one leg while extending the other leg out
  • Single Leg dead lift walk – Keep your chest up and the back leg extended. Stand up fully and contract your butt muscles when you stand.
  • Spiderman – Take a big step forward, then try to touch your elbow to the instep of your foot
  • Reverse lunge with twist – Twist in the chest area not the lower back. Suck in your belly button, and squeeze the buttock on the side of the back leg.
  • Shoulder Diagonals

Remember to perform each exercise with the focus on proper use of the glutes as described in the two articles linked above, and as shown in the demo videos there. If you are not sure how to perform an exercise, leave a comment and I will try to answer your queries .

Week 1-4 Day 1
"A" - 4 sets, 15 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight such that you can do 15 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in reserve" (meaning you know you can do them, but don't).

A1 – Dumbbell Dead-lift
A2 - Dumbbell Lunges (15/side)

"B" – 4 sets, 15 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight you can do 15 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in resesrve" that means you know you can do them, but don't.

B1 - Single Leg Dead-lifts (15 reps/side)
B2 - Side Bridge (30 sec/side)

Week 1-4 Day 2
"A" - 4 sets, 15 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight you can do 15 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in reserve" that means you know you can do them, but don't.
A1 - Dumbbell Squats
A2 - Dumbbell Close Stance Lunges (15/side) same as regular lunges except that you lunge with a shorter step to emphasize the quadriceps more

"B" – 4 sets, 15 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight you can do 15 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in reserve" that means you know you can do them, but don't.
B1 - Chin-ups
B2 - Side Bridge (30 sec/side)

Progression for week 1-4: Every week reduce the rest time by 15 seconds. so on week 1 it will be 90 sec between exercises, then week 2 it will be 75, week 3 60sec and week 4 45sec.

Week 5-8 Day 1
"A" - 4 sets, 5 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight you can do 5 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in reserve" that means you know you can do them, but don't.
A1 - Barbell Dead-lift
A2 - Pushups/Incline Dumbbell Press (if you can do perfect pushups easily)

"B" – 4 sets, 8 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight you can do 8 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in reserve" that means you know you can do them, but don't.
B1 - Dumbbell Step-Up (8 reps/side)
B2 - Swiss Ball Leg Curls (lie on your back with your legs straight and your feet on a swiss ball. Curl your legs while at the same time contracting your glutes to "pop" your hips into the air. At the top position you should feel tension in your hamstrings as well as in your glutes.)

Week 5-8 Day 2
"A" - 4 sets, 5 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight you can do 5 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in reserve" that means you know you can do them, but don't.

A1 - Barbell Front Squats
A2 - Incline Chin-up

"B" – 4 sets, 8 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight you can do 8 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in reserve" that means you know you can do them, but don't.
B1 - Reverse Lunge
B2 - Side Bridge (30 sec/side)

Progression for week 5-8: Each week try to increase the weight incrementally for each exercise.

Week 9-12 Day 1
"A" - 4 sets, 5 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight you can do 5 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in reserve" that means you know you can do them, but don't.
A1 - Dumbbell Jump Squat (use a weight about 20% of your squat from week 5-8 but jump as high as you can while maintaining good, silent landings)
A2 - Pushups/Incline Dumbbell Press (if you can do perfect pushups easily)

"B" - 4 sets, 5 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight you can do 5 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in reserve" that means you know you can do them, but don't.
B1 - Barbell Dead lift
B2 - Step Up (5reps/side)

Week 9-12 Day 2
"A" - 4 sets, 5 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight you can do 5 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in reserve" that means you know you can do them, but don't.
A1 - Dumbbell Jump Lunge (5reps /side) (use a weight about 20% of your reverse lunge from week 5-8 but jump as high as you can while maintaining good, silent landings)
A2 - Incline Chin-ups

"B" - 4 sets, 5 reps/set, rest 90 sec between exercises. Use a weight you can do 5 reps with 1 or 2 reps "in reserve" that means you know you can do them, but don't.
B1 - Barbell Front Squat
B2 - Reverse Lunge

Progression for week 9-12: Try to get "faster" at all the jumping exercises i.e. less time on the ground between jumps while still maintaining good landings and jump technique. For the B exercises, use at least the same weight as in weeks 5-8. Increase slowly over the weeks if possible.

Jonathan Wong is a fitness and sports performance coach, and the owner of Genesis Health & Performance. Jonathan has worked with athletes and fitness enthusiasts of all levels to help them achieve their health, fitness and performance goals. To schedule a consultation or subscribe to his free newsletter and articles, go to www.coachjon.com. Also, check out his daily updates at www.singaporepersonaltrainer.blogspot.com