Here’s What Professional Runners Think About “Skipping Leg Day”

It doesn’t matter what your running résumé is or how much you can bench press — the squat rack is the great equalizer. But is there a leg day for runners? After all, shouldn’t running 5, 10, or 20+ miles a week be enough?

Sure, your calves are toned and your quads tight, but you still need to hit the gym and have a traditional leg day.

Don’t believe me? Here’s what top running trainer and 2-hour-12-minute-marathon runner Hugo van den Broek thinks:

“Many runners could increase stride length and improve running form generally, if they incorporated some strength and power work. Doing weight lifting is the base for that!”— Hugo van den Broek.

Today Van den Broek serves as coach of a top Kenyan program that puts some serious mileage on their legs. Despite that, he uses weight training for all his athletes.

But what’s the leg day for runners? Here’s what the science tells us…

The Best Leg Day for Runners

The “king of all lifts,” a.k.a the squat, would be a great place to start.

If the gym was a university, the squat rack would be a philosopher. You will experience enlightenment from a few sets of heavy squats. Or even light squats like 10 sets of 10 with only 1-minute breaks.

Over years of training, I’ve gone to the rack as a boy and come back a man (until the next leg day of course).

In terms of muscle development, you boost quad and hamstring strength. Stronger quads not only make you more explosive and faster, but help support leg extension and protect the knee from instability. Hamstrings also play a key role in speed as they flex and propel us forward.

Image by Alex Ceban from Pixabay

We aren’t able to fine-tune our muscles from running alone — often we have weaknesses or imbalances. Van den Broek discusses that many runners have hamstring weaknesses in particular:

“Many runners ‘sit down’ a bit when they run, which means they waste energy and it impacts their performance. This can often be attributed to weak hamstrings,” said Van den Broek. “Training the hamstring by doing weight exercises, can therefore be the first step in helping them to improve their running form.”

I wish the benefits stopped there. But squats boost testosterone and growth hormones, prevent muscle imbalances and forge strong joints. Squats alone make a perfect leg day for runners and will take your speed to the next level.

Final Thoughts

Even without a rack these past few months, I’ve grabbed a pair of dumbbells and got to squatting/lunging in my house. That’s right, lunges, Bulgarian split squats, and jump squats all require less weight but have extreme impacts on muscle development.

In other words, no excuses.

And trust me, I’m by no means a squat guru badass. I’m just as scared as you when I approach a squat rack, or when I tuck myself into bed and remember that tomorrow is “leg day.” But I never let the fear stop me because I know a leg day will make me a better runner.