Is Strength Training Or Plyometrics Better For Runner?
The short answer
Runners should lift heavy and jump, not pick a side. The meta-analysis Jerred and Joe break down puts heavy resistance training directly against plyometric training for improving running economy and time trial performance. Both are effective routes to a more economical stride, which is why the useful question is not which one wins but how to fit both into a week that already has running in it.
Episode 176 of The Garage Gym Athlete Podcast is up!
Is Strength Training Or Plyometrics Better For Runner?
This week Jerred and Joe are back at it! The study they dive into is on running and what training method will help improve your running economy. It compares strength training to plyometrics for improvement on running. The guys go over their takeaways and how they would implement this one. Then the coaches give us their updates and go over the Meet Yourself Saturday workout. It is 60 minutes for max meters! This one is a tough one so make sure to challenge yourself!
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IN THIS 45-MINUTE EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
- Community
- Strength Training
- 60 Minutes for Max Meters
- New App
- Plyometrics
- Tips For MYS
- Updates and Announcements
- And A LOT MORE!!
Diving Deeper…
If you want to go a little bit deeper on this episode, here are some links for you:
Study of the Week
Garage Gym Athlete Workout of the Week
Be sure to listen to this week’s episode:
What the research says
The featured paper is Heavy Resistance Training Versus Plyometric Training for Improving Running Economy and Running Time Trial Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Pitting the two against each other is a genuinely useful design, because runners are constantly told to do one or the other and rarely told how they differ.
The mechanism is worth understanding, because it explains why lifting makes you a better runner without making you a bigger one. Neither heavy resistance work nor plyometrics improves running economy by adding muscle. They improve it by making the whole system stiffer and more efficient, so more of the energy that goes into each stride comes back out of it. Heavy lifting develops the force you can put into the ground. Plyometrics develops how quickly you can use it and how well your tendons return elastic energy. Those are complementary, not competing.
For a garage gym athlete the answer is the one this site keeps arriving at: do both, on purpose, in the right order. That means treating your lifting and your jumping as training that needs recovery rather than as a warm-up you tack onto a run day, and protecting your hardest running sessions from the fatigue they generate.
Want running and lifting programmed together instead of fighting each other? Become a Garage Gym Athlete.
Thanks for listening to the podcast, and if you have any questions be sure to add it to the comments below!
To becoming better!
Jerred
Frequently asked questions
Is strength training or plyometrics better for runners?
This meta-analysis compared them head to head on running economy and time trial performance, and the practical read is that both help. Rather than choosing, most runners are better served by including heavy lifting and plyometric work and sequencing them sensibly.
What is running economy?
Running economy is how much oxygen it costs you to sustain a given pace. Improving it means the same speed feels easier, which is why it is one of the strongest predictors of distance performance alongside VO2 max.
Will lifting heavy make me slower or bulky?
Neither method improves running economy by adding size. Both work primarily through force production, tendon stiffness, and neuromuscular efficiency, which is why heavy lifting tends to help distance runners rather than weigh them down.
How do I fit lifting and plyometrics around my running?
Treat them as real training, not filler. Both are fatiguing, so place them where they will not compromise your key runs, and be honest that a hard lift the day before a hard run means one of the two will suffer.
Train like an athlete. For life.
Programming built this way: hard when it counts, sustainable the rest of the time.
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