The Ultimate Full-Body Workout for Runners

The ultimate full-body workout for runners packs everything your body needs into a comprehensive 5-minute routine. It's effective and practical for busy runners who don't want to neglect their strength training obligations.

How many times have you heard “quality over quantity”? Strength training workouts for runners are no exception to the rule.

The Full-Body Workout for Runners

If you’re reading this, chances are good that you’re a runner. You enjoy running and you probably do it often.

It’s important to realize that in order to physically exert yourself on a regular basis, you have to keep up the maintenance on the engine, your body!

You are putting in miles and miles of hard work and your strength training should complement that.

So how can you go about finding strength training workouts for runners that get this done without requiring tons of extra time and impact on your muscles?

The 5 Minute Full Body Workout

To keep it simple, we picked two movements that require your WHOLE BODY, and make you TIRED, QUICKLY.

To make it even more effective? You’re going to alternate the movements in an ascending rep scheme for 5 minutes, building that muscular endurance you’re going to need on the next long run.

Let’s take a look at the movements.

The squat jump:

Just like you how you’d start an ordinary squat, stand tall to start.

From here, squeeze the core and glutes and sit the hips back, hinging the upper body forward. Press the knees out, but keep toes pointing straight ahead. Arms will come in front of you for balance.

At the bottom of the squat you’re going to press through the heels and explode through the hips into an extended jump upward, throwing the arms back behind your hips for momentum.

You’ll land the jump in the same exact way you found the bottom of your first squat, just with more speed this time.

String the jumps and squats together to create your jumping squat repetitions.

The Hand Release Push-Up:

The effectiveness of the push-up is directly related to the range of motion you can find during it.

Start from a straight arm plank, shoulders directly over wrists, butt squeezed, hips parallel to the ground, legs squeezed together and head and neck neutral/in line with your spine.

From here, with arms still straight shift your weight slightly forward.

Keeping elbows glued to your sides, slowly lower in one piece to the ground.

At the bottom, lift both hands off the ground. Just an inch or so will do.

Immediately replace the hands on the ground and push straight up to your plank, keeping elbows in and butt squeezed tight.

Repeat.

A modification for the push-up, if you need it:

At the bottom of the push-up, you can bend and push off of your knees, while lifting the chest in a “cobra” motion.

This will allow you to come back to the plank in two pieces, versus one.

So, What’s the workout?

You’re going to perform these two movements alternated, in an ASCENDING rep scheme.

1 squat jump, 1 hand release push-up.

2 squat jumps, 2 hand release push-ups.

3 squat jumps, 3 hand release push-ups.

…

Work until the 5 minutes is up!

How Strength Training Workouts For Runners Benefit Running

When it comes to strength training workouts for runners, time is irrelevant.

Though 5 minutes may sound like practically nothing next to a 90-minute trail run, the amount of work you can accomplish during it is infinite.

Learning to work really hard with little to no break very much resembles the last few miles of your half or full marathon race, when every bit of you is hurting and it’s all you can do to put one foot in front of the other.

Learning to endure and embrace the worst of the pain will make a WORLD of difference in your running.

While it’s good to mix up the length and intensity of your strength training, understand that good work can be accomplished in almost any amount of time.

Enjoy this workout. And don’t forget to mobilize afterward!

And for making it this far, here’s a FREE strength program, full of workouts just like this one!