How to Gain Leg Strength

Using specific exercise routines to gain additional leg strength is an excellent way to improve your performance as a runner or triathlete. You can build some of these routines into your regular running workouts. For other leg-strengthening exercises, two weekly sessions of about 15 minutes each in the gym can work wonders.

Instructions

  1. Leg Strength Training in Running Workouts

    • 1

      Include a weekly hill workout in your regular running program to strengthen your hamstrings and quads. A good hill workout can come either on a hilly loop that includes both uphill and downhill running, or in a 10-minute "hill drill" after an easy run, where you stride hard into a steep hill a dozen times and jog the downhill returns.

    • 2

      Charge into hills with extra energy during workouts to gain maximum benefit in leg strength.

    • 3

      Use a weekly speed workout to build leg strength, as well as anaerobic conditioning. Depending on your preferred distance or racing event, helpful speed training can involve running multiple repeats at near-race tempo for any distance from 200 meters to a mile.

    • 4

      Incorporate a once-a-week exercise in which you lift your knees to waist level as you run for repeated spurts of one minute or so. This high-knee workout will strengthen your quads and glutes while also increasing your range of motion.

    • 5

      Always balance your training efforts so that your corresponding muscle groups are well matched in strength. For instance, when you strengthen your hamstring with uphill running, make sure that you also run the downhill to strengthen your quadriceps muscles. Injuries often result when muscle groups are out of balance with one another.

    Hit the Gym

    • 6

      Add one or two short weekly gym sessions to gain leg strength. Leg extensions and curls, lunges, squats and hip abductions and adductions are the primary exercises that will help build leg strength for runners and triathletes.

    • 7

      Find a gym that offers a workout cycle of machines such as Nautilus, Lifecycle or Universal equipment to ensure that you are doing each exercise properly. Ask the gym staff to assist you at first as you get used to doing each exercise.

    • 8

      Use moderate amounts of weights with each of these workouts. You are trying to strengthen your muscles incrementally. Adding significant muscle bulk would be counterproductive.