All you need to start improving your running form is a resistance band and these beginner-friendly moves

If you want to run strong, then you really need to be doing regular strength training.

That’s the advice from certified running coach and ultrarunner Yana Strese, posted in a recent Instagram Reel. To “run strong”, she does resistance exercises two to three times a week all year round, because it helps keep her “powerful, stable and injury-resistant”.

When you’re a competitive ultrarunner, your strength training is too complicated to fit in an Instagram Reel, but Strese has helpfully shared a selection of entry-level moves that will make a difference to recreational runners.

How these exercises help with running performance

I spoke to certified endurance and running coach Andrejs Birjukovs to find out more about how Strese’s moves could help runners.

“We can improve our running form in two ways—by releasing tight muscles and teaching the body to activate the right muscles, which then improve our running stride,” explains Birjukovs, who is also the author of The Resilient Athlete. “Exercises in this video by Strese are designed to do the latter.

“They work by stimulating the mind-muscle connection with the key muscles involved in running, thereby making form smoother and more efficient. In these moves, you are working the hip flexors that help to bring the knee forward, the glute medius to stabilize the body and the hamstrings and glutes to generate run power.

“For these exercises, it’s a case of activating the muscles that matter for runners, rather than how much weight or resistance there is, so frequency and control are more important than exercising to fatigue—until you can’t do any more reps.”

Birjukovs also explained which muscles each of Strese’s exercises target and how that can help running performance.

1. Knee drive: These target the hip flexors and glute medius. They are great for improving hip stability.
2. Straight-leg kick: These also strengthen the hip flexors that help drive the knees forward during a run.
3. Hamstring curl: Stronger hamstrings increase your running power and speed.
4. Side-step squat: This move works the glutes and quadriceps, which boost run power, hip stability and overall strength.
5. Knee drive hold: This exercise is good for hip stability and knee drive.
6. Alternating step back: This one is good for increasing glute and hamstring strength as well as run power and efficiency by means of a better butt kick.
7. Lateral walk: Doing this exercise improves hip stability, which helps keep you upright when you run.
8. Banded A-switch: This move helps with knee drive.
9. Lateral jump: This last exercise can improve balance while boosting hip stability.

“Outside of these drills and activation exercises, runners can try a variety of strength-focused exercises, for example, explosive jumps and hops, to develop the maximum force the muscles can produce, which translates into increased running power,” he says.

Here are two explosive exercises for runners recommended to Fit&Well by trainer Tess Glynne-Jones just last week.