Strength training for runners: the week Kaizmax builds
Updated: October 16, 2026
You run with a club or on your own and want strength work that serves your running? In Kaizmax, you declare your running days, choose whether you want conditioning, and a rules engine (not AI) builds your week: sessions, conditioning and meals. Here's what it produces for a sample profile, at home with dumbbells and resistance bands.
What running demands
Running means landing on one leg, stride after stride. For its “Targeted strengthening” block, the app's running conditioning follows a priority order: the ankles, then the knees, then the hips, with two exercises at most; an area with no available exercise gives its place to the next one. The goal: strengthen them, with clean technique, alongside your runs, without replacing your running plan or promising a finish time.
A sample profile at home: the week generated by the app
An example output by the app's engine for a sample profile: female, 35, 165 cm, 60 kg, “Lose fat” goal, intermediate level, 2 sessions of 60 min at home, with dumbbells and resistance bands, one conditioning session requested. In “My club”, as “Training”: running on Tuesday and Thursday at 7 pm (1 h), a long run on Sunday at 9 am (90 min). Then the same week with a race declared on Sunday at 10 am (1 h) instead of the long run:
| Day | No race | Sunday race |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Full body A | Full body A |
| Tuesday | Club run, 7 pm | Club run, 7 pm |
| Wednesday | Rest | Conditioning |
| Thursday | Club run, 7 pm | Club run, 7 pm |
| Friday | Rest | Rest |
| Saturday | Conditioning | Rest |
| Sunday | Long run, 9 am | Race, 10 am |
Highlighted: what changes with the race. With other draws, the days stay the same; only the exercises change.
- Your gear decides: every exercise uses a band, dumbbells or your bodyweight, like the band overhead squat, bent-over dumbbell row or Arnold press in session A.
- Conditioning replaces the second session (Full body B) instead of piling on, and your two sessions avoid your running days: Monday and Saturday.
- Fat loss adds a finisher: 10-15 min of moderate-intensity cardio at the end of session A (skater hops here), not after conditioning, which already contains cardio. Your calories start 20% below your estimated expenditure: a starting point, not a weight-loss promise.
Worth knowing: with no declared race, nothing is protected. Saturday's conditioning, squats and lunges included, falls the day before your long run.
With a declared race: the 48-hour rule
For running, “My club” says competition rather than match. Once a race is declared: no legs and no conditioning in the 48 hours before it, here Friday and Saturday. So conditioning moves from Saturday to Wednesday. No no-legs variant is needed: no leg session fell inside the window. “Protect my week” shows you this move before applying it, and your meals follow.
One caveat: the day after the race, Monday's session A keeps its leg exercises and its finisher. The day after is only a placement preference, not a protection. For the day before, read our guide on lifting the day before a game.
The runner's conditioning session, exercise by exercise
A single conditioning session requested: strength-oriented. The one from the example, identical with or without a race:
- Warm-up, 30 s each: mountain climbers, low lunge, hip circles.
- Workout:
- bodyweight squat, 4 × 8-12, 90 s rest;
- Romanian deadlift, 4 × 8-12, 90 s rest;
- standing calf raises, 3 × 10-15, 60 s rest;
- side plank, 3 × 30-45 s hold, 45 s rest;
- walking lunges, 4 × 8-12, 90 s rest;
- jumping jacks, 6 × (30 s work, 30 s recovery), on the guided session's timer.
- Targeted strengthening: Cossack squat (knees), banded lateral walk (hips), 2 × 10-12, 30 s rest.
- Cool-down, 30 s each: elevated straight-leg hamstring stretch, kneeling lunge quad stretch.
At 60 min, the structure of this strength session is fixed: squat, hinge, calves, core, lunge, cardio. The exercises themselves can change at every generation, among those your gear allows: here, the Romanian deadlift is only possible because dumbbells are checked. The ankles are skipped in targeted strengthening: their only exercise available here, standing calf raises, is already in the main block, and the app doesn't repeat an exercise within a session; so the hips take their place. With 2 conditioning sessions, the second targets power and no Full body is left; a third, endurance-oriented, needs at least 3 sessions a week.
Your runs count in your calories
In the app, running has the highest expenditure coefficient of the six sports: 0.14 kcal per minute per kilo, versus 0.10 to 0.13 for the other five. For this profile: a basal metabolic rate of 1,295 kcal (Mifflin-St Jeor) × 1.35 (lightly active daily life), plus your sessions (2 × 60 min at 0.07 kcal per minute per kilo), plus your 210 minutes of running: 210 × 0.14 × 60 kg ÷ 7 = +252 kcal a day.
Estimated expenditure: 2,073 kcal; with the fat-loss goal (−20%), 1,658 kcal a day (120 g protein, 178 g carbs, 52 g fat), versus 1,456 without the running. Protein doesn't move. Meals follow the week: 1,714 kcal on the five session or running days, 1,514 on the other two. With a one-hour race instead of the 90-minute long run: 1,629 kcal.
Order matters: at your first generation, “My club” is still empty and the app counts one hour per running day checked, so 1,629 kcal. The long run's extra half hour only enters your target once you declare it in “My club”: then accept “Update my targets”. Starting estimates: run your own numbers with the calorie and macro calculator.
How to get your week
- Steps 1 to 3: you (18 and over only), your goal, your daily life outside sport.
- Step 4, “Your training”: level, sessions, length, “At home” and your gear (nothing checked = bodyweight). Under “Outside this plan”, pick “Running” and check your running days. The app then asks whether you want conditioning and how many sessions (it suggests one); answer “No” and your plan stays classic.
- Steps 5 and 6: your diet, the recap, then “Generate my plan”.
- Then “My club”: for each day, training or competition, time (or “It varies”) and length. With a race, “Protect my week” shows you what moves before applying it.
Free or Premium?
Free: the questionnaire, the first plan generation (meals and sessions, conditioning included if you want it), the guided session, tracking, “My club” (days, times, lengths, competitions) and “Protect my week”.
Premium: regeneration, the adaptive coach (first adjustment free; it only reads your weight), the shopping list, advanced stats and the gym tools, including the suggested load during your session.
Frequently asked questions
How often should you strength train as a runner?
You set your number of sessions in the questionnaire. The app then asks whether you want conditioning and how many sessions (it suggests one); answer “No” and your plan stays classic. Each conditioning session replaces a session instead of piling on top.
Can runners do strength training at home?
Yes: the example on this page is generated at home, with dumbbells and resistance bands. The app only keeps exercises you can do with the gear you checked; if you check nothing, everything is bodyweight.
Strength training and running on the same day?
The app places your sessions on the days you didn't check for running, as long as there are enough of them left. Runs you don't declare, it can't work around.
What does the app do before a race?
Declare it in “My club”, then tap “Protect my week” (free): the app shows you what moves before applying it. No legs and no conditioning in the 48 hours before: a leg session becomes a no-legs variant or moves to another day; a conditioning session moves, or drops out of the week for lack of room. The day after isn't blocked.
Go further
The general principle: our sport-specific training app page and the guide tailoring strength to your sport. Other sports: soccer strength training, boxing strength training and strength training for dancers.
Want your own week, built around your running days? Download Kaizmax for free.
This article is informational and not a substitute for medical advice. In case of a health condition, pregnancy or doubt, consult a healthcare professional.