A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine has produced the largest pooled estimate to date of how much structured strength training reduces injury risk in distance runners. Drawing on six randomised trials and 7,738 participants, the authors report a 66 per cent reduction in running-related injuries for athletes who completed at least eight weeks of progressive resistance work alongside their usual training, compared with a control group running only.
The headline number is striking enough on its own, but the breakdown is where the practical guidance lies. Adherence is the single biggest predictor of effect size: runners who completed two strength sessions per week for 18 weeks were 85 per cent less likely to suffer a running-related injury during the study window than runners who skipped the sessions or completed fewer than half. Programmes built around heavy, lower-rep loading at the hip and posterior chain produced larger effects than circuit-based plans, and the benefit was largest in recreational runners and masters athletes over 40.
The data on novice marathoners is more mixed. A randomised pilot run with first-time New York City Marathon entrants found broadly similar injury rates between strength and observation groups, with overuse injuries that prevented marathon completion sitting at 7.1 per cent and 7.3 per cent respectively. The authors of the new meta-analysis read that finding as a sign that high training-load shocks during a debut marathon block can swamp the protective effect of a strength programme, rather than as evidence the work is unhelpful.
For masters runners specifically, the case for resistance training has hardened considerably. Athletes lose between 3 and 8 per cent of muscle mass per decade after the age of 40, with the rate of loss accelerating again from the early 60s. The new review pulls in supporting data showing that masters runners are disproportionately affected by soft-tissue injuries to the calf, Achilles and hamstrings, and that targeted heel-raise and Nordic hamstring loading produces measurable reductions in those injury categories within 12 weeks.
The practical takeaway for clubs and self-coached runners is unusually concrete. Two short, supervised or well-structured strength sessions per week, sustained across a full training block, produced the largest and most reliable injury-risk reductions in the dataset. The authors stop short of prescribing exercises by name, but flag the same handful most clinicians have been recommending for years - heavy squats and deadlifts, single-leg variants, calf raises with progressive load, and Nordic hamstring work - as the consistent backbone of the studies that produced the strongest effects.