Deadlift for Runners 101

When people realize that strength training can help their running, they often gravitate towards something obvious like squats. Squatting works the legs, and running requires legs, ipso facto—let’s do some squats! Now squats are great, but if you have muscular imbalances, lingering injuries (particularly knee pain), or you’re just fatigued from your training miles, then squatting can be an extra strain you don’t really need.

Luckily there’s something else you could be doing that’s actually more effective: deadlifting.

Five ways deadlifts are good for runners

1. Deadlifting can help improve running alignment and efficiency

Besides making you stronger, the deadlift trains you to hinge forward at the hips and align your trunk with your knees and feet in the same way you will when running. Also, the strength you’ll gain in your glutes and hamstrings, which make up part of your posterior chain, will help you to apply more force as you rake your foot back to propel yourself forward after your foot strikes the ground.

Building a powerful posterior chain (glutes & hamstrings)

Running is a series of single-leg forward bounds powered by your posterior chain—specifically the glutes and hamstrings. Deadlifting heavily loads these muscles, training them for powerful hip extension. A stronger posterior chain translates directly to a more explosive toe-off and a faster stride. 

Improving running economy and mechanical efficiency

Running economy is the metabolic cost of maintaining a given pace. Deadlifting increases tendon stiffness, allowing your legs to act like springs. When your muscles and tendons store and release energy efficiently upon ground contact, you expend less oxygen and energy to maintain speed.

2. Deadlifting can help you avoid knee pain

This common runner’s affliction can crop up when your training volume goes up or you’re pushing hard on race day. If you’ve never experienced it, I’m willing to bet you know someone who has. Quite often, knee pain is the result of a weak posterior chain, or being ‘quad-dominant,’ meaning your glutes aren’t doing their job, which forces your quads to do overtime and can lead to painful patellar tracking issues.

Deadlifting done correctly should fire your hamstrings and glutes, forcing your quads to play more of a supporting role, which creates good muscular habits and can help prevent potential knee pain.

Injury prevention and joint loading resilience

Repeated foot strikes during running put a high impact on your body. Deadlifting subjects your body to heavy, controlled loads that strengthen the connective tissues (tendons, ligaments, fascia) around your hips, knees, and ankles. This structural resilience protects against overuse injuries like Achilles tendinopathy and runner’s knee. 

3. Deadlifting can help you maintain good running form for longer distances

Again, done correctly, deadlifts train scapular rotation, which will contribute to a nice upright, solid torso. Not only is an upright torso more efficient while running, but that scapular rotation will help keep your airways open. Form is one of the first things to go during a long race as the fatigue sets in and you slump forward, but deadlifting will help you avoid that and stay upright, which will give you more endurance. Another benefit of a strong upper body, particularly arms and shoulders, is that it’ll help you drive forward during those long days leaning on your hiking poles, or pushing off your legs as you haul arse up climb after climb.

Core stability and postural integrity under fatigue

Heavy deadlifts require intense full-body bracing, engaging your core, obliques, and lats to stabilize the spine. This directly preserves running posture. When fatigue sets in during late miles, a strong core prevents your torso from collapsing forward, keeping your lungs open and mechanics efficient.

4. Deadlifting is time-efficient

You can get through an effective deadlift session in 30 minutes flat, and that includes spending ten minutes or so mobilizing before you start.

Optimal rep ranges and progressive overload for endurance athletes

There are a number of rep schemes you can follow, but lifting for power and overall strength, not muscle gain (hypertrophy), should always be the goal. You want to be lifting in rep ranges that will overload the muscles and trigger the training response you want.

• Sets and Reps: Lift heavy weights (comparative to your own ability) for four to six reps. You can also try the 5×5 formula, in which you warm up with some lighter sets before completing five sets of five reps at a challenging weight, or Jacques DeVore’s Maximum Sustainable Power (MSP) method, in which you build up to a heavy set of five before dropping down to sets of four, three, two, and two again.

• Intensity: Use a heavy weight but leave one or two perfect reps “in the tank” to avoid central nervous system burnout. 

• Frequency: Lifting heavy one to two times per week is sufficient to keep your legs fresh for running sessions. 

5. Deadlifting is actually fun!

I’m not advocating making a spectacle of yourself, training topless in the gym and screaming mid-lift to draw attention to your incredible feats of raw strength (seriously…I’m not). But it is gratifying to challenge your body in a new way, and there’s a quiet sense of achievement to be had when you find yourself warming up with weights that had felt beyond heavy weeks before.

You can even brag about your progress on social media, just be sure to add that you’re only doing it to help your running!

How to properly execute a deadlift

1. The setup: stance, grip, and neutral spine

• Footing: Stand with feet hip-width or shoulder-width apart, the barbell resting directly over your mid-foot. 

• Grip: Hinge at your hips, place your palms on top of the bar, and wrap your fingers around the bar. Your knuckles should face down toward the floor. When you look down at the bar, it should be running over the middle of your feet.

• Bracing: Create tension by pulling your shoulders down and back (engage your lats), as though you’re trying to bend the bar in half. This helps keep your spine neutral throughout the pull. Pick a point out and slightly down in front of you to keep your gaze steady.

2. The pull: driving through the floor and hip hinge mechanics

Take a breath to brace your core and initiate the lift by pushing the ground away with your feet as you lift the bar up your shins, keeping your arms straight, core tight, and eyes forward. Think about pulling the bar into your body to keep your lats engaged.

Remember: the deadlift is a leg push-and-pull movement, not a lower-back exercise. Use your legs!

3. The lockout and controlled decent

Keep pulling and squeeze your glutes forcefully to stand fully upright, locking out your hips and knees simultaneously. The movement ends with the bar at your hips (also called “lockout”). From here, you can either drop the bar if the weights are rubber, or lower the weight by unlocking your hips and pushing them backward. Once the bar passes your kneecaps, bend your knees to lower the plates to the floor.

Easy! This is a natural movement for the human body. Just remember to keep your back flat.

Getting good at deadlifts (and any lifts) means working on self-awareness, body control, and muscle memory. The only way to do that is by practicing consistently. Try recording your lifts and watching your form with a coach.

Identifying and correcting common form mistakes

• Rounding the lower back: Places dangerous force on spinal discs.
  Fix: Lower the weight, prioritize core bracing, and ensure your hips don’t rise faster than your chest.
• The bar drifting away: Strains the lower back.
  Fix: Actively engage your lats to keep the bar close to your body throughout the rep. 

• Squatting the deadlift: Drops hips too low, removing hamstring tension. Fix: Keep your hips elevated above your knees but below your shoulders during setup. 

Example of poor deadlift form

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