5 Ways of Building Muscle Mass as a Runner

If you’re a dedicated runner, you'll know how difficult it can be to maintain energy and endurance while growing muscle.

You may feel overwhelmed by the challenge of balancing running workouts and rest days versus lifting weights and eating enough protein to gain muscle mass.

However, with careful planning and dedication, it is possible to combine running and muscle building.

Let's jump in and look at the top ways you can combine running with building muscle mass.

Muscle building for runners

Strength training should mesh well with your regular running schedule and will focus on engaging muscles in different ways than just running alone. Effective strength workouts for runners include bodyweight exercises that target the core, hip flexors, glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves.

It’s important to fine-tune the volume and intensity of a strength session over time; start off low, then gradually increase reps or weight as the weeks pass until finally hitting muscle fatigue during each exercise set.

Additionally, diet is essential in building lean material mass; ensure you get adequate protein from food sources like lean beef, eggs, dairy products, black beans, nuts/seeds and tofu.

With proper nutrition and an effective strength program tailored just for runners, there’s no reason why you can't reap it all.

Let’s break each of these concepts down into more detail.

1. Calculate your maintenance calories.

Figuring out your maintenance calories is important to reach health and fitness goals.

Calorie calculators can help understand your caloric needs; however, the best way to find the number that works for you is by tracking everything you eat and your daily weight for at least a week.

If you notice that you’re losing weight when tracking, it means that you’re eating below what your body needs to stay the same size (you are in a calorie deficit); if you gain weight, then it signifies that you're eating above maintenance calories; whereas if no significant change occurs from week to week, then those are considered your maintenance calories.

To ensure accuracy, subtract 250-500 calories from this figure for additional fat loss or add 250-500 for muscle gain. Once you know this number and how it will affect your goals, developing other food and exercise plans is much easier.

2. Eat a surplus of calories.

Eating in a caloric surplus benefits those looking to add muscle mass to their physique. But knowing how many extra calories you should eat can take time and effort.

The key is to calculate your maintenance calories – the calories required for your body’s daily functions. When calculating your maintenance calories, you’ll want to factor in the additional energy expenditure from running.

The next step is increasing your food intake by 10-20% of those calculated maintenance calories.

This approach helps ensure that your body is getting enough fuel without taking on too much fat. To get an easier understanding of this concept, let's say you determined that your maintenance level requires 2500 calories each day with 500 calories burned through running - then using this as a base, adding 10-20% more would give you 2750-3000 total daily calories.

Ultimately these calculations will help you understand how and when adjustments of calories are necessary when trying to maintain or gain muscle mass and have better success with training overall – so take some time and slowly dial those numbers into place!

3. Set macro goals

Setting macronutrient goals is key to creating an effective diet plan.

Macronutrients are the three main components that provide energy — protein, carbohydrates, and fat — and are needed for protein synthesis to build muscle. Unfortunately, many overlook the importance of proper macro management when gaining muscle.

Protein should always be your primary focus when looking at macros for building lean muscle mass because it helps your body build new tissue. Aiming for 2g of protein per kilogram of body weight daily is recommended to ensure you’re getting enough.

This can easily be achieved by consuming high-protein foods such as chicken breast, nuts, seafood, eggs and Greek yoghurt throughout the day.

While it doesn’t matter as much which ratio of carbs to fat you consume — the amount is what really counts — experimenting with both high-carb, and high-fat diets may give you a better idea of which works best for achieving your fitness goals.

4. Follow a progressive training plan.

Progressive overload is another important element of any muscle-building program.

It involves programming a training plan that forces your body to lift more weight and do more reps or reduces the rest between sets as you progress. This helps push past plateaus in strength and size, ensuring your muscles are consistently challenged for further growth.

When building a progressive training plan, you will want to aim for an 8-12 rep range until the failure of each set, although there are some exceptions.

In general, though, by pushing yourself and challenging your muscles weekly, you will ultimately be able to make consistent progress, reflecting an increase in muscle hypertrophy (growth).

You can also enhance this part of your workout with SARMS UK and fitness supplements.

Taking adequate rest and incorporating other training techniques, such as rest-pause and drop sets, is also important to ensure your program is effective.

With proper progression during your resistance workout program, you should quickly be able to transform your physique.

5. Rest.

During rest, our body repairs and regenerates torn muscle fibres, also known as muscular adaptation. Without adequate time to recover, we put ourselves at risk of over-training and fatigue, which can lead to injury or worse.

With rest and recovery, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach; everyone has different preferences.

While some may opt for complete rest days between workouts, others prefer active recovery – light activities such as foam rolling or yoga – to help the body heal and rejuvenate.

Taking small breaks throughout the day allows your mind and body to reset and replenish their energy stores.

No matter what type of break you choose, make sure you’re scheduling some form of downtime so that your muscles have the time to grow stronger from all the hard work you’ve been putting in at the gym!

Sample muscle-building running workouts

High-intensity, short-duration running workouts like HITT are effective for building lower body muscle.

These workouts involve repetitive sprints at varying intensities with minimal rest between sets. Such intense training has been shown to improve muscle thickness and strength, mainly in the quadriceps and hamstrings. This type of workout is especially beneficial for athletes looking to gain explosiveness and power in their lower body.

Various sample HIIT running workouts can be used to help build muscle in the lower body, like:

• Six sets of 20-second sprints at maximum intensity with 2 minutes of walking or light jogging as a break
• Five sets of 30-second sprints also at maximum intensity but with 4 minutes of walking or jogging as a break
• Four sets of 45-second prints at moderate intensity with 5 minutes of walking or light jogging as a break
• Four sets of 30-second hill sprints, with the time it takes one to walk back down the hill afterwards being counted as rest.

Following these workouts closely can quickly increase your lower body strength and resistance capabilities.

Does running build leg muscle?

Running is good for building leg muscles. You'll put the most stress on your glutes, thighs, and calf muscles as you run.

The strain your body has put on them will trigger your body to build more muscle after every exercise session.

The final word on building muscle as a runner

While aerobic exercise like running doesn't directly lead to muscle growth, it can provide additional benefits that can enhance other forms of strength and resistance training.

You can perform more strenuous activities without tiring as quickly when you run, which helps increase the body's capacity for sustained physical activity. Increasing your running can also increase blood circulation, which helps muscles get oxygen and nutrients.

Generally, weight resistance training and proper nutrition are the best approaches to gaining muscle. If you want to add size and shape to your physique, use weights and high-intensity cardio exercises like running or sprinting.

Over time, these activities boost performance and muscle growth. Running or jogging regularly still has its advantages in terms of burning fat, which is crucial for building muscle mass while sculpting a toned figure.

Author: Ellie Macdonald

Gravatar: https://en.gravatar.com/elliemac124