Building muscle while jogging: is it possible?

Cardio and strength training sessions are typically considered useful for different purposes: running is for moving your body, burning calories and working your cardiovascular system, while a weight training workout is for building strength and muscle. That’s the supposed order of things. But maybe you see a buff guy on your run and wonder what his workout routine is. Can you build muscle just by running?

The short answer: no – at least not in the same way as with strength training. You shouldn’t expect to experience the same level of muscle growth from running as you would from weight lifting. However, there are some circumstances in which you may be able to accelerate muscle growth by running.

“If you’re untrained and do some running, you’ll see additional lean muscle mass,” says US fitness expert and nutrition coach Mike Nelson from the Carrick Institute in Florida. “But if you’re more trained, running is probably not a sufficient stimulus to directly increase lean muscle mass.”

But even if you’re already fit, certain forms of running can help increase the size of your thigh muscles and replace some gym equipment. And jogging could also improve the results of your efforts in the gym. Nelson and Percell Dugger, running coach and founders of the fitness platform “Fit for Us”, explain how.

With our training plan, we will show you how you can increase your endurance in just 8 weeks so that you can perform better in the gym. Another bonus: You literally get rid of your fat, so your muscles become (even) more visible:

Training plan

Running plan for fitness athletes in 8 weeks

• Endurance for strength athletes

• Targeted mix of endurance runs and HIIT units

• only 2 running sessions per week necessary

• available on every device

Log in here.
After successful payment you will receive an email with a download link. If you have any questions, send a message to [email protected].

How running builds muscle

There aren’t many studies on running and muscular hypertrophy, but the few that exist support Nelson: In a small 2017 study of untrained 19- and 20-year-olds who ran high-intensity intervals three times a week for 10 weeks, the size of the subjects’ thigh muscles increased by 10 percent. A much older study testing older, untrained men found that men in their 60s and 70s increased their thigh size by nine percent after six months of steady running.

The reason these muscle gains don’t continue has to do with the amount of time the muscles are under tension, Nelson says. When you’re doing strength training, the muscles you’re training are challenged for an entire rep. “Running creates more of an impulse load or shock load that’s really, really short,” Nelson says. Although the load can be huge — four to six times your body weight — the muscles aren’t under tension for as long as they would be during a few sets of resistance training, he says.

Just because the short bursts of running don’t build significant muscle in other parts of the body doesn’t mean they don’t make the legs stronger, says expert Dugger.

The belief that running makes you weaker keeps many people from doing cardio, even though their health and well-being – and their strength training – could benefit from it.

How running can improve muscle building

While running alone won’t build much muscle mass, it can help build muscle in the long run, Nelson says — as long as you combine it with strength training.

There are two reasons for this: First, running increases your aerobic threshold, or your ability to recover quickly from a workload. Someone who has a low VO2 max, or aerobic threshold, is also likely to be able to achieve and train less in the gym because they can’t recover as quickly, he says. Regular running means you can do more sets, more reps, and more workouts when you’re strength training. And all of that leads to more muscle.

The second reason: When you do endurance training, your body creates more capillaries in your muscles. This increase in small blood vessels increases blood flow to your muscles.

Why it matters: “Let’s say you’re doing a set of leg extensions. At some point, you’re not getting enough blood flow in the muscle, there’s not enough oxygen being carried to the muscle. So it gets painful and you have to stop,” he says. “If you can get more blood flow to that muscle, theoretically you can do more work and build more muscle.”

Don’t worry that adding running to your strength training will limit your muscle gains, as is often believed. A 2021 systematic review of 43 studies published in Sports Medicine concluded that “simultaneous aerobic and resistance training does not compromise the development of maximal strength and muscle hypertrophy compared to resistance training alone.”

Essentially, this means you can continue to build strength and muscle while also training for endurance. Just remember that your runs are not the direct cause of muscle growth.

How to use climbs to build muscle

Running can not only improve your muscle building, but also support parts of your strength training routine, says Dugger. For that, you need a hill. “For example, if you’re training with a weight sled, find a steep hill and run up it as fast as you can,” he says. “I promise you: Your heart and head will feel like you’re pulling a 500-pound sled or wearing a 50-pound vest.”

For those who don’t have access to equipment or who prefer to train outside, hill sprints like these can provide the same high-intensity, muscle-building finish as an expensive weight sled.

Because compared to normal sprints, which can lead to injuries if you are not used to such speeds, uphill sprints are similarly intense while slowing the trainees down.

Important tip: Running downhill is a completely different challenge. And it uses different muscles than when going uphill. On the way up, your thighs work, while on the way down, your lower legs (calf and shin muscles) are more challenged. So if you want to do hill sprints, choose a steep hill that you run up a few times a week. But: “walk” down the hill before you sprint again.

Training plan

Running plan for fitness athletes in 8 weeks

• Endurance for strength athletes

• Targeted mix of endurance runs and HIIT units

• only 2 running sessions per week necessary

• available on every device

Log in here.
After successful payment you will receive an email with a download link. If you have any questions, send a message to [email protected].

Sources used:

Estes RR, Malinowski A, Piacentini M, Thrush D, Salley E, Losey C, Hayes E. The effect of high intensity interval run training on cross-sectional area of ​​the vastus lateralis in untrained college students. Int J Exerc Sci. 2017 Jan 1;10(1):137-145. PMID: 28479954; PMCID: PMC5214170.

Schumann, M., Feuerbacher, JF, Sünkeler, M. et al. Compatibility of concurrent aerobic and strength training for skeletal muscle size and function: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Med 52, 601–612 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01587-7

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