Strength training isn’t just about looking good—it’s about building a stronger, more capable life. Beyond aesthetics, it enhances balance, resilience, and independence, helping you move with confidence and recover more easily from life’s physical challenges. From lifting everyday objects with ease to preventing injuries and staying active for years to come, strength training offers benefits that go far beyond the mirror. No matter when you start, the strength you build today will support you for a lifetime.
Unlock Your Running Potential: The STRONG Framework Every Runner Needs
Running is more than just putting one foot in front of the other. You need a well-rounded approach that goes beyond the miles to perform at your best, avoid injury, and enjoy the process. That's where my newly established S-T-R-O-N-G framework comes in. I created a system to help runners of all levels build strength, resilience, and consistency. Here, I'll break it down with concrete examples you can apply—and why even experienced runners sometimes need outside guidance and support.
S is for Strength Training
T is for Targeted Recovery
R is for Running Smart
O is for Optimized Nutrition
N is for New Mindset
G is for Growth Focused Plans
Strength Training for Real Results: Why and How to Build Muscle
What is strength training? It might seem like a silly question—it's training for strength, right? Yes, but there's often confusion about what that means.
I talk a lot on social media about the importance of strength training and its benefits beyond just building bigger muscles. Some people—primarily women—think they don't need strength training because they're not interested in getting "big." But strength training offers so much more than big muscles (although, for the record, my personal goal is to build big muscles, and that's okay, too!).
Strength training builds stronger bones by increasing bone density, which reduces the risk of falls and fractures now and as you age. It also helps protect and stabilize your joints by strengthening the muscles around them, reducing the likelihood of injury. Another major benefit? Strength training improves your metabolism. Muscles are metabolically expensive, meaning your body burns more energy to maintain muscle. Simply put, the more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns just by existing—no extra cardio is required! A higher metabolism means you can eat more calories without storing them as fat because they are needed to maintain and grow muscle tissue.
Maintaining and building muscle as you lose fat reduces your risk of regaining weight because your metabolism stays elevated. Plus, muscles build confidence and give you that "toned" look many women desire.
Benefits of Strength Training
Strength training is more than building big muscles. While muscle growth is one benefit, the impact of strength training goes far beyond aesthetics:
Bone Health: Strength training increases bone density, reducing the risk of fractures and falls, especially as you age.
Joint Protection: Strong muscles stabilize and protect joints, reducing the likelihood of injuries.
Metabolic Boost: Muscle tissue burns more calories at rest, helping you maintain a healthy metabolism. This means you can enjoy more food without storing it as fat.
Confidence and Tone: Building muscle boosts your confidence and gives you the "toned" look many women desire.
Here's the truth: to look toned, you must build muscle. Toned equals muscle. As a personal trainer and health coach, I've met countless women whose goal is to get toned but then avoid the specific actions required to build muscle.
I get it—the fitness industry doesn't make it easy. The internet, social media, and fitness advertisements promise the same outcome (losing fat and gaining muscle) while selling 100 different (mostly ineffective)ways to get there. Strength training is one of the most effective and direct ways to build muscle and achieve that "toned" look.
Is This Strength Training? Let's Break It Down
When I talk to people about strength training, they often ask:
Is Pilates strength training?
Is Yoga strength training?
Does running hills count as strength training?
What about wearing a weighted vest while walking or jogging?
The answer is yes…and then no. Let me explain.
If you've never done hill running (or haven't in a while), starting to do it consistently can provide resistance for your hamstrings, glutes, and calves, helping to build strength and muscle. Hill training has many other benefits, including improving cardiovascular health and running performance.
However, the human body is an adaptation machine. When you stress your body with strength-building activities, it adapts, and you get stronger—hooray!
But here's the catch: to continue building strength, you must keep challenging your muscles by adding more resistance over time. That's why hill running is great for initial strength building, but it will only qualify as progressive strength training if you keep finding steeper hills (and even then, you'll eventually hit your limit). Not to mention, hill running is not full body strength training; balancing upper and lower body strength is key.
The same logic applies to Yoga and mat Pilates. These activities build strength initially because they require resistance (usually your body weight). However, unless you're increasing the resistance or difficulty over time, they stop being effective for building strength. Yoga and Pilates are fantastic for flexibility, balance, and overall health but don't provide the progressive overload needed for sustained strength gains.
The Key to Strength Training: Progressive Overload
The secret to strength training is progressive overload. It means continually challenging your muscles by increasing the resistance, volume, or intensity. Without this incremental increase, your body adapts, and you stop progressing, and it ceases to remain effective strength training.
Even if you're holding weights or your workout feels hard, it doesn't necessarily mean you're strength training. To build strength, you need to lift heavy weights with proper progression. Sweating, being out of breath, or feeling tired and sore doesn't automatically equal strength training.
While excellent for overall fitness and fun, many group fitness classes don't provide the structure for true strength training. Are you lifting progressively heavier weights? Are you increasing the difficulty of your exercises over time? Are you taking adequate rest breaks between sets? If the answer is no, it's likely not effective strength training.
Why Most Classes and Modalities Don't Count as Strength Training
Group fitness classes, Yoga, boot camps, and similar activities offer numerous benefits for fitness and health, but they typically fall short of progressive strength training. Here's why:
Lack of Progression: Are you lifting heavier weights or doing more advanced exercises over time? If not, the stimulus remains the same, and your muscles stop adapting.
Insufficient Rest: Many classes emphasize continuous movement, which prevents your muscles from fully recovering between sets. Recovery is key for strength development.
Focus on Cardio or Endurance: Just because something feels hard or makes you sweat doesn't mean it's building muscle.
This doesn't mean you should avoid these activities—they're excellent for cardiovascular health, flexibility, and overall fitness (and fun). But they're not a direct path to building strength and muscle.
How to Get Started WITH STRENGTH TRAINING
I'm not saying you should ditch your favorite class, Pilates, Yoga, or hill running—these activities have many benefits and can be part of a balanced exercise routine. But if your goal is to build muscle, get stronger, or achieve that toned look, you must prioritize progressive strength training.
It doesn’t take much. Hit all major muscle groups two times per week to start seeing results—plenty of time to get in your flexibility or cardio classes for their specific benefits.
So, how do you do it?
Focus on resistance exercises that challenge your muscles. Lift heavy enough weights that the last two reps of your set feel difficult but doable. If you finish a set and feel like you could do five more reps, it's a sign you could go heavier.
Implement progressive overload by gradually increasing your weight, reps, sets, or intensity. It might mean adding a few pounds to your lifts, slowing your tempo, or progressing to more advanced exercises.
Give yourself adequate rest between sets. You might not be lifting heavy enough if you can jump right into the next set without resting.
Stick to the basics and repeat the same exercises consistently. "Muscle confusion" is a myth. The best way to build strength is to repeat foundational exercises and progressively add resistance over time.
Three Questions to Determine If You're Strength Training
To assess whether your activity qualifies as strength training, ask yourself:
Is it providing resistance?
Can I continually increase the resistance over time?
Am I allowing for adequate rest between sets?
If you answered yes to all three, congratulations—you're strength training!
The Lifetime Benefits of Strength Training
Strength training may help you look great now, but its real power lies in how it sets you up for a long, healthy, independent life. Building muscle improves your strength, stability, and confidence at every stage of life. As you age, it becomes even more critical for maintaining mobility, reducing injury risk, and staying active.
Need Help? Let's Get Strong Together
If you’re ready to take your fitness to the next level and start 2025 strong, join my 6-week Kick-Start Challenge in January! This program includes one-on-one Zoom coaching for habits and accountability, workouts, nutrition guidance, a body composition scale, and a heart rate monitor—all designed to help you build strength and confidence.
Not sure if it’s right for you? Let’s talk! I’m offering a free consultation call—no strings attached. This isn’t a sales call, and I won’t try to convince you of anything. My only goal is to hear your story, understand your goals, and genuinely help you decide if this program aligns with what you’re looking for. It’s not for everyone, and that’s okay. I’ll only invite the people I believe I can help make a real difference. Are you in? Click here to schedule your free call on my calendar. I’d love to chat with you!
Do you know someone who might benefit from this blog post? It helps me when you share with your friends and followers.
Questions? I’d love to help.
I am a master health coach, personal trainer, and running coach, dedicated to helping YOU get strong, body and mind!
BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE!
Improve Your Potential with the Push Pull Legs Strength Programming for Runners
A Simple, Effective Approach to Building Strength for Runners
Strength training for runners doesn't have to be complicated. It shouldn't be!
Many runners don't do strength training because they overcomplicate it, looking at bodybuilder workouts on Pinterest or niche workouts from influencers on Instagram.
If you stick to the basics and work to increase your weight to get stronger over time, you will get the best results—there is no need for muscle confusion or complicated programming. The basics are the best way to get results.
As a runner, your goal is to complement your running, not replace it. That's where the Push/Pull/Legs (PPL) programming comes in—a balanced, straightforward strength-training approach that targets all major muscle groups, improves running economy, and reduces injury risk.
Whether you're new to strength training or looking for a system that fits seamlessly into your running routine, push/pull/legs programming is incredibly effective and simple to implement.
What Is the Push/Pull/Legs Programming
The PPL method divides strength training into three types of repeatable workouts:
Push Workouts: Focus on muscles used for pushing movements—chest, shoulders, and triceps.
Pull Workouts: Target muscles for pulling—back and biceps
Leg Workouts: Strengthen the lower body—quads, hamstrings, and glutes.
By alternating these workouts, you ensure balanced muscle development, allow adequate rest between muscle groups, and reduce imbalances that often lead to injuries.
Why Push/Pull/Legs Works Well For Runners
Improves Running Economy:
Strength training enhances your efficiency by building stronger, more resilient muscles, allowing you to run faster and longer with less effort.
Reduces Injury Risk:
Strengthening muscles, tendons, and ligaments protects joints from the repetitive impact of running. Muscles stabilize joints, and strong muscles reduce injury risk.
Targets Key Muscle Groups:
The PPL programming ensures that you don't neglect any muscle groups, addressing common weaknesses like glutes, shoulders, and back strength that are vital for runners.
Fits Into a Runner's Schedule:
With five 30 sessions per week, PPL is easy to integrate into a busy training plan.
How to Structure a PPL Week FOR RUNNERS
A typical PPL week for runners might look like this:
DayWorkoutDetails
Monday: Push + core
Tuesday: Pull + core
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Push + core
Friday: Pull + core
Saturday: Long Run or Rest. Depending on your run training schedule
Sunday: Rest
Then, you would alternate the workouts, starting with Legs the following Monday. This schedule is for phase one. I recommend doing the same exercises for three weeks during phase I. Then, as you move into phase II, alternate the exercise to a more advanced version that works the same muscles or adjust the rep range.
Exercises for Each Category
Push + Core Workouts:
Overhead press
Floor or Bench Press
Incline Push up
Plank variation
Pull + Core Workouts:
Deadlift
Bent Over Row
Inverted row or pull-up
Around the world (core)
Leg Workouts:
Single-leg glute bridge
Goblet squat
Side lunge
Single leg deadlift
How to Progress
Choose the Right Weight: Pick a weight that feels challenging by the last 2–3 reps. If you can easily do 4–5 more reps than the target, it's time to increase the weight.
Track Your Progress: Keep a log of your workouts, noting the weights, sets, and reps. Aim to gradually increase the weights, sets, or number of reps over time.
Tips for Success
Focus on Form: Quality matters more than quantity. Proper form prevents injuries and ensures you're targeting the right muscles.
Rest and Recover: Allow your muscles time to repair and grow stronger. Follow your PPL workouts with proper nutrition and rest.
Keep It Simple: Don't overcomplicate your routine. Stick to the basics and stay consistent. If you miss workouts often, this may not be your best program.
ADAPT TO YOUR FITNESS LEVEL
The push/pull/legs program is versatile and can be adapted to suit both your schedule and fitness level while working together with a running plan.
Beginners can adapt the program to their fitness level by completing the strength workouts three days a week, alternating with running days. A three-day option is perfect for runners less experienced in the gym or those with tight schedules, as it allows you to hit each major muscle group once per week while leaving ample time for running and recovery. The three-day plan reduces the risk of overtraining and ensures that strength sessions complement rather than compete with running performance.
More advanced runners or those with more strength-training experience might choose a six-day option, performing Push-pull and leg workouts twice weekly for increased volume and progression. Ensure you allow at least one full weekly rest day.
The Push/Pull/Legs programming can be a game-changer for runners who want to build strength without overhauling their training routine. Dedicating three to six days a week for targeted strength workouts can enhance your running performance, reduce injuries, and feel stronger overall.
Ready to give it a try?
Start with light weights, master the movements, and build from there. Your stronger, faster, injury-resistant self will thank you!
a dumbbell program built for runners
FREE DOWNLOAD FOR EVERYONE
To take what you learned here and complete the program independently, you can download a FREE informational PDF about the PPL program. This option is perfect for someone with more experience because it's free!
$7 Option: Essential Strength Access
For just $7, you’ll unlock:
Platform Access: Gain entry to our easy-to-use platform where all your workouts are hosted.
Video Demonstrations: Watch videos for every exercise to perfect your form and stay safe while training.
Workout Details: Access specific instructions for reps, sets, and rest periods to maximize your results.
Weight Tracking: Easily log and track the weights you use for each exercise so you can monitor your progress and continue to challenge yourself.
Foundational Knowledge: Ideal for runners who want an affordable way to incorporate strength training into their routine without guesswork.
This option is perfect if you're looking for guided workouts and tools to track your progress—all for about the cost of a fancy coffee.
You'll have everything you need to start confidently and build a solid foundation for running success.
Click here to grab your $7 three-week Phase One program today and start building strength that complements your running!
Need even more personalized help and coaching? Fill out a coaching application and schedule a free consultation call! Let's see if we are a good fit.
Do you know someone who might benefit from this blog post? It helps me when you share with your friends and followers.
Questions? I’d love to help.
I am a master health coach, personal trainer, and running coach, dedicated to helping YOU get strong, body and mind!
BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE!
10 Reasons Why You Are Not Seeing Results in the Gym
When I talk to women about their health and fitness goals, they almost always tell me they want to get toned. To be clear, having toned muscles means building muscle. However, when we review their habits and routines, most aren’t taking the specific actions necessary to meet the goal of toned muscles. I often say that just because you are holding weights while working out does not mean you are strength training, muscle building, or muscle toning. You must work backward from your goal. If you want to look lean and muscular, there are specific actions you must take to achieve that goal.
Muscle-building exercises are not only for bodybuilders. People with more muscle mass tend to have a higher metabolic rate. Muscles help the body burn more fat than muscle, which can help with weight loss and maintenance. Do you want to age well, maintain and build fitness, be strong and independent, lose fat, and have a lean, muscular body with strong bones and joints? Then strength training and muscle-building exercises are for you!
If you feel like you are working hard in the gym but are not seeing the muscle definition (aka toning) results you desire, consider what you may be missing!
1. Lack of Consistency
To build muscle, most people must consistently lift weights to target all the major muscle groups at least twice weekly. If you frequently miss workouts, you may not be sending the signal to your body to build muscle. It’s like taking one step forward and then one step back—you are never really going anywhere.
If you have trouble staying consistent, try setting a small goal to hit the gym for twenty minutes twice a week. When that becomes a habit, start building to increase the time. It’s not an all-or-nothing choice. If you don’t have time to spend an hour in the gym, it’s ok; it’s better to start with what you can do today and build over time. After all, muscle building is a lifelong endeavor, not a 90-day challenge. God willing, you have plenty of time to improve!
2. Not Focusing on the Appropriate Workouts
To work backward from your goal, you must take the specific actions that will lead you there. For muscle building, that means lifting heavy weights progressively. If all your workouts are HIIT style, then even if you are holding weights while doing it, that type of workout is not sending a muscle-building signal to your body.
HIIT workouts (and cardio workouts in general) are great for cardiovascular fitness and even fat loss goals, provided they are paired with proper recovery. However, if those are the only workouts you are doing, you are likely not building the muscle necessary to get that toned outcome.
3. No Goal or Plan
If you are hitting the gym at least twice a week, congratulations. You are already on the right path to meeting your goals. It is the first step, and you’ve nailed it! But if you walk into the gym without a plan, without notes about what weights, rep scheme, and how many sets you need to do that day, chances are you aren’t consistently providing the necessary stimulus to build muscle. If you are wandering around the gym and choosing your next exercise by what weight or equipment is available without rhyme or reason, you can likely make significant improvements by following a plan and tracking your progress.
4. Adaptation
If you’ve been doing the same exercises, lifting the same weight, and using the same rep scheme for a long time, you may have seen some initial success in the gym, but you’ve likely stalled because your body has adapted to the workout. You haven’t given your body a good reason to build new muscle.
That is why tracking your exercises, weights, reps, and sets is essential. Your weights or reps should change enough that it would be hard for the average person to memorize every detail of every exercise. How can you keep track if you are not writing it down (in an app, on paper, in an Excel spreadsheet)?
Can you squeeze out one more rep with that weight? Is it time to increase the amount of weight in your rep range? Can you decrease the rep range but increase the weight? Can you add another set with the same weight and reps? Can you slow the tempo? There are many ways to progress, but you must keep track. Progressive overload means incrementally increasing some workout aspect, so your body must adapt (get stronger or build muscle). You can do this by increasing weight, increasing reps, increasing sets, decreasing tempo, varying rest periods, or increasing the difficulty of exercise selection.
Of course, don’t attempt to make all those changes at once. See if there is something small you can do each week to make it a bit more challenging than last week. You won’t always be able to, but keeping in mind that the goal is progressive overload will help you maintain focus on this goal. If you keep doing the same workouts repeatedly, your body won’t have a reason to build new muscle. Having a coach can help you make sure you are progressing safely and optimally.
That is also why consistency is important. If you are not consistent, how can you build when you have to start from square one over and over?
5. Not Enough Calories
You need calories to build muscle, plain and simple. If you spend months and years (or an adult lifetime) in a calorie deficit, you may not give your body the necessary calories to build new muscle over time. A low-calorie intake makes it challenging to build muscle after the initial newbie gains. You stop improving in the gym, and you may even go backward. As a sign that you may not be eating enough, you cannot apply the progressive overload I mentioned in the previous point because your body doesn’t have the fuel to do it.
It’s a good idea to cycle in and out of a calorie deficit, to calorie maintenance, and even calorie surplus (of healthy muscle-promoting foods) to give your body the building blocks it needs to build muscle. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but eating enough, potentially more (whatever that means for you), can help you build muscle and look leaner, especially if you’ve been in a calorie deficit for a long time.
6. Not Enough Protein
Your body needs protein to build muscle. For health, longevity, and muscle building, .7 grams to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (or goal body weight) is an excellent place to start. Start by tracking to see where you are now. Are you consistently getting less than 100 grams a day as an adult weighing over 125 pounds? Your low protein intake could hold you back from building the desired muscle.
The FDA's requirement for daily protein intake is much lower (50 grams per 2000 calories for sedentary individuals), but that is the protein intake they recommend to prevent poor health outcomes from low protein intake; that recommendation does not consider the protein you need to build muscle and lead a fit and active life.
Protein has so many benefits that if you are low on it, you may see and feel an immediate improvement by increasing your intake. Protein helps you stay satiated between meals and helps you maintain and gain muscle. This becomes especially important if you have a fat loss goal, as you want to prioritize maintaining your muscle tissue as you lose weight.
7. Too Much Alcohol
Profound apologies to my wine-loving friends, but it is worth considering if your alcohol intake is holding you back. When your body processes the alcohol in your system, it takes priority over fat loss and muscle building; it inhibits recovery (see the next point) and, potentially, performance. If you want to enjoy moderate alcohol intake (for women, one drink; men, two) occasionally, it may not have any long-term detrimental effects, but routine alcohol intake could be holding you back from reaching your health and fitness goals.
8. Not Enough Rest and Recovery
If you don’t recover, you don’t improve, and this is especially important when you have a goal to build muscle. You don’t build muscle, improve fitness, lose fat, or get faster during the workout; it all happens during the recovery period. So, if you don’t give your body the time it needs to recover, you cannot build the muscle you want. Rest days (or low-intensity movement) between hard workout sessions or taking at least 48 hours between working the same muscle group is essential for proper recovery. Most adults need at least one full rest and recovery day a week; you may need more if stress or workout intensity levels are high.
It is not just about rest days. Are you sleeping properly? The recommended seven hours of sleep per night is for the average sedentary adult; you may need more if you push yourself hard in the gym. Many recovery processes happen during sleep, so if you cut yourself short, you may be sacrificing results. If you are doing everything correctly but not seeing the desired results, examining the quality and quantity of sleep you get could be a game-changer.
9. Too Much Stress
High-stress loads can inhibit recovery, which, as discussed above, can stall results. If you don’t recover, you don’t improve. Stress can be external, like work demands, interpersonal relationships, or money worries, or internal, like a sustained calorie deficit, intense workouts, or insufficient sleep. It’s hard to progressively overload your workouts when life stress is high. You can’t expect your body to do more with high stress, as intense exercise adds to that stress load and impairs proper recovery. I’ve said it once before, but it bears repeating now…if you don’t recover, you don’t improve.
It’s all connected, so consider how your lifestyle may affect your results. Control what you can control. Are you taking time for yourself to relax and unwind? Are you staying connected to people who love and care for you? Are you sleeping and fueling your body properly? We often can’t control some of the stress in our lives, but learning to deal with it productively can help us manage it so we can recover properly.
I wrote more about managing stress in this blog post.
10. Too Much Emphasis on Scale Weight or Calories Burned
When you work to build muscle, you may find the scale weight stays the same (or even goes up), but your pants size decreases. That happens because a pound of muscle takes up less space in the body than a pound of fat. If your fat decreases by one pound and your muscle tissues increase by one pound, then the scale weight stays the same, but you’ve made great progress toward improving body composition.
Muscles are denser than fat and give your body shape and definition. At the same weight, you can look leaner.
The same goes for calories burned. While your watch or tracking device can give you a rough estimate, it is just that, an estimate—and likely overestimated. If you are only measuring your success by the calories burned, you are likely to stay frustrated because you may not burn as many calories during a weight-lifting session as you do during cardio. In fact, a well-designed strength training workout likely won’t burn many calories during the session but will promote muscle building during the recovery period.
If you are goal-oriented, measuring other factors like recovery, protein intake, consistency with workouts, and progressive overload can help you feel you are progressing even if the scale or calories burned aren’t showing that in the short term. Look at the whole picture, not just one aspect.
YOUR Action Plan:
Can you do anything a bit better? Slowly improving your behaviors can lead to big results over time.
Consistency: Aim to hit the gym regularly. Start small and build your routine over time.
Appropriate Workouts: Include heavy weightlifting for muscle building. Complement with HIIT or cardio for overall fitness.
Goal and Plan: Follow a structured workout plan and track your progress.
Progressive Overload: Gradually increase workout intensity to avoid adaptation.
Adequate Nutrition: Cycle through calorie deficit, maintenance, and surplus. Ensure sufficient protein intake.
Alcohol Intake: Monitor and reduce alcohol consumption if necessary.
Rest and Recovery: Prioritize rest days and adequate sleep.
Stress Management: Address both external and internal stressors.
Focus Beyond Scale Weight: Measure progress through muscle gain, fat loss, strength and overall body composition.
Questions? I’d love to help!
Lea
Did you like this post? Do you know someone who might benefit? It helps me when you share with your friends and followers.
Questions? I’d love to help.
I am a personal trainer, running coach, and master health coach dedicated to helping you get strong, body and mind!
Click to subscribe.
BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE!
An online joke about Severance sparked an interesting question: Can I get severed, but for the gym? If you could separate your fitness life from the rest of your existence, would you? Would you choose to be the gym Innie, fully immersed in the sweat and effort but with no memory of why you’re doing it? Or the Outie, who never experiences the grind but wakes up stronger, leaner, and more muscular—reaping the rewards without recalling the work? At first glance, being the Outie seems like the better deal, but is it really? The harder part of fitness often isn’t just the workouts—it’s the other 23 hours of the day: nutrition, recovery, sleep, and stress management. This post explores why true success comes from reintegration—learning to embrace both the process and the results, rather than trying to separate them.