Two strength days a week

If you had to pick one single thing besides running, this would be it. A meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reviewed sports injury prevention programmes and the result for strength training was the most emphatic of all: it cut overuse injuries by almost half, and acute injuries to less than a third.

It also found a dose-response relationship: the more strength volume, the greater the reduction in risk. And strength programmes were consistently better than multicomponent programmes — the ones that mix a bit of everything.

Why it works for running

Running is an impact repeated thousands of times. Your muscles and tendons absorb each stride. If they’re capable of absorbing it, your joints don’t have to. It’s that simple.

What to do, without a gym

You don’t need iron or a monthly fee. Two short sessions a week, on days that don’t clash with hard running sessions:

• Squats: 3 sets of 10-12.
• Forward lunges: 3 sets of 8 per leg.
• Standing calf raises: 3 sets of 15. Essential for the Achilles.
• Glute bridges: 3 sets of 12.
• Plank: 3 sets of 20-30 seconds.

Fifteen or twenty minutes. When that feels easy, add weight or reps — the dose-response relationship means that keeping on going up is still worth it.