Runner’s Knee Fix: Strength Exercises Every New Marathoner Needs 4–6 Weeks Before Race Day
- Marie Whitt
- Sep 29
- 4 min read
You’re 4–6 weeks from race day.
The long runs are peaking.
The work you’ve put in for months is on the line.
Because your knee feels like it’s staging a rebellion.
It's achey on stairs, sore on every long run.
You know it’s runner’s knee, but what you don’t know is if it’ll heal in time.
You’re caught between two fears: losing your marathon after all this training, or pushing through and blowing up on race day.
In a perfect world, you want to run strong, pain-free, and proudly cross that finish line for a picture-perfect finisher photo.
And you know what?
That can still happen.
Let me give you the exact exercises to strength your quad and knee in time for race day so you can still finish strong.
Let's go.
The 5 Best Runner’s Knee Exercises for Novice Marathoners
Pain-Relieving Circuit: 3x a week
2-3 sets each // body weight only, to fatigue
Runner's Wall Push High Knee Kicks
performed with injured need, 2x to fatigue
3 Way Glute Push on Wall
performed on BOTH Sides, 1x ea side to fatigue
Strength Circuit: 3x a week
3 -4sets each // LIGHT & medium weights
Elongated Runners Lunge with Front Foot Elevated Paloff Press:
x10 ea side X doable-challenging resistance band
BSS with Rotation
x8 reps ea side X medium-heavy weight with RPE 8
BSS Plyo Jumps
x6-8 Reps ea side
How These Exercises Work: Running-Specific Strength Training for Runner's Knee
Runner's Wall Push High Knee Kicks
I want to think of this as movement-medicine.
THE SECRET: fast, almost but not quite isometrics like this can help "trick" our tendons, muscles, and brains into "turning off" the pain for a hot minute, allowing us to get into strengthening positions. They're NOT a permeant fix. But they can help make less pain or even pain-free heavy strength training possible!
3 Way Glute Push on Wall
I know you're probably sick of seeing this...but they're that good.
THE PURPOSE: your knee and glute are teammates. When we fire up your glutes in these 3 different positions that resemble your running stride, we can provide stability for your knee in every single movement-position it's going to encounter on your run! That's pretty cool.
It can also be a big help with continuing to immediately mitigate pain, making training possible again.
Elongated Runners Lunge with Front Foot Elevated Paloff Press:
I love using this one in the clinic. Let me break this down for you step by step. Because it looks complicated and like it has a bunch of moving parts, but it’s not.
PRO TIP: Ideally you have your foot elevated on an exercise step, a couple plates, or even a really thick text book. You’re going to get into this long runners’ lunge-stride position, placing 90% of your body weight on your FRONT leg, only 10% on the back. You need to STAY HERE.
As you get fatigued, you’re going to shift your back weight back. Catch yourself, and get back into position. From here, push your anchored resistance band away from you, thinking, punch forward, and bringing it back to your belly button. Don’t forget to TURN AROUND. One side will be harder than the other and that’s ok.
BSS with Rotation
We’re going to work smarter not harder here.
Because your quad needs the load, but so do your glutes. I know this is spicy, trust me, I feel the burn too.
THE KEY: there are fewer reps for this exercise because I realize the length of time it takes to complete a rep feels longer than normal, but we're actually using that to our advantage. The increased time-under-tension, or the length of time your quad has to hold this position, is actually really good for your cranky knee tendons. Sustained load in slow heavy lifting is key for tendon repair, healing, and increasing strength.
BSS Plyo Jumps
Trust me, these will help. And they’re also the more gentle version; there are some waaay more intense ones out there.
THE REASON: Here me out. Your knee pain gets better when your glute provides stability, your quad is stronger, and your tendons can both create and accept load. That’s the purpose of this plyo-like exercise. When you’re trying to teach your tendon in a pinch how to handle repeat single-leg load for 26.2 miles, this is how you do it.
But if you have pain...feel free to take out the jump portion for now and instead, move quickly out of that deep squat position. I mean, move FAST into that upright starting position. Because while tendons respond to load, they really care about speed. Adding that element of speed will still assist overall recovery.
WRAPPING UP
These are great, but how do I fit these into my marathon training and not lose running fitness?
That's the beauty of these exercises.
They can be multi-purpose.
I frequently tell my 1-on-1 coaching runners to use the first circuit before and after their run to help mitigate symptoms so they can still run and train.
Do these exercises guarantee a pain free run every time? Not always.
Because like we talked about above, you still have to do the work. You still need to lift heavy. But that first circuit of exercises is about helping make training still possible.
I say that so you're not tempted to accidently skip the second circuit. (but I know you would never do that ;) )
Because the key to kicking your pain to the curb and crushing your race is that strength circuit. I recommend doing that 4-6 hours AFTER your run. But I realize that's not always possible.
Some runners can make it fit their life: running in the morning and squeezing in this strength circuit later in the evening.
Other runners do both in the morning. but their secret is: Run first, lift second.
So an example "get everything done in the morning" routine might look like:
Circuit: pain relieving circuit
Run.
Strength circuit.
Running first ensures that the primary amount of your energy goes towards preparing for your race and ideally, having some time between running and strength helps ensure you get max benefits from lifting.
And if you're looking for even more running-specific strength exercise to help you crush your race and future PR's, check out my FREE Strength Guide for Runners Here:
Until next time...
Dare to Train Differently,
Marie Whitt, PT, DPT //@dr.whitt.fit
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