Episode 17: Why Squats and Running Clash (And How To Fix It)

Squats are one of the most powerful exercises you can do for building strength.

But if you’re also running, they’re also one of the most fatigue-sensitive lifts you can train.

The interference between squatting and running is real. Both rely heavily on the legs, which means fatigue from one can quickly impact performance in the other.

In this episode of the Lift Heavy Run Fast Podcast, we break down how to train the squat while running so you can continue building strength without ruining your running performance.

We cover:

- Why squats are the most fatigue-sensitive lift for hybrid athletes
- How running fatigue shows up in your squat (slow reps, heavy bar speed, technique breakdown)
- How squat fatigue can negatively impact your running performance
- Why it becomes harder to push both running speed and squat strength as you become fitter and stronger
- Why you often need to prioritise either running performance or squat progression at certain times
- How to schedule squats around your running week
- Why squatting before an easy run can work well
- Why squatting after a hard run can sometimes make sense
- Why squats often require some skill practice and exposure, not just intensity
- How to structure squats during high running volume phases vs strength-focused blocks

If you’re trying to get strong while continuing to improve your running, learning how to manage the squat is one of the most important skills in hybrid training.

LINKS AND RESOURCES:

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Let me review your Hybrid Program: https://calendly.com/hybridcoachmike/hybrid-performance-audit

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hybridcoachmike

Lift Heavy, Run Fast Podcast Intro

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:21

What's going on everyone? Welcome back to episode 17 of the Lift Heavy Run Fast Podcast. I am your host, hybrid coach Mike, and today I am running you through how to squat while running how to squat. Why am I fucking this title up? How to train the squat while running. Okay, this is something that's going to be quite difficult for many people because training the squat to a high level while running heaps is really hard and it can be counterproductive for a lot of hybrids or strength athletes because your legs are under a lot of fatigue. You're using your legs to squat, you're using your legs to run. Those things can cause a little bit of uh, I don't want to say interference, but you know, they don't they don't necessarily become good friends when your legs are fucked all the time and you're perpetually under constant fatigue. So it can be really hard to therefore progress your squat training or progress your run training when you're going hard at both. Okay. I'm gonna tell you how to do both, and I'm gonna tell you how to get at least an above average and well beyond above average, sorry. What? And well beyond uh uh well beyond average running performance uh in order to develop both of them at the same time. I'm not saying I am gonna turn you into a fucking elite level runner right now, like Kipchogi or a world-class power lifter breaking records. I don't even know who the record breaking powerlifters are right now, but imagine those dudes. If you're running or trying to do those or uh trying to be a world-class uh runner and a world-class lifter, you should just focus on that sport, okay? You should not be trying to run if you're a world-class power lifter, and you should not be trying to fucking squat 200 and something plus kilos, 300 plus kilos if you are uh a world-class long-distance runner. You should not be trying to do that. But if you are a hybrid, someone in between here, someone who lives in the grey of these two things, someone who is destined for mediocrity for the remainder of your life and has doubled down on it in such a way that you've made it your identity and decided to create a podcast about it for people to uh validate you a little bit more. Wait, what? Anyway, uh if you are that kind of person like myself, then that's this is for you, okay? So why squats? Squats are the most fatigue sensitive uh because you're basically uh your interference becomes real, okay? You're using your legs so much for running and you're using your legs so much to squat heavy, and your legs need to be fresh if you want to squat heavy. If you want to squat more weight week after week, your legs need to be somewhat recovered from the last squat session or from your previous runs. If you are continuously fatigued, you are inhibiting your ability to push your squat further than where it can go. The reason why is that fatigue will mask your fitness slash performance, which will therefore inhibit your strength. Okay, fatigue inhibits strength. Strength requires you to be able to maximally contract your muscles in order to produce the most amount of force. And when you are under fatigue, that is inhibited. When you have DOMS, when your legs are depleted in glycogen because of a run, all of these things can come into play, and all of these things can inhibit your strength, therefore your force production and the load that is being carried on the bar. Okay. Now, what does fatigue feel like when you're squatting? Okay, we know what it feels like when we're when we've got heavy legs. Most of us know what that's like. When we've got heavy legs, we know what a run feels like. Feels shit. Feels like someone's attached two five kilo fucking plates to each leg and you're trying to run and you're extra tired, your heart rate's higher, and all that kind of stuff. Okay. But what does it feel like when you are trying to squat heavy? What does fatigue feel like? So, fatigue from running can be seen in your squats when your lifts feel slower than they normally do, particularly like on your warm-ups, if they're just moving slower, if the bar is moving dramatically slower and your legs just feel like they're not contracting, they're not the bar's not popping up like it usually should. If your technique feels off, this is a big one for me. For whatever reason, when I'm really fatigued, my technique just doesn't click. Like it's not something that I've changed, it's just it just feels off. And I don't know how to explain it. It just feels off. The bar moves slower, my technique feels weird, I end up making adjustments I don't need, and then I end up reverting back to what I was supposed to do in the beginning and just accepting the fact that I'm fatigued now, and this is this is where I'm at at the moment. So we already know fatigue can uh inhibit your your strength output, okay? And here are some ways we can manage this. First one, I think most people in the beginning don't need to worry too much, but when you get to an intermediate to advanced level, okay, you need to probably prioritize developing your squat or running faster. Doing both simultaneously is gonna be quite challenging for most people. You need to prioritize one or the other, okay? And the reason why you need to prioritize one or the other is because you're gonna eventually get to a point where progressing your running really far and progressing your squat really far is gonna require so much work time and effort that it is inevitably gonna carry some fatigue into one of the other training modalities that you're doing. Like for me right now, I know if I want to get my running to the level it needs to be, I need to be running well beyond 60 to 70 kilometers per week, which isn't a lot for most high-level runners, but for someone that is 90-something kilos like I am, or 88 or so right now, a heavier runner, 60 plus kilos is fucking taxing on uh 60 plus kilometers is taxing as hell on my legs, and running beyond that is even more taxing on my legs, okay? Which means my squad has to suffer a little bit at the moment. When I first started out hybrid training, 30 kilometers a week was taxing on my legs. But now 30 kilometers a week is like fucking, I'll do that in two days. It's nothing for me, it's air. But now that I've doubled that, this is my new baseline, it's gonna take some time for me to adjust. I hope eventually 60 kilometer a weeks are nothing for me as well that I'm able to progress my squat. Now, when I do 30 to 40 kilometers a week, I can progress my squat quite nicely. In fact, I squatted like 200 for two or three reps earlier this year doing that kind of volume, and it was it was actually quite manageable. It was it was challenging, but I felt like I could have gone more. And my squat was was progressing at that point in time, but I had to pivot towards focusing on running a little bit more now as I got ready for these races, as well as project 300 sub-90. So, needless to say, there's gonna be a time and place you need to focus on one modality over the other. And if you want to really push your squat hard, put some time putting your running on hold and focus harder on your squat. Okay, and that could mean doing one to two squat sessions per week, uh, maybe even three, um, you know, alternating the volume and intensity of that squat session, making sure you always do your strength sessions before you do your running sessions is a big one, and planning your running sessions around your squat sessions. So, what I would do is I would say squat on a Monday or Tuesday and Friday, for example, and I would be like, okay, these are the days I'm designated to squat. I will definitely not do a hard run on a Monday, and I will definitely not do a hard run on the Thursday. What I might do is I might do my hard run on the uh Wednesday, giving myself the Thursday to recover, squatting again on Friday, and then maybe do a hard run on the Saturday. Okay, so that way I get that day before each squat session to give my legs a break, and I'm usually not running before them. And I can go hard on my legs a day after I'm running because I'm not prioritizing running at the moment anyway. I'm prioritizing my squat. So what I can do is push my squat as hard as I need to, and I don't really need to worry about carrying some of that fatigue into my running session the next day if I'm not really worried about getting a running PB at the moment. Okay, so like I said, there's a few things that I'll touch on. I I keep on digressing away from the things I'm supposed to be saying on my notes on my screen. So for anyone that like listens to this, I wonder if you think I have a mental disability. Or I I take that back. I wonder if you think I have a uh a mental ailment, something wrong with me. I definitely don't think it's a disability at all. I think it's a a um what's the word I'm looking for? Tism, something. I don't know. I wonder if you guys think I have that. Anyway, spectrum. Spectrum. I spent too much time on the internet. Anyway, so squatting before an easy run uh usually doesn't so it's something you could do as well if you do want to keep your running quite high. Squatting before an easy run usually will not cause that much fatigue on your squat sessions if you are at that intermediate to advanced stage of your hybrid training. So easy running before your squat session will usually not cause that much fatigue on your squat session if you're in that intermediate or advanced stage of your hybrid training. For example, I do my easy runs before my squat sessions when I'm focusing on getting my squat as much as high as possible, and it actually doesn't really mess around with my squat training the next day at all at the moment. If you're a beginner, you might find it does uh just because you're not used to handling that workload anyway, and it's gonna take some time for your work capacity to adjust and increase. But otherwise, um yeah, I think for most people, just focus on yeah, I think for for most people, it usually doesn't matter. Okay, I think the most people majority of people that are gonna be listening to this are kind of in that beginner to intermediate stages anyway. I the only thing I will say is like if you like I said before, if you're gonna try if you're trying to build up your squat, don't be doing a hard run the day before. Okay, you will feel it, it will inhibit your your squat session. Easy run, maybe not so much, but if you're new to running, it might. The best thing you can do is keep your squats as far away from your runs as you can in your training week if you have that ability to do that. If you are able to do that, keep your keep your running sessions as far away from them as you can. Or at uh uh otherwise, make sure they're always after your squat sessions. So, like I said before, prioritize your squat sessions on that Tuesday, Friday, or Monday, Thursday, whatever it is, and then put your runs around that. Be like, okay, I'm gonna run on this day after this, after I've done my squats, and then you plan your training week around your squat. Squats require uh quite a bit of skill practice, and I think when it comes to the volume and intensity of your squat, I reckon one hard set a week is or one to two hard sets per week can be quite sufficient, but you should also be doing some back off sets to practice. So, what I generally mean is working up to like a top set or something quite heavy, and then doing a couple back off sets afterwards in order to practice the technique and get that volume in. I still think you should do one higher RPE set or one set that is quite challenging every week for your squat. Squats seem to respond quite well to that, and squats generally, overall, in my opinion, don't need all that much volume in order to improve. My squat has always been at its strongest when all I am doing is like I want to say four to eight sets of squats only per week, right? So eight being on the much higher side, like I'm rarely that. Like my sweet spot is around five sets of squats per week, and I might split that up where I'm doing or six sets of squats per week, and I might split that up where I'm doing three sets on a Monday, three sets on a Thursday or something. Um, or maybe I'm just doing five by five and I'm doing five all in one session. I generally find the volume in one session, just practicing the technique can be quite good. I think if you have the ability to, squatting more than once a week is also ideal for most um for most people trying to develop the movement. If you are really shit at squatting, you may want to consider even adding a third squat session in, but I wouldn't just be squatting the same all the time. Like I would do like a normal squat, a pause squat, a tempo squat, or safety squat. Look at front squats, look at other movements you can do as well. See how your legs manage with that kind of stuff. I wouldn't just be doing exclusively barbell back squats the entire time. Um, even some single leg work. If you are a hybrid, I'm always a big fan of doing single leg work. Any kind of lunge or Bulgarian split squat is excellent for both developing the squat but also just helping out with your running because you are running one leg at a time and you don't want to get an imbalance that can kind of impact your running. I've found when I have done a lot of barbell squatting and only barbell squatting, I generally start to develop somewhat of an imbalance between my left and uh my left and right gluten quad. As in, my left leg tends to lack quite a little bit compared to my right side. But I notice as soon as I go back to doing some unilateral movements, they kind of fix themselves within a couple weeks. But when I do have that imbalance, and this could be just me being really in tune with my body or me being on the spectrum, I don't know, but I do find that I do feel a little bit of a difference between my right and left leg's ability to generate force and contact with the floor when I run when I have only been barbell squatting. I significantly feel a difference between my left and right glute, and I significantly see and notice a difference between my left and right quad, and I feel like that does impact my run. Whether it does or not, I'm not sure, but I always feel better when I've been doing some single leg work. So I generally will always have some single leg work in there when I am doing a running block. But when I'm trying to develop my squat, I do focus on squatting a little bit more, and if I don't feel strong enough, I might add in some single leg work there as well. The main thing is if you are trying to develop your squat, doing it more than once a week can go a long way. Okay, so doing two to three times a week with variations included can be excellent. Just keep in mind quite a bit of fatigue can be accumulated by doing that, and that can impact your running if that is still something that you want to try and get somewhere with as well. So, but if you're if you're purely focused on developing your squat and just having your your running on the on the back burner or on maintenance for a little while, push it up to two to three times a week and see what you can do. Vary the intensities, don't have just high intensity every session. I would do something like high, low, medium or something like that in terms of your squat training uh and or high low. Um, and that could be high intensity, low intensity, high volume, low volume. You could do something like that, whatever you want. And I think that can really go far in terms of both allowing you to practice the movement, develop the skill, get the technique better, um, and just get stronger overall, and also actually build muscle in the areas specific to the squat. I think the squat is a great leg mass builder, particularly deep squats if you are someone who wears heel-elevated shoes or has quite good ankle mobility. Otherwise, um, I think that is kind of everything when it comes to squat training. Uh, in terms of accessories and stuff that I do for my squat, I think I kind of mentioned pause squats are probably my favorite, tempo squats, pin squats are excellent as well, and then single leg work, you cannot beat Bulgarians, in my opinion, uh, and you cannot beat lunges. I will just go through those. I do those almost only all the time. I don't really fuck with machines, primarily because I don't have access to them. I at the gym I work at, I don't have really many machines to use. I've got a leg press, but I find the angle on the leg press doesn't do much for me. The leg press kind of depends on what movement, uh what kind of machine you're using. The one I have access to, I don't really like that much. And I would honestly just rather do Bulgarians or something like that. I find they just go so much further with me. And then, yeah, yeah. If you do have access to some mad machines like a hack squat, that would be I would prefer that. I've got access to a pendulum, which I do use as well, which is another awesome machine. Anything that can kind of imitate the movement is excellent, but you also don't want to forget some single leg work. Um, and even seated quad extensions be a good way to just build up your quads, but I don't really think they do that much for your squat uh compared to something like a lunge or Bulgarian wood. So generally, the movements everyone hates when it comes to leg training are the ones that are going to be the best for you. In terms of getting the squat stronger, what rep ranges should be you be using? I would be sticking anywhere between the majority of my training would be between the three to six rep range, and then I would have you know maybe one block where I kind of fuck around between the one to three rep range before I go back to the higher volumes. I never spend too much time at uh the low volume, uh the low volume, like really low volume, like one to three reps. That is more of just me getting an indication of where my strength is at, but I spend the vast majority of my time between that three to six rep range uh instead. And I recommend most people do as well if they're trying to get stronger. What you could do is maybe just do one really heavy set where you do a single or a double or a triple, and then you could do, you know, the back off sets after that, which are at like the four, five, and six rep range, um, you know, dropping down a little bit in load and just practicing those a little bit more to kind of get the strength. But that first top set that is in that lower rep range between the one, two, and three reps is probably more of an indication of where your strength is at as opposed to a strength builder. The majority of your strength is going to be built in that three to six kind of rep range, more so, and not just three to six reps only, it can be built in other rep ranges, but that three to six rep range is excellent. It also allows you to practice the technique of the movement, and it also allows you to do repeated sets. I would be able to do five sets of five on squats, no problem. But if you ask me to do five sets of eight to ten on squats, it's gonna be pretty fucking shit by that third, fourth, and fifth set. So technique is really important. Keeping the reps a little bit lower can be important for that as well because it allows you to practice that technique without too much fatigue and without that cardiovascular fatigue component as well. Anyway, I think I've rambled a lot. Hope you got something out of it. Lift heavy, run fast. You know where to find me. Check the links down below. Fucking if you have if you're still thinking about it and you don't know how to progress your running and lifting, get me to coach you. Just let me do it for you. You have three months of me working with you to let me change your fucking life. It's that simple. If you don't like it, never talk to me again. But that never happens. I'll see you guys next time.