Possible to Gain Muscle as a distance runner?

I think it is very hard for runners to gain anything but I'm sure it can be done.

Yes, but get yourself a personal trainer. This is going to be hard work, involving waking up in the middle of the night to chug protein and spending a lot of money on supplements like creatine. Forget having a social life, as working out, eating and sleeping is going to take up all your spare time.

Or...you could just run less often.

My son is an ultra-marathon runner... 50 to 100 mile runner. He says you have to choose.. lean thin for running or bulked up for other sports. You run the best with strong thin muscles. So it is what you want. You can run distance with bulked up Muscle but you will perform better with the slim strong muscles from running.

You're a good size for a runner, but for a lifter, you are puny (forgive me).

You should decide what you want to be when you grow up--a good distance runner or a strong lifter. These activities work at cross-purposes, and you have to prioritize one and use the other as an assistance activity. Lifters can get by without running, but runners generally need to do some strength training to avoid injury. You are still young, and you can probably maintain your level of activity for some time without hurting yourself too badly, but I would suggest focusing on something.

I'd recommend reading Starting Strength and Practical Programming for Strength Training if you're serious about adding muscle. You won't be able to really do the Starting Strength program with running that much (it'll kill your recovery), but those two books should give you the knowledge base you need to design a program that fits your needs.

Why are you running so much? Do you just like it, or are you a competitive (something) that requires that much distance running?

But yeah. You're going to have a to eat a positively ridiculous amount of food, probably north of 5, even 6,000 calories a day to gain muscle with that level of activity. One recommendation is to drink a gallon of whole milk a day. Baby cows get big drinking whole milk, and you can too. Lots of good protein, fat and carbs in milk.

All of this, too.

It is possible if you're lifting really heavy (4 rep failure rate), eating LOADS of protein and eating at a calorie overage every day (which will be tough if you're pulling in big mileage AND lifting).

The two don't go well together though. You might actually wear yourself out. Focus on being a runner, or focus on gaining muscle.

Are you trying to improve as a distance runner? If so, don't gain the muscle mass. You're at a great weight. Focus on BF %.

I'm currently working with a coach on getting competitive at the 5 KM distance. He told me to quit lifting weights. There is only so much muscle you need to be a great runner, anything more will get in the way and weigh you down. I do a lot of calisthenics to strengthen my core and improve my posture. Sometimes I will incorporate weights, but no more than 10 lbs. We're focused on getting me down to an ideal race weight which is right at the bottom of my BMI and lowering my BF % .

Hello, I've got a question that I am looking to have answered.

Is it possible to gain muscle while doing long distance running? I am currently 5'10" 150 lb male that runs over 60 miles per week and lifts weights 5 days a week and I was wondering if anyone had any success gaining muscle while running this much. Personal reasons aside I would like to get up to about 170-175 and I don't care too much about fat gain since I can just take it off if I don't like the way it looks. Based upon my TDEE I would likely need around 3500-3800 to maintain, so roughly 4100-4300 to gain depending on the workout day.

So my questions are

Has anyone had any success gaining muscle while doing this?
What was the experience like and what did you do to gain?
How did this affect your running (speed and endurance)?

My primary question would be why? Adding weight is going to make running harder. Your power/kg ratio will be effected. Not to mention the muscle you build from lifting (type IIa and IIx) are not the type of muscle you use for running (type I). Then there is the recovery aspect and the toll it will take on your CNS.

If you want to excel as a runner use weights to address muscle imbalances and to do injury prevention type stuff (strengthening hip muscles, core, glutes, etc).

I'm sure this is not what you want to hear, but not really man. You can gain WEIGHT if you eat enough, but muscle, not really, not with that much running. The whole concept of gaining muscle requires that you lift with enough of a load that your muscles need to be broken down sufficient to build up during the rest & recovery period. But when you are also doing that much running, there is not enough r&r to let them build back up. During the time your body is trying to recover it'll instead be sapping more energy & catabolizing existing muscle tissue. It's gotta come from somewhere & it sounds like you don't have much fat to offer up.

For those who really want to run while also trying to gain muscle you can either take it really easy (slow jog) which I'm sure you're not excited about as a runner. Or you can go with HIIT; spring - rest - sprint - rest, which I'm thinking you're probly not excited about either. Like others have said, you gotta make a choice with this kinda thing.

All that aside, it is possible for a true beginning lifter to temporarily get an increase in muscle mass despite whatever else you're doing. Noob lifters are kind of the exception to the rule. But it would be temporary and probably not significant gains.

I run long distances and I lift. I struggled with fat gain while training for my marathon. I feel like that was related to all the sugar I ate tho.... My body feels best when it is fueled by sugar so that is what I did. I did NOT have muscle loss I continued to make gains in the gym. I LOVE to lift heavy. My 1 rep max continued to go up.

I run now on no sugar since I am not training for a race. My next marathon I plan on training on no sugar for experimental purposes. Right now I am only running 20-30 miles a week because I am training for a powerlifting event. I love to run and will not give it up but I only have so much time in a day.

Send me a FR if you would like. I will not argue with all the “science” on the forums. I speak from personal experience.

one does not compliment the other really. like if you were set on running sprints would be much more productive.

if you focused on one or the other you'd have better results of one over the other (obviously). I'd say you could but you'd have to eat quite a bit to stay anabloic

When the Zombies attack you may need upper body strength to get over the fence.... I would cut down on the super long runs maybe go for half marathons instead....You see some lifters running those while I've yet to see anyone my size run a full competitively (5-9 225lbs and yes I can run halfs) To each their own though.

To clarify, when I say distance running, I am referring to full marathon or longer. 5k - 21k are great achievements but these days not distance running.

Errrrm - if middle distance is 800-1500m in track, then I'm pretty sure 5-21k is distance running. If you look at elites in the 5,000 meter races...they are lean as hell and tiny. This discussion absolutely applies to shorter distances than the marathon.

Just saying.

Yeah, maybe 5k is not long distance in the world of marathons and ultramarathons, but for some people, this would be 40 min of running. Well in the realm of what counts as long, slow distance in the world of anabolic training. 21k is long by any standard. Ask any non-elite marathon runner whether 21k is something they could do without preparing for it.

Did not mean to sound like an *kitten*!

Was trying relate to the difference in training for half or less and full or more. I have (am) doing full training right after a half. Two entirely different commitments!

Poor choice of words. Apologies to any who were offended.

But my thought remains. Is there time & energy to work on muscle mass while training for marathon distances or longer? And, if training for a full or longer distance why try to gain any weight at all?

I will now go to my corner before annoying anyone else.

Hello, I've got a question that I am looking to have answered.

Is it possible to gain muscle while doing long distance running?

I read this as "Is it possible to gain muscle while exercising?" The answer of course is yes. Running is an exercise. What's important for building muscle? Strength training and a surplus in your diet with a great amount of protein. You can still do this while running. There's no law of physics that says you can't.

How did this affect your running (speed and endurance)?

As everyone has stated already more weight will decrease your running performance even if 100% of this weight is muscle. It sounds like you're wanting a good mix of the two options. Find a good balance between weight and speed and stick with it. Endurance athletes aren't skinnier because they CAN'T gain muscle. They choose to not have excess muscle because it hurts their performance. There's nothing at all wrong with this approach.

Triathlon. "Why excel in a single sport when you can be mediocre in three?" Just apply the same logic to running/lifting and have fun.

The thing is...bulking up and building mass requires a ton of calorie intake. Not exactly what you want when you're trying to lose weight. That's why I'm lifting low volume (1-2 sets of 12 for each muscle group) and still running 5-10k here and there just to keep my calorie burn as high as it can be. So in that case yes, with the right nutrition and plan it's possible to build muscle and still run distance.

If you're asking about actually bulking up and making HUGE gains but still running distance, I'd agree with everyone here who says you basically have to choose.