Squats can make you faster, and the evidence is fairly strong. Research on trained athletes found a significant correlation between relative squat strength (how much you can squat compared to your body weight) and sprint times over both 10-yard and 40-yard distances. The stronger athletes were pound-for-pound, the faster they ran. But the details matter: how you squat, how heavy you go, and what kind of running you’re trying to improve all shape whether squats actually translate to speed.
The Link Between Squat Strength and Sprint Speed
A study examining competitive athletes found that relative squat strength correlated with 40-yard sprint times at r = -0.605 and 10-yard sprint times at r = -0.544. The negative sign means that as squat strength goes up, sprint times go down. That’s a moderate-to-strong relationship, which is notable given how many variables affect sprinting.
The key word here is “relative” strength. What matters isn’t the raw number on the bar but how much you squat compared to your body weight. An athlete squatting 1.5 times their body weight will generally be faster than one squatting 1.0 times their body weight, all else being equal. This makes intuitive sense: sprinting is about applying force into the ground relative to how much mass you’re moving forward.
How Squats Help Distance Runners Too
If you run longer distances, squats still offer a meaningful benefit, just through a different mechanism. Instead of raw top-end speed, strength training improves running economy, which is how much energy your body uses at a given pace. Better economy means the same pace feels easier, or you can sustain a faster pace for the same effort. Research on middle- and long-distance runners has shown running economy improvements of 4 to 7% from lower-body strength training programs, with explosive-style training producing the larger gains.
One study on moderately trained runners found that replacing about 42% of their weekly running volume with two sessions of combined speed and heavy resistance training improved both short- and long-term running performance alongside running economy. They got faster while running less.
Why Squats Work Without Changing Your Stride
You might assume squats make you faster by lengthening your stride or increasing how quickly your legs turn over. Research suggests neither is the primary mechanism. Studies measuring stride length and stride frequency before and after squat-based training found no significant changes in either variable. Instead, the improvement comes from neuromuscular adaptation: your muscles learn to produce more force with each ground contact. You push harder into the ground with every step, which propels you forward more efficiently without visibly altering your running form.
Squat Depth and Speed Transfer
Full squats and partial squats develop strength at different joint angles, and this matters for how well that strength transfers to running. One study found that athletes training with quarter squats improved their 40-yard sprint by about 2%, while the full squat group saw no meaningful sprint improvement. Quarter squats also produced a 15% gain in vertical jump compared to just 1% for full squats. The likely reason is that quarter squats train the hip and knee angles that more closely match the positions you’re in during sprinting and jumping.
That said, the broader research on squat depth is mixed. Two other studies found full squats superior for jump performance. The practical takeaway is that both depths have value, but if your sole goal is sprint speed, partial squats in the range of quarter to half depth may offer more direct transfer. Full squats still build overall leg strength and resilience that protects against injury.
Split Squats vs. Back Squats
Running is fundamentally a single-leg activity. You’re never pushing off both legs at once. This raises a fair question: are single-leg exercises like Bulgarian split squats more useful than traditional back squats?
Biomechanical research comparing the two found that split squats place greater demand on the hip extensors (your glutes and hamstrings) while reducing stress on the knee. The hamstring-to-quadriceps activation ratio is higher in single-leg movements, which more closely mirrors what happens during sprinting. Split squats also challenge your balance and lateral stability in ways a back squat doesn’t.
Neither exercise is strictly better. Back squats let you load heavier, which is important for building maximum strength. Split squats offer more sport-specific muscle activation patterns. Most runners benefit from including both.
How to Program Squats for Speed
The goal for runners is building strength and power without adding unnecessary muscle mass. This distinction matters because excessive hypertrophy increases the oxygen cost of running. A meta-analysis on concurrent training (combining endurance and strength work) found that running in particular can blunt muscle fiber growth compared to cycling, with a more pronounced interference effect on the slow-twitch fibers used heavily in distance running. For most runners, this natural interference effect actually works in your favor: your body resists getting bulky when you’re also logging miles.
To build strength and power with minimal bulk, keep the weight relatively heavy (around 70 to 85% of your max) and the reps moderate, in the range of 3 to 6 per set for 3 to 4 sets. This rep range develops neural efficiency and force production without the volume needed to trigger significant muscle growth. High-rep, low-weight squat protocols (15 to 24 reps at 60% of max) have been tested specifically in runners and failed to improve 5K performance.
Research on training frequency shows no significant difference in strength gains between lower and higher frequencies when total weekly volume is the same. This gives you flexibility. Two squat sessions per week is a solid starting point, but you could spread the same work across three shorter sessions if that fits your schedule and recovery better. This “micro-dosing” approach, splitting the same total sets across more frequent but shorter sessions, may actually be preferable for runners doing concurrent training, since it reduces fatigue from any single session.
Scheduling Around Your Runs
When you squat relative to your hard running sessions matters. The concurrent training study that produced improvements in both speed and endurance had runners perform their high-intensity speed work first, followed immediately by heavy resistance training in the same session. This kept the remaining days available for easy aerobic running or full rest.
The logic is straightforward: stack your hard efforts together so your easy days stay truly easy. If you squat heavy on Monday and do track intervals on Tuesday, both sessions suffer and recovery stalls. Pairing them on the same day, with running first and squats after, consolidates the stress and gives your body 48 or more hours to recover before the next demanding session.