13 October 2026

Young runners are not dropping running for the gym. They are pairing the two: a couple of short strength sessions a week around their runs, so the kilometres land on legs that feel sturdier. BBC reporting shows health and fitness or gym membership climbing from 21 percent to 27 percent over the past two years, with younger people shifting some of their cardio time to strength work. Here is what is behind the shift, and how two short sessions fit around two club runs.

Gym numbers are climbing, and runners noticed

The number behind the headlines is simple: health and fitness or gym membership climbed from 21 percent to 27 percent over the past two years, and the change is being led by younger people. The same reporting shows gym sessions and exercise machines rising among 16 to 34 year olds while some classic cardio numbers drift down.

For runners, this is less a swap than a reshuffle. The people behind the numbers have not stopped moving. They have added strength work to the week and trimmed the hours of steady cardio around it, because it makes the running itself feel better.

Why runners are adding strength work

Running asks a lot of the same muscles in the same way, thousands of steps at a time. Strength work fills in what running alone does not: hips and glutes that hold your form together, calves that handle hills and a core that keeps you upright when the legs get tired. Many runners say the difference is not speed, it is feel: sturdier through the middle of a run, steadier on the downslopes and less ragged at the end of a long one.

There is a confidence side too. Turning up to a run knowing your body can handle the distance changes how the whole morning or evening feels, and that is exactly what a couple of short sessions a week builds.

What a short strength session looks like

You do not need a named program or a two hour gym block. Twenty to thirty minutes, twice a week, covers it:

• Five or six moves, two or three rounds: squats, lunges, glute bridges, calf raises and a plank or side plank.
• Bodyweight at home is a perfectly good start. Bands or weights can come later if you want more.
• Leave a day between a strength session and a run where you can, so both get your best.
• Two sessions a week is plenty for most runners. The runs stay the main thing.

A week with two runs and two strength sessions

Here is how it lands on a real week, built around the club's two runs:

Gym, home or the park

Any of the three works. A living room floor covers squats, lunges, bridges and planks. A park adds benches for step ups and slopes for calf work. A gym adds load once bodyweight gets easy. If you are weighing a gym membership against running with the club, we compared the two in run club or gym: which one keeps you showing up. And after a strength day or a run, the best post run stretches and recovery routines are a gentle way to finish.

Run with us

Hills Run Club is a free community running club in the Hills District of Sydney. The strength days are yours to shape; the two club runs are the fixed points of the week:

• Thursday Morning Run: every Thursday at Glenhaven Oval, 78 Glenhaven Road, Glenhaven. Meet 5:45am for a 6:00am start, with coffee and a sweet treat afterwards. Choose 2.5 km or 5 km. The next one is on 15 October.
• Tuesday Night Run: every second Tuesday at Castle Hill Showground, Castle Hill, under the lights. Meet 6:45pm for a 7:00pm start. Enter via Doran Drive, the entrance closest to the metro, take the first left and follow the road to the lit oval; we meet at the large shed, with plenty of parking around it. Choose 3 km or 6 km. The next one is on 20 October.
• Walkers are welcome at both runs, and one lap is a full run in its own right.

Running with the club is free. Make a free HRC+ account and register for each run there; every run is registered in HRC+, so you always know where to be and when. See every upcoming run at hillsrunclub.com/runs/.