Running is a very rewarding sport. The feeling after a good run can change the rest of the day. That is part of what makes it worth coming back to.
But getting the most from it takes balance and preparation. These past days, I have been focusing on cross-training for Klivet: the work around the run, and the evidence behind asking you to do it.
It should be easy to tick off good-quality workouts. You should not have to work out the whole prescription yourself before you can begin.
You slept badly. You have a long run tomorrow. You have just finished a hard run. What supporting work makes sense now, and how much? Those are the decisions I want Klivet to handle automatically, using the recovery and training context it already has.
Open the app. Do the work. Tick it off.
That is why I am building this. Klivet will provide the supporting session that fits the day, with the exercises and dose ready to follow. The research is the work behind that simple experience.
A workout that fits the day
Today, Klivet passively logs training you do elsewhere and provides a brief warm-up note. That is the current scope. I wrote about support sessions appearing in the week in the first dispatch. The next step is to turn that record into useful direction: what supporting work belongs here today?
A strength exercise, a mobility movement and a cooldown can all look useful in a library. They can also serve quite different purposes. Klivet needs to use those differences when choosing what to offer. You should get a session you can follow, with the explanation there when you want to understand the choice.
The strength, mobility, warm-up and cooldown library is upcoming. Automatic selection is the experience I am building towards. The papers below help establish what the exercises can reasonably do; they do not validate Klivet’s selection logic.
What the papers support
One useful place to start is a trial of 325 novice recreational runners. A physiotherapist-guided hip and core programme produced fewer lower-limb injuries than the stretching control: a hazard ratio of 0.66, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.45–0.97. That is encouraging evidence for that programme and that population. It does not prove that any strength routine will protect every runner.
Leppänen et al., 2024, British Journal of Sports Medicine · Randomised controlled trial · Novice recreational runners · Moderate confidence.
Strength training also has evidence behind it for running economy: the energy required to hold a given pace. Blagrove and colleagues’ review of 24 studies reported improvements of roughly 2–8% in studies showing a benefit. Responses varied. An improvement in economy is not the same thing as an equal improvement in race time.
Blagrove, Howatson & Hayes, 2018, Sports Medicine · Systematic review · Middle- and long-distance runners of varying standards · Moderate confidence.
Where the promise gets smaller
Cooldowns are a good example. Van Hooren and Peake’s review found no consistent benefit for muscle soreness or most recovery measures, and little support for injury prevention. The evidence covered several sports, rather than runners alone. A gentle finish may be something you enjoy. Calling it protection against tomorrow’s soreness goes further than the evidence allows.
Van Hooren & Peake, 2018, Sports Medicine · Narrative review · Mixed sporting populations · No pooled effect estimate · Moderate confidence for no consistent soreness benefit; low for injury conclusions.
That distinction belongs in the product. A useful library should make a modest claim clearly, and say when the evidence is limited.
What I am building towards
- The choice made for todaySupporting work selected around your recovery, the run you just did and the training ahead.
- A purpose for each movementStrength, mobility, preparation and a comfortable finish, explained individually.
- A dose you can followSets, repetitions, frequency and progression tied to the exercise and its evidence.
- Sources you can inspectRunner-specific research where available, with extrapolations and uncertainty named.
The hard thinking belongs in Klivet. You should be able to open it, understand what to do, and get on with a good session that fits your day.
Research on an exercise programme is not a trial of Klivet. This library is not a diagnosis or an individual rehabilitation prescription.