Looking to improve your running performance? Add some strength training to your workout routine and you’ll help your body cushion the impact of running and your ability to recover and recuperate.

Because running is a high impact activity, it often leads to injuries of the joints, tendons, ligaments and muscles. Strengthening the muscles of the lower body, ankles and core can help properly absorb the impact (also called ground reaction forces) the body has to endure when running, helping you remain injury-free. For runners, that’s worth its own weight in gold, because it allows you to maintain your training consistency.

Simply avoiding injuries and maintaining your training can’t help but improve your performance. And stronger muscles can also help you maintain proper form as you run. A runner’s form often deteriorates during long runs, or when exhaustion sets in – whichever comes first. And when a runner’s form deteriorates, the result can be a decline in performance and an increased risk of injury.

A strong core can help you maintain proper alignment of your lower back and torso. Strong glutes and pelvis muscles can ensure your hip doesn’t jut out to the side when your foot hits the ground. And strong ankle and foot muscles can guard against the probability of ankle breaks and sprains.

Below are some exercises to help strengthen the core, legs and ankles. You don’t need to perform them every time you run – two or three times a week should be enough. If you already do strength training at the gym, it may be easiest to add these exercises to your regular strength-training program. You don’t need a gym membership to perform these exercises – all that’s required is a mat and a resistance band. And if you don’t have a mat or a resistance band, a towel can be substituted for both.

1. Standing Balance Exercise with Wood Chop

Equipment: a medicine ball or small hand weight such as a soup can.

Purpose of this exercise: Strengthening the ankles, hips, and core, as well as training your proprioception – meaning the sense of the relative position of the neighboring parts of your body.

Execution: Stand on your right leg. Hold the weight in both hands, arms straight, positioned to the outside of the right hip. Arc your arms to the left shoulder and then return your arms to the starting position. Keep arms straight. Repeat 10 times and then switch legs.

Focus on keeping your standing ankle stable, and don’t let the hip of the standing leg jut out to the side.

To make it more challenging, close your eyes.

2. Resistance Band Ankle Exercise

Equipment: resistance band or towel

Purpose of this exercise: Strengthening the little stabilizing muscles of the foot. These muscles are often ignored during traditional strength-training routines.

Execution: Lie on your back, your left leg bent with your foot on the floor. Your right leg fairly should be fairly straight, with the resistance band wrapped around the ball of your right foot. Make sure your shoes are off. Slowly point and flex your right foot. Repeat 15 times and then switch legs and repeat.

Focus on going slowly, and try to feel all the muscles in your foot. Try to differentiate between the muscles within the arch of your foot and your toes.

To increase the difficulty, lie on a foam roller and challenge your balance.

3. Bridge with Leg Lift

Equipment: a mat or towel

Purpose of this exercise: Strengthening the muscles of the hips, core and legs, the muscles that help you maintain a strong running gait. As discussed above, they also help with the absorption and transference of shock.

Execution: Lie on your back with your legs bent and your feet on the floor. Engage your butt muscles and core to lift your hips up. Keep your hips raised off the ground as you lift the right leg and foot. Hover your right foot off the ground for five seconds. Return the right leg to the ground, then return your hips to the ground. Lift your right leg for five repetitions and then switch and lift the left leg.

As you lift your right leg, focus on not allowing your left hip to go out to the side or the right side of your pelvis to drop. Imagine balancing a tea cup on your pelvis. As you lift your legs, concentrate on keeping the tea cup stable, without sloshing its imaginary contents around.

To make it more challenging, lift your right leg up and down 5 to 10 times without letting your hips lower down in-between reps. Then repeat on opposite side.