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Physiorun
The Classroom
Your Weekly Running Strength Class
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This Week’s Class
Chain Reaction
A full posterior chain circuit for glutes, hamstrings and hip stability — banded, grounded, and built to protect every stride.
3 rounds throughout · 6 exercises, ground to standing
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A “chain reaction” is usually the phrase you reach for when something’s gone wrong — one weak link setting off a cascade. This week’s Classroom class is about making sure that reaction works in your favour instead.
Your posterior chain — glutes, hamstrings and lower back — is the engine room of every stride, but it’s also the part of the body most runners never train directly. Miss it, and the reaction that follows usually shows up somewhere else: a knee, an IT band, a lower back that won’t settle.
Today we build it link by link. Face down first, isolating each muscle without anything else compensating — then back on your feet, putting the whole chain to work together.
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Section 1 — Prone Series · 3 rounds |
Ground & Isolate |
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1
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Prone Banded Knee Bent Pull Aparts × 1 minute × 3
Lying face down with knees bent and a band around the ankles, pull the knees apart against the resistance. Targets the deep hip external rotators that stop your knee caving inward mid-stride — a key defence against runner’s knee and IT band irritation.
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2
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Prone Knee Flexion Hamstring Curls × 1 minute × 3
Face down, band looped around the ankle, curl the heel towards the glute and control it back down. Isolates the hamstring directly — the muscle doing the braking work every time your foot decelerates before it lands.
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3
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Prone Superman Holds with Band × 1 minute × 3
Face down, band held out in front, lift chest and legs off the floor and hold. Builds endurance through the glutes, lower back and lats together — the posture-holding strength that keeps you upright when the last few miles start to round your shoulders.
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Section 2 — Quadruped & Standing · 3 rounds |
Reconnect & Load |
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4
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One Legged Donkey Kicks × 1 minute × 3 each side
On all fours, drive one bent knee up and back towards the ceiling, squeezing the glute at the top. Isolates the glute max in pure hip extension — the exact muscle action that drives you forward off the ground on every stride.
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5
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Bird Dog with Band × 1 minute × 3
On all fours with a band looped hand to opposite foot, extend the opposite arm and leg together against the resistance. Trains anti-rotation core control and the cross-body coordination between arm and leg that mirrors your running form stride for stride.
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6
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Standing Wall Slides with Band at Ankles × 1 minute × 3
Standing with a band around the ankles, slide down the wall into a mini squat and back up, resisting the band’s pull inward. Brings everything you’ve just isolated on the floor back onto your feet, loading the glute medius for the lateral hip stability running demands.
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Watch the full class
Follow Along on YouTube
▶ Watch the Class on YouTube
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Want More Classes Like This?
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Weekly Blog
The Posterior Chain Reaction: Why Everything Starts From Behind
Glutes, hamstrings and lower back don’t work in isolation — they work as a chain, handing force from one link to the next every time your foot leaves the ground. When every link is pulling its weight, that chain reaction is what drives you forward, mile after mile, without you ever having to think about it.
The trouble starts when one link goes quiet. A weak glute doesn’t just mean a weaker push-off — it means somewhere else in the chain has to pick up the slack, usually the lower back or the knee, neither of which was built for the job. That’s often exactly where a “mystery” niggle traces back to.
It’s also the chain most runners never train directly. Squats and lunges load the whole leg at once, and a strong quad can quietly cover for a lazy glute for years before anything shows up. Isolating each link on its own — face down, one muscle at a time — takes that hiding place away.
That’s the logic behind today’s structure. The prone series switches on the glutes, hamstrings and lower back one at a time, with nothing else able to compensate. The quadruped and standing series then asks those same muscles to work together again — reconnecting the chain before you put it back to work at full speed.
Train it as a chain, and it holds together as one. Six exercises, ground to standing — every link doing its share of the work.
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Top Tip of the Week
Feel It Before You Load It
On exercises like the prone hamstring curl or the donkey kick, it’s easy to let the lower back do the work instead of the muscle you’re actually trying to train. If you can’t feel it in the glute or hamstring, the reps aren’t doing what you think they are.
Slow the first few reps of each exercise right down and consciously squeeze at the top of the movement before you build up speed. A couple of seconds spent finding the right muscle is worth more than a fast set aimed at the wrong one.
Once you can feel the target muscle working on the floor, that connection carries straight through to the standing exercises — and straight through to your next run.
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Six exercises, three rounds, one chain — glutes, hamstrings and hips trained link by link, then put back to work together. Look after the chain, and it looks after every stride you take.
James
Physiorun
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Runner’s Injury Guides
Dealing With Something Specific?
If you’re carrying a niggle right now, these dedicated guides walk through what’s going on and how to work through it:
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