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Physiorun
The Classroom
Your Weekly Running Strength Class
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This Week’s Class
Rolling With It
A full floor-based mobility and hip-opening circuit — built around the foam roller.
3 rounds throughout · 9 exercises
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Every runner knows the value of a hard session. Fewer give the same respect to a slow one — floor-based, foam roller in hand, moving through the hips, spine and core at a pace that feels almost too gentle to count as training. It counts.
This week’s Classroom class is built entirely on the floor, using the roller in four different ways — between the knees, under the lower back, under the torso, and as a surface to lie and lift from. Each use teaches your body something different about control, not just flexibility.
Nine exercises, three rounds, no rush — this is the session for the day you don’t feel like training hard, which is often exactly when it matters most.
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The Circuit · 3 rounds |
Roll & Release |
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1
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Inchworms × 1 minute × 3
Standing tall, walk the hands out to a plank position, then walk the feet up to meet them, hinging at the hips. A full-body mobiliser that opens the hamstrings, shoulders and spine together before the roller work begins.
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2
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Side Lying Leg Lift (Both) with Foam Roller Between Knees × 30 seconds each side × 3
Lying on your side with a foam roller held between both knees, lift both legs together off the floor and lower under control. Trains the underneath hip to control the weight of both legs as one unit — a different demand to lifting just the top leg alone.
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3
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Muncie Lifts × 30 seconds each side × 3
Lying on your side with the top leg bent and the heel drawn back towards your glute, lift the knee away from the floor. A specific, well-targeted hit on the glute medius — the muscle most responsible for keeping your pelvis level when you’re running on one leg at a time.
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4
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Deadbug with Foam Roller Between Knees × 1 minute × 3
Lying on your back, knees bent and roller squeezed between them, extend the opposite arm and leg away from the body while keeping your lower back flat on the floor. The roller keeps the hips honest, so the core has to do the stabilising instead of the legs doing it for you.
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5
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Hip Twists with Foam Roller Under Lower Back × 1 minute × 3
Lying with the roller positioned under your lower back, knees bent and feet together, rotate the knees from side to side. Mobilises the lower back and hips together, using the roller to guide the movement through a controlled, supported range.
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6
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Side Lying Leg Lifts with Top Leg Pressing onto the Bottom × 30 seconds each side × 3
Lying on your side, press the top leg down into the bottom leg as you lift both away from the floor together. An isometric press paired with movement, asking the inner and outer hip muscles to work against each other as well as lift.
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7
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Child’s Pose on Foam Roller × 1 minute × 3
Kneeling with the roller positioned lengthways under your torso and arms, sink back into child’s pose. A restorative stretch that opens the lats, shoulders and spine while the roller adds gentle traction through the upper back.
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8
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Openers (Lying on Back, Arms Open Out Whilst Hips Open Out) × 1 minute × 3
Lying on your back with knees bent, let both knees drop open to the sides as both arms open out wide into a “T”. Combines hip external rotation with chest opening, undoing the tightness that builds up through hours of sitting as well as running.
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9
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Wall Cobra (Lower Limbs from Knee Down Pressing into the Wall) × 1 minute × 3
Lying face down with your lower legs up a wall, press the shins into the wall while lifting into a gentle cobra through the upper back. Finishes the circuit with a combined hip and spinal extension — pressing the legs on while opening the chest.
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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?
Join The Classroom
A new running strength or mobility class every week — built on physio principles and real running science. Members also get full access to the Physiorun app.
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🏅 4 classes a month for just £7 — under £2 a class, less than a coffee
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One class every week + full app access. Built for runners.
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Weekly Blog
Rolling With It: Why Floor-Based Mobility Deserves a Place in Every Runner’s Week
Every runner knows the value of a hard session. Fewer give the same respect to a slow one — floor-based, foam roller in hand, moving through hips, spine and core at a pace that feels almost too gentle to count as training. It counts.
Work like this complements the hard sessions rather than competing with them. It addresses tissue quality and joint range in a way that intensity alone never will, and gives muscles like the glute medius — trained directly today through the Muncie Lift — the focused attention they rarely get in a faster-paced session.
The foam roller’s job today isn’t just rolling out tight spots. Used between the knees, it locks the hips still so the core has to stabilise properly. Under the lower back, it guides a controlled rotation. Under the torso, it adds traction to a restorative stretch. Same tool, four different jobs.
Running is a forward, repetitive motion. Spending time opening the hips sideways, rotating the spine, and extending through the front of the body — as the openers and wall cobra do at the end of this circuit — gives your body a chance to move in directions running simply doesn’t ask for.
Rolling With It is built to be the class you do on the day you don’t feel like training hard — and that’s usually exactly when it matters most.
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Top Tip of the Week
Slow Is the Point
It’s tempting to rush through a mobility session, especially compared to a sweatier strength class. Resist it. The control you’re after — in the deadbug, the hip twists, the leg lifts — only shows up when the movement is slow enough to actually feel.
If a rep feels easy, you’re probably moving too fast to get anything from it. Slow down until you can feel exactly which muscle is doing the work, and let the roller guide you rather than racing past it.
This is one session where going slower is genuinely the harder — and more useful — option.
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Nine exercises, three rounds, one foam roller doing four different jobs — hips opened, core stabilised, spine mobilised and chest released. Give yourself permission to go slow this week. It still counts.
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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