The Classroom

Foot Torques

Standing with feet flat, rotate the foot outward into the floor without actually moving it — creating a twisting torque through the arch and ankle. This wakes up the intrinsic foot muscles, loads the arch, and creates the tension through the lower leg that prepares you for everything that follows. Runners who skip foot preparation often miss this whole layer of stability. Two minutes here saves a lot of problems further up the chain.

Calf Drill — Forward & Backward Over a Fixed Foot

No step needed — foot stays flat and fixed on the ground. Drive the body forward over the foot and then control back, keeping the heel grounded throughout. This loads the calf and Achilles through a functional range of motion by moving the body over the ankle rather than raising and lowering the heel. It is closer to what actually happens during running — where the calf works to control forward tibial movement as the foot lands — making it excellent preparation before heading into the heavier strength work.

Exercise 1

High Box Weighted Step Up

Step up onto a high box holding a dumbbell or kettlebell. The height and load together make this one of the most effective single-leg strength exercises for runners — it demands everything from the quad, glute and calf in one movement, while the trunk has to stay organised under the weight. High box step ups build the kind of raw leg strength that makes hill running, long races and heavy training blocks feel manageable rather than punishing.

Exercise 2

Single-Leg RDL

Hinge forward on one leg, keeping the back flat and the hip of the standing leg in control throughout. The single-leg RDL is one of the most running-relevant exercises you can do — it loads the hamstring, challenges balance, and trains the hip to stay strong and still when the body is in a single-leg stance. Every running stride is a single-leg landing. This exercise builds exactly the capacity that makes those landings safe and powerful.

Exercise 3

Band Side Step March

Band looped around the ankles or knees, step sideways with a high knee march on each rep. The band creates lateral resistance that forces the hip abductors and glutes to work to keep the pelvis level and the knee tracking correctly. The marching component adds a running-specific element — lifting the knee means you are also training hip flexor control and single-leg balance at the same time. A simple drill that hits a lot of the right muscles in one go.

Exercise 4

Fast Feet — Forward

Quick, light, rapid foot contacts moving forward — staying on the balls of the feet with minimal ground contact time. This trains foot stiffness, reactive lower leg strength and the neuromuscular coordination that underpins running economy. Runners who are heavy or slow through their foot contacts lose energy with every stride. Fast feet drills teach the nervous system to be quick and snappy — and that transfers directly to faster, more efficient running.

Exercise 5

Fast Feet — Sideways

The same fast foot speed, now moving laterally. Runners are forward-moving athletes, but they also have to react to uneven ground, cambered roads and sharp turns. Lateral fast feet build the coordination, hip and ankle stability to handle those moments without losing control or loading up the wrong structures. This also challenges the adductors and abductors in a dynamic, reactive way that heavy strength training simply cannot replicate.

Exercise 6

Fast Feet — Figure 8

Quick feet tracing a figure-of-8 pattern on the ground — combining forward, lateral and diagonal movement into one fluid drill. The figure 8 adds the element of direction change, which demands rapid coordination between the feet, ankles and hips. It finishes the fast feet series by pulling all three planes of movement together, challenging the body in the same multidirectional way that trail running, racing and uneven terrain naturally do.