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Physiorun
The Classroom
Your Weekly Running Strength Class
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This Week’s Class
One Leg to Stand On
A full unilateral circuit for the calves, glutes and hips — every exercise, one leg at a time.
Warm-Up: 1 round · Main Circuit: 3 rounds
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There’s an old idiom for someone who has no argument left — they “don’t have a leg to stand on.” This week’s Classroom class flips that on its head. By the end of it, one leg is exactly all you’ll need.
Every single exercise in this class is unilateral — worked on one leg at a time, with no second leg there to quietly pick up the slack. That’s deliberate. Running itself is a one-legged sport: from the moment your foot lands to the moment it leaves the ground, your whole bodyweight is being controlled by a single leg. Training should look the same.
Calf, glute, hamstring and hip — one leg at a time, three rounds each. Let’s find out what each side can really do on its own.
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Section 1 — Warm-Up · 1 round |
Activate |
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1
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Wind Ups — Single Leg Glute Activation × 1 minute each side
Hinge slightly forward on one leg while driving the opposite knee up and back down in a controlled “wind up” motion, keeping the standing leg’s glute switched on throughout. Wakes up the glute and ankle stabilisers one side at a time, priming the balance and hip control that every exercise in today’s class depends on.
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Section 2 — Main Circuit · 3 rounds |
Unilateral Strength |
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2
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Arabesque × 1 minute
A standing hip-hinge on one leg, the free leg extending straight back as the torso tips forward, arms reaching wide for balance. Builds hamstring and glute strength through a single-leg hinge while demanding serious balance and control — exactly the stability runners need through the stance phase of every stride.
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3
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Single Leg Glute Bridge × 1 minute
Lying on your back, one foot planted and the other leg extended, drive the hips up through the working glute alone. Isolates one side at a time, exposing and correcting the glute strength imbalances that bilateral bridges can easily hide.
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4
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Elevated Calf Raise × 1 minute
Standing on one leg on a step or raised edge, lower the heel below the step then drive up onto the toes through a full range. Builds calf and Achilles strength through a bigger range than a flat-ground raise, directly targeting the push-off power of a single leg.
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5
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Bulgarian Split Squat × 1 minute
Rear foot elevated on a bench, lower the back knee towards the floor under control on the front leg alone. One of the best single-leg strength builders there is — loading the quad, glute and hip flexor of each leg independently, exactly the way running actually loads your legs.
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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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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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Weekly Blog
Why Running Is a One-Legged Sport (and Your Training Should Match)
Every single stride you take while running happens on one leg. There’s no such thing as a double stance phase in running the way there is in walking — from the moment your foot hits the ground to the moment it leaves again, your entire bodyweight is being controlled, absorbed and propelled by one leg at a time.
And yet, walk into most gyms and the go-to strength exercises for runners are bilateral — squats, deadlifts, leg presses — loading both legs together. These are excellent exercises, but they can also hide a problem: if one leg is meaningfully weaker or less stable than the other, a bilateral lift lets the stronger side quietly pick up the slack. You can squat heavy and still have a real side-to-side imbalance that never shows up until you’re running on one leg at a time, thousands of times over.
Unilateral training closes that gap. Working one leg at a time — as in every exercise in this week’s class — removes the stronger leg’s ability to compensate. Weaknesses and balance deficits that were invisible in a bilateral lift become obvious, and trainable, the moment you’re standing on one leg alone.
It’s not just about strength either. Balance and proprioception — your body’s sense of where a joint is in space — are trained specifically by single-leg work, and both drop off with fatigue during a run. The wobble you feel holding an Arabesque or a single leg glute bridge is your nervous system doing exactly the work it needs to do to keep your knee and hip stable when you’re tired late in a run.
One Leg to Stand On is built entirely around this idea — every exercise this week trains one leg in isolation, exposing imbalances, building single-leg strength through the calf, glute and hip, and training the balance that keeps your form together when it matters most.
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Top Tip of the Week
Start With Your Weaker Leg
Working one leg at a time doesn’t just build strength — it’s diagnostic. If one leg shakes more during the Arabesque, or the glute bridge feels noticeably harder on one side, that’s genuinely useful information, not just an annoying wobble.
A simple rule: always start each exercise with your weaker leg first, while you’re freshest. That way the side that needs the most work gets your best effort and full concentration, rather than being an afterthought once you’re already tired from the stronger leg.
Over a few weeks of noticing and prioritising your weaker side, most runners find the gap closes — and that’s usually when a stubborn niggle on one side quietly starts to ease off too.
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Five exercises, one leg at a time — the calf, glute, hamstring and hip strength that running actually demands, and the balance to hold it together when you’re tired. One leg really is all you need to stand on.
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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