For those of you who enjoyed my last article, “The Shoulder Tornado,” here's another one I think you'll like as well—band stomps. Just like the shoulder tornado, the band stomp was born out of necessity. It can be incorporated into your lower body warm-up drills. I won’t bore you with the details, so I'll just say that I use this movement whenever my hips start bothering me.

Band stomps hit the deep muscles that cross the hip joint in the front—the psoas major and the lliacus. Due to the unstable nature of the movement, these muscles are trying to keep the joint stabilized during the set up. The gluteus maximus and the gluteus medius will immediately fire up once you start performing the movement. The band stomp is also a great way to get the synovial fluid of the hip joints flowing so that the hip can move freely in the socket.

I perform band stomps either before or after terminal knee extensions because I find that they help my overall mental state. I know that I've warmed up all the joints of my legs. Give these a shot before your next squat or deadlift day and let me know what you think.