In this 10‑minute, equipment‑free leg‑day warm‑up, Lindsey Bomgren (joined by Rachel) walks viewers through a prehab sequence of ten dynamic stretches and mobility drills designed to improve hip, glute, hamstring, calf, ankle, and knee function while reducing injury risk. The routine begins with hip‑hinge good mornings to lengthen the posterior chain, moves through calf raises and anterior tibialis raises to activate the lower‑leg stabilizers, and then progresses to squat variations (basic squat, squat‑pry with thoracic rotation) for full‑body integration. Step‑back lunges and a Spiderman/world’s‑greatest‑stretch sequence open the hips and glutes. Down‑dog knee drops activate the quads and knee stabilizers, followed by frog rocks and 90/90 hip rotations targeting the adductors and outer hips. Glute bridges with a hover hold further engage the posterior chain, and the session finishes with lateral/Cossack squats to finish hip mobility. Throughout, Lindsey offers cueing, modification options, and personal anecdotes about knee injury recovery, emphasizing the importance of consistent prehab for stronger, pain‑free lifts. The video ends with a call‑to‑action to subscribe and explore related leg‑day workouts and a full‑body strength challenge.
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Do this before every leg day if you want stronger lifts and pain free squats, lunges, and deadlifts. These are 10 of the exercises I do before every leg workout to improve mobility and prevent injury. No equipment needed. Just a couple minutes to get your legs ready to crush your next leg day. All right, guys, I'm sharing my leg day warm up routine. These are 10 of my favorite leg exercises or stretches I do before every leg day workout. I'm joined by the amazing Rachel. Hi. She's going to walk through this warm up routine with me. I like to call this my prehab, the opportunity to prevent injury, increase mobility, and make sure your legs are ready to crush. Leg day, it looks like this. We have 10 lower body stretches, a lot of dynamic moves. You're either going to hold the stretch or dynamically work through it for around 40 seconds per exercise. If you feel sticky somewhere, you can certainly hit pause and hang out there. Make sure you get the most of this warmup. It's going to be quick. We're going to dive right in. There's really no warmup to it because we are warming up, so. So let's go ahead and jump into our first stretch. It's going to be a good morning. So I'm going to stand here. Feet are stacked underneath my hips. Hands are going to come behind my head, and I'm just going to push my hips back so it's a hip hinge and press the floor away to stand tall. As I break at the hips, I'm thinking about lengthening through my hamstring or the back of my leg. All right, going to get a nice stretch through the back of my legs, my glutes, my low back. Push the floor away to stand tall. So you're initiating with a hip hinge. If you have trouble finding that, you can take your hands right to your hips and. And you'll feel the fingertips should go right into your hip crease. Just a soft bend in the knees. Hip hinge and stand tall. Nice. So lengthen through those hamstrings. Push the floor away. Nice. Good morning. We're going to go to a calf raise after this couple more good mornings. Give me two more right here. Push the hips back. Stand tall. One more right here. Push the hips back. Stand tall. Nice. Now we're going to go into a calf raise or a heel lift. So just lift the heels off the ground, lower with control. Heels come off the ground, lower with control. If you need to grab a countertop or something to balance on, you can certainly do that. If you want to increase this, you could step on the bottom stair of a staircase or some type of bench so you actually get a heel drop. So the heel's gonna drop. You'll get a little bit greater stretch for that. Warming up the calves, the ankles, great. Especially if you're gonna add some explosivity to your lower body day like box jumps or squat jumps. Either way, warming up the calves is really great. Achilles is back there, right? Great for runners. Great for knee health. Give me two more calf raises here, and then we're going to hit the opposing side of the lower leg by taking it back to a wall. This is a tib raise. So I'm going to be leaning against the wall. Feet are walked out. The farther my feet are from the wall, the harder it is. And now think about lifting your toes up towards your face. All right, so this is an anterior tib raise. You're hitting your tibialis, which runs along the top of your shiny. Also really great for knee health. It's one of the shock absorbers for your knees. Also really great if you suffer from shin splints. All right. A commonly overlooked part of the legs are these tib raises. I injured my knee completely, tore my meniscus, had to go through surgery and rehab, and that's when I found the tib raise, and I fell in love with it. When they told me it was one of the ways to prevent knee pain, I was hooked. Give me two more TiB raises. Right here, up towards. Nice one. One more right here. Nice. Walk it back to your mat. And we're just going to go into a basic squat. So feet are shoulder width distance apart. Give me a squat. Down and up. Squat down and up. Now you can stay here. This is where Rachel's gonna stay. If you wanted to add a knee hug, get a little bit more in there. You can add a knee hug. Transfer the weight from side to side, pulling the hip up. Nice work. Knee comes up in line with the hip. Little extra length through the glute stretch here. A little bit of hip flexor activation. Just a little bit. Way to make it a little bit more dynamic. Choose your level and go for that. Nice work. Right here. Down, up. Nice. Give me one more down, up. Now I'm going to drop into a squat pry. Rachel's going to show you an option if a squat prize not available to you. If this doesn't feel good for your knees, I'm dropping into the bottom of the squat. You can push your elbows in, shift your weight side to Side or go for a full T spine rotation or thoracic spine rotation. That's your upper mid back. And I'm just rotating side to side. Gaze is going to follow fingertips. That's not available to you. Rachel. Showing you the option where you just break at the hips. Nice work. Squat pry, opening up those inner thighs. Nice work. And then from there you can bring it back to standing and we'll go. Step back lunges. Classic step back lunges. Dropping the back knee to the ground. Stand tall. Drop the back knee to the ground. Stand tall. Driving the weight through that front foot. Shoulders are stacked over hips. One step back lunge at a time. Nice work. Lunge and drive. Lunge and drive. Nice. We'll do four, three, two, and one. And now we're gonna go into my personal favorite stretch. Big reach. Can you reach for the ground? Hands plant on the ground. Step back to a high plank. Call these Spiderman step ins or the world's greatest stretch. Or right foot steps outside right hand. You rotate, gaze follows fingertips. Right here. Set it down, switch it out. Step back. Left foot outside, left hand, rotate. I love this stretch. You'll find it in almost every warm up routine that I do. It's great for opening the hips and glutes. Shoulders are turned on, core is turned on. You're rotating through that spine. A lot of great mobility work happening throughout the entire body here, but especially before leg day. This is a great way to open up your hips and glutes to give you up greater range of motion in your squats and lunges. Nice work. Awesome job. We're going to do one more each side because it's just that good. Love this stretch. Like to hang out here for a long time, if I can, before leg day. And then, as I said, I've struggled with knee pain, so I like to push it back up and down. Down dog. And I'm going to do some knee drops. So knees hover to the mat. Push up. This is a great way to activate the quads, warm up the knees, all those tiny, small stabilizing muscles and joints that are working for your knees right here. Knees hover off the mat and push the hips high. Knees hover off the mat and push the hips high. Two more. Knees hover, push high. One more. Knees, hover, push high. Awesome job. Knees can come all the way down to the mat and then you're just going to take a nice wide stance right here to a frog rock. Forearms come to the ground. Knees are nice and wide. All right, now we're Going to hit the inner inner hip or inner thighs. Your adductors. Little frog rock. So it's a tiny shift forward and back. Nice work. Trying to get the insides of your feet flat on the ground, knees flat on the ground, and just shifting that weight slightly forward and slightly back. Bring it. Great way to open up the inner hips. Nice work. Right here. A couple frog rocks. Also something I do almost every leg day. Really great. Couple more guys. Nice work. Awesome job. Two more, and then we're going to shift into 90, 90 hip rotations. We're going to stay on the hips, but hit a little bit more of the outer hips. Nice. Last one. Bring yourself up and over to a seated position. I'm going to find a 9090 position. Means front leg is bent at 90 degrees, back leg is bent at 90 degrees. Both knees are pushing into the mat. I'm sitting up. Hips are square here. Chest is square here. Option A, you hold right here. Option B, take your chest and split your shin in half with a forward hinge. Going to hit the outer glute. Now push this knee into the mat and push this knee into the mat. Bring yourself back up from here. Can you rotate up and over to the other side? Same thing. Both knees push into the mat. Option A, stay here. Option B, slight hinge forward where your chest is cutting your shin in half. Come back up. I have my arms in front of me. Rachel has them behind her. That's the modified version. If you need a little assistance, you can place your hands behind your back. Again, hinge forward. Feel that stretch in the outer glutes. Stand tall. Drive both knees into the mat. That's going to activate the inner hip here. Outer hip here. Rotate up and over to the other side. Sit up nice and tall. Cut that shin in half. If you struggle with hip pain, these 90, 90 hip rotations are a must in your daily routine. Back up. One more switch. Awesome job. From here, we're gonna go all the way up and over to our backside glute bridges. Heels pull nice and tight to the glutes. Knees are in line with hips. Hands can be at your side easier. Hands overhead, harder. Lift and hover. Lift and hover. Hold at the top. Contract lower glutes and hips. Never rest on the mat. Driving through those heels. Lift, hold, and hover. You got it. Lift, hold, and hover. Nice work. Come on, guys. You got this. And one more move back up to standing, and that takes you through a complete leg day. Warm up. Two more right here. Last one. Just hold at the top. Hold for 10, 9, 8. You got it. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. And release. Awesome job. Bring yourself all the way back up to standing. Final stretch is the cossack squat or a lateral squat. Okay, nice wide stance, toes face me or slightly out. You're gonna drop option just like that. Lateral squat. Hit side, center, side, center, side. This is the lateral squat. To take it into a Cossack, all you're going to do is go for this rotation where toes go up towards the ceiling, come back, drop into it. Toes go up towards the ceiling and come back. A little bit of hip rotation right there. Externally and internally drop. External internal cossack squat. Really hitting those hips one final time. You'll see I spend a lot of time on the hips and glutes for my leg day warm ups. Very intentional. As someone who struggled with knee pain and hip pain, very important. Nice work to take those joints to a full range of motion. So as you get into your leg day and you load the weights, we're not at risk for injury. Here we go. One more each way. Nice work. Finish it here. Nice and strong. Nice. All right, you're ready to crush that leg day. Nice work, Rach. I hope you enjoyed these stretches. I hope they improve your mobility and get you stronger lifts and pain free deadlifts, squats and lunges. Love to see you back on the mat as we hit a leg day workout after this. I hope you found that mobility routine helpful. If you liked it, hit subscribe to my YouTube channel. I've loaded up my current favorite leg day workout for you right here. Give it a try. Otherwise, I'd love for you to join me for a two week full body strength challenge in this playlist right here. Have a great day.
