Banded knee drives to wake up and strengthen the hip flexors.
Move only at the hip, keep your torso upright and still.
Driving one knee up to hip height against a band looped under both feet loads the front of the hip and thigh, with the rectus femoris, the quad muscle that also flexes the hip, doing the pulling. The standing leg's glutes work overtime keeping your pelvis level so all the motion happens at the working hip. Strong, controlled knee drive is the raw material of sprinting and stair-eating legs, and almost nobody trains it directly.
Leaning back is your torso cheating the lift for your hip flexors. Stand tall against a wall or hold support, brace, and only lift as high as you can while staying vertical.
Knee drive. Sprinting, cycling, climbing stairs, and getting your leg over anything all start with the hip flexors, and they are chronically weak in people who sit all day.
These respond well to higher reps, controlled, per side. The band tension is modest, so chase quality and a genuine burn rather than trying to make it heavy.
