The best quadriceps exercises you should include in your routine

best quadriceps exercises  When we plan our training routine, we often focus or fantasize about gaining volume on top. And, face it, sometimes you have dedicated yourself to getting bigger on top by partly forgetting how important your lower body is . It seems that homework is done when the chest, arms and abdomen are in tune, but what about the legs?

Surely you have seen more than one who seems to have left them at home , or perhaps you have even ever wondered, how do those thin legs support all that volume?

Not only is it unsightly, but not having muscle tone supporting a heavy upper body is a problem. Before taking note of the best quadriceps exercises, you have to understand that doing leg is not only focusing on this muscle, but training it involves a more complete concept where many more muscles come into play . And therefore other exercises.

But we are going to focus for now on the dominant main muscle for our knee, the one that enables its extension and movement. It is so important because many of our daily actions depend on it: walking, running, squatting … The quadriceps femoris is made up of four muscles in turn, which is why it is so large and can be developed in many ways.

best quadriceps exercises

1. Squats: any of its variables.

We chose … the frontal with a bar : it is important that you have flexibility in the ankle to work any type of squat. This exercise requires a vertical position to be respected (even the tibia will have to be straight). By lowering and flexing the ankle, we will work on its flexibility by gaining range of motion.

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PRESS VS SQUAT, WHAT HAPPENS HERE?

It is not that the press is a bad exercise, but the movement pattern does not adapt to each person but is the same for everyone, that is no longer cool because each body is a world with its own needs and shortcomings.

The squat is more efficient for the quadriceps femoris because it is performed with free weight and each one can adopt the position that interests them the most, it mobilizes much more muscle mass than the press, and it has much more transfer for other sports as well as for everyday movements. In short, it is a more complete exercise.

This does not happen doing press. In addition, if we focus on it, we cause weakness in the abdomen and in the hip extensors, because they are not working on the balance and stability of our body.

The press is recommended to be used when there is some type of injury or pain in the lower back . Because this way, as there is a dissociation of movement, we can work the leg without involving other muscle groups or the back.

In the squat there is more muscle damage, hormonal release, and more gain than if we work with the press. We are not only working the quadriceps, but the abdomen, the spinal extensors, the gluteus and the biceps femoris, all of that!

2. Unilateral exercises: squats and Bulgarian lunges

It is recommended to include at least one of these exercises in each training session during the week. But it all has a meaning, they not only allow a tremendous activation of the quadriceps, but also start other muscles that cause you to gain balance and improve your stability. Even if we lift less weight, the benefits are the same (sometimes it is not all about lifting weights, nor do you train better or more the more you lift).

The high bar and shift lunge is one of the best unilateral exercises for several reasons, including; the traps and forearms are less overloaded. It is more comfortable in exercise by not having to hold dumbbells, we can maintain a more vertical position and affect the dominant muscles of the knees.

The shoelaces can be tremendous, it is true, although if you are very fit you may get rid of them.

3. Complex or advanced exercises

Within this group there are many, but it is not necessary to complicate your life excessively to perform a good quadriceps work. Of course, as we get to it, we will choose the most efficient.

We chose … the pistol squat : it is unilateral, by shifting our center of gravity we will activate the dominant knee muscles even more and reduce the activation in the hip extensor muscles. 4 or 6 sets of about 5 repetitions.

4. Disaster drawer

Here we put some that are not the best or the most complete, but good if they are perceived as isolation exercises, or as exercises where we want (for whatever reason) to specifically work that muscle.

Hip trust : he is not knee dominant but has enormous activation in the quadriceps.

– Multipower or quadriceps extensions in machines: they are overrated as exercises in which to focus all our work on this muscle. Not that they are bad, for example, the quadriceps extension can have its place in the routine to gain peak power, but not to focus on a leg development only in that exercise.