The 50 finest quad workout routines of all time

For oversized quads that fill out jeans, you need targeted quad exercises that lead to muscle definition and naturally strong legs.

Getting there will not be easy.

You'll be hobbling around like a deer after incorporating these quad exercises into your leg workout of the day. But with some clever recovery tactics and some serious determination in the gym (and at home), you'll have strong, thick thighs in no time.

People who start lifting often ignore the quadriceps in favor of more familiar aesthetic muscles like biceps, triceps, and calves.

That's a shame as the quads play a crucial role in everyday movement. To simply dismiss the quads as beach muscles or "lower-body triceps" is to neglect a vital part of your body's operating system.

What are quads?

The four-pronged quadriceps muscles of the anterior thigh—the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, and vastus medialis—extend the knees, making strong quadriceps crucial for walking, running, squatting, and jumping. The quads play an important role in stabilizing the knees and helping flex the hips.

In other words, the quads come into play with almost every movement, including everyday actions like climbing stairs or getting up from a chair. A well developed set of quadriceps is a thing of beauty that adds curvature and symmetry to a body. It's perhaps the one muscle group that looks equally impressive on both women and men.

Why it's important to train quads

Because of our modern office culture, where we're hunched over computers and smartphones all day long, the focus is on activating the glutes and loosening up the hips and hamstrings that have become tight from too much sitting.

That's important, but if we're not doing quad training, we'll have poor posture because the quads help us maintain proper posture while sitting or standing. Many knee problems occur due to weak quadriceps and instability around the hips. The knees overcompensate, leading to chronic pain, injury, and the need for knee replacement.

It's better to start digging into those all-important muscle fours now to improve your posture, stability, and, yes, how well you fill out a pair of shorts.

Quad warm-up exercises

The best quad exercises mirror the movements of everyday life, so non-weight lower body movements serve as an effective warm-up. Moves to do before a quad-focused leg day include split squats, yoga chair pose, wall squats, or a side lunge.

How to train quads

According to a study by Loughborough University, you should do a mix of explosive exercises and traditional strength training depending on your goals. Fast, explosive training is more effective.

For the study, the researchers recruited 43 healthy men in their 20s who had not exercised and had not done any lower-body strength training in 18 months. The participants were divided into three groups:

Group 1: 40 1-second reps of explosive isometric (one leg at a time) leg extensions. Participants were instructed to contract their quads as hard and as quickly as possible.
group 2: 40 3-second reps of sustained isometric leg extensions. Participants were instructed to gradually increase their maximum voluntary torque* to 75 percent before holding the extended position for 3 seconds.
group 3: control group

All participants exercised three times a week for 12 weeks. They performed a series of performance and physiological measurements before and after the workout to see how different contractions affected the participants' quadriceps muscles. Across all phases, explosive contraction work improved explosive torque* from 17 to 34 percent by increasing neural drive (17 to 28 percent); Meanwhile, sustained contraction work only improved explosive torque in the late phase of the movement and increased neural drive by 18 percent.

*Weightlifting and strength training involve more physics than meets the eye. Torque is the force that causes an object to rotate; In lifting, explosive torque is about generating force through your muscles to support your joints, then you apply force to an object (like a barbell or piece of machinery). Think of a snatch, screw your feet into the floor before the lift, and (in this case) make sure your muscles and joints are working together to create the most impactful and efficient leg extension. Additionally, a big part of the torque improvement is the neural drive. This refers to how your nerves respond to exercise to stimulate a muscle contraction. Someone who is untrained and inexperienced can make tremendous gains in strength simply by learning how to activate and use a muscle.

"Whereas traditional strength training consists of slow, grinding contractions with heavy weights, which is pretty hard work, this study shows that short, Sharp contractions are relatively easy to perform and are a very beneficial way to build strength," study lead author Jonathan Folland, Ph.D., said in a press release.

The explosive contractions were less fatiguing and more efficient at increasing strength and functional capacity of the hamstring muscles because they "switch on" your nervous system, activating and activating your trained muscles, the researchers explain.

"The easiest way to build muscle has been debated by fitness and exercise professionals for many years, but this study shows it doesn't have to mean a lot of pain to gain," adds Folland.

However, if mass is your end game, then traditional sustained exercise is best. Because slow, heavy loads put so much strain on your body, the exertion strains your muscles and triggers hypertrophy.

How long do quads take to grow?

As far as leg muscles go, quads respond faster to resistance training than hamstrings, glutes, and those notoriously tight calves. Check out our ultimate list of exercises for a quad-focused leg daily routine, courtesy of Felix Bangkuai, CPT; Louie Antuna, CPT; and Pete Williams, CPT.

Although the following is a list of 50 quad exercises, you can mix and match 10 moves for 3 sets of 10 reps based on your goals.

Use this as a guide if you're not sure how many reps to do:

To build strength: Low reps (5 or less) and heavy weight.
For muscle building: Moderate reps (8-12) and moderate weight. The increased time under tension leads to more muscle damage and a buildup of lactic acid, which induces a surge in anabolic hormones such as growth hormone and muscle-building testosterone.
Build muscular endurance: High reps (15 or more) and light weight. If your weight isn't heavy enough to recruit fast-twitch type 2 muscle fibers, hypertrophy won't ensue.