Quadricep Exercises | Leg Exercises | Weight Training Advice

Quadricep Exercises

Weight Training Advice

When you're doing weight training for your legs, the largest and most important group of muscles to train are the quadriceps. The quadriceps are the 4 major muscles on the fronts of the upper thighs. To build more leg size and strength you must do quadriceps exercises.

Without a doubt, the best quadricep exercise, and maybe the best overall weight training exercises you can do, is the squat. Squats will not only build your quads, they'll also help build the hamstrings and lower back. Due to the testoterone boost an intense set of squats will give you, they'll even help you build your upper body. When you squat you should concentrate on getting your hips behind you and keeping your lower back arched. Obviously you'll need to bend your knees while performing the lift, but if you get your butt behind you as far as possible you'll take some of the pressure off of them and the lower back. Try to squat down at least to where your upper thighs are parellel to the floor or lower. Stopping a squat short of parallel can put too much stress on your knees. How deep you can squat depends a lot on how flexible your ankles are. No quadricep exercise routine is complete without the squat.

Of course there are many weight trainers who have knee or lower back problems and may want to avoid squatting. Fortunately there are some great quadriceps exercises you can use as alternatives to squats or do after squats to help build your legs.

One squat alternative is the Smith machine squat. It's basically a squat done on a Smith machine. When you do Smith machine squats you'll be able to put your feet out in front of you a bit to focus the exercise on the quadriceps more and avoid straining your lower back. However, you must be careful when doing this quadricep exercise because having your feet placed out in front of your body may put some extra stress on your knees, especially if you go too heavy and stop short of a full rep. Experiment with your foot placement to avoid too much stress on the knee joints.

The hack squat is another alternative or compliment exercise to squatting. You'll be able to lay back against a pad and put your feet in front of you to avoid stressing the lower back, but like with the Smith machine squat you have to be careful about what foot placement is best for your knees.

The leg press will allow you to do a squat-like movement while lying down and shouldn't bother your lower body joints as much as long as you keep your feet high on the platform you push while doing the exercise.

Lunges are a great quadriceps exercise for towards the end of your leg workout. You either put a barbell on your back or a dumbbell in each hand and step out in front with one leg and squat down with that leg while keeping the other one behind you for balance then do the same with the opposite leg. For the best results do walking lunges, though you can do them standing in the same place if you want (especially if you don't have a lot of room to move).

Leg extensions are a great quadriceps exercise to use as a finisher to a leg workout. Simply sit on the machine and raise the weight until your legs are straight. You should try to hold the weight at the top of your reps to get a nice contraction in the quads when doing leg extensions. They are also a great exercise to do drop sets with.