Building Bigger Quads – The 7 Best Quad Exercises To Take Leg Day To The Next Level

Finishing a leg day workout should leave you feeling like a champion. If you can make it up a flight of steps, you’re not doing it right. That’s why you need to learn how to effectively target your quads to maximize the muscles’ development by choosing the right techniques and exercises.

Keep reading if you are ready to learn more about effectively training your legs, how to do the best quad targeting exercises around, and how to program your leg day to supercharge your gains.

Get To Know Your Quadriceps

Before we discuss the exercises that give you monster quads, you need to know what the quadriceps are comprised of and how these muscles work together. There are four groups of muscles in the front of the leg:

• Rectus Femoris
• Vastus Lateralis
• Vastus Medialis (paired with the vastus medialis oblique)
• Vastus Intermedius

The four muscles work in unison to flex the hips and extend the knee. There is a fifth muscle (1) that was discovered in 2016, the extensor of the knee joint which connects to the vastus intermedius. It has been named as tensor VI (TVI) and works independently of the quadriceps group. This is just another reason to be protective of your knees when doing squats and lunges!

Because the quadriceps and hamstrings work as they do to extend and flex the lower body and hips, most of the exercises do the same thing.

How To Effectively Train Your Legs

Although the quadriceps are targeted by bending the knees and hips, that doesn’t mean you do hundreds of squats. Isolating the quadriceps with the leg press machine or pushing out high repetitions is also going to get you nowhere fast. To effectively train your legs and get the massive quads you desire, you need to follow the Bigger Quad Commandments (we just made that up, but it sounds cool).

Bigger Quad Commandments

1. Squat Deep

When you squat, make sure you are doing the full range of motion and using proper form so you can activate all of the quadriceps and activate the hamstrings too.

2. Use Compound Exercises

Heavy, free weight workouts like squats and deadlifts deliver more of an impact than high-reps and machine exercises. Focus on compound exercises.

3. Once A Week

A well-designed leg day only needs to be done once a week.

4. Isolate At The End

Single-joint exercises are excellent when placed at the end of a workout. The reason is because you can exhaust every single muscle fiber of the targeted muscle group. You can do a slightly higher rep range than your compound exercises, too.

5. Push Beyond Failure

You want to push beyond your self-imposed limitations. Push to muscle failure by the end of your sets, right to the place where you can’t do one more rep without losing your form. If you have a training partner, you can work on forced reps, so you can do a few more heavy reps after failure. Otherwise, once you reach muscle failure, do a dropset. Reduce the weight by 20-30% then continue repping. Get to failure again. This works best with the isolated machine exercises at the end of a workout.

The 7 Best Quad Exercises

Here are the best quadriceps exercises to annihilate your legs:

Barbell Squat, Front & Back

Without squats, you aren’t working your legs. There are dozens of squat variations, but the traditional front and back barbell squats are, frankly, all you need. The barbell squat is a whole-body exercise that targets every major muscle group minus the chest. The issue is that most people squat incorrectly, reducing the effectiveness of the exercise.

How to do:

• When starting, stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Hold the bar either to the front or back, depending on your preference. Toes should be turned out slightly. Start to lower.
• At the lowest point, thighs are slightly below parallel to the ground,
• Butt is slightly below the knees
• Head is neutral, looking 6-8 feet away
• Spine is neutral and long—no tucking of the pelvis
• The chest is up, shoulders are back
• Knees are in line with the toes.

That is what you want to achieve with every single rep.

Leg Press

Put the leg press at the end of your workout to optimize the use of the muscle fibers in the quads.

How to do:

Sit in the leg press machine with the feet shoulder-width apart on the sled. Keep the chest up, lower back long and pressed into the seat. Carefully release the safety and bend your knees to bring the weight close. You should reach a squat position here. Don’t let your glutes off the chair. From there, push the sled away by powering through the legs. Don’t let your knees lock at the top. Slowly release back down to the starting position.

Walking Lunges

There are too many lunge variations to name, but walking lunges are the best for targeting the quadriceps. Plus, walking lunges are very functional, since you’re in continuous movement rather than remaining stationary.

How to do:

While holding dumbbells in both hands at your sides, step forward with the right foot. Both knees should drive the lunge movement downward, and aim to get both knees in a 90-degree angle. Don’t let the front knee drift past the toes. Stop before your lower knee hits the floor then drive through the legs to bring your rear leg back to the front leg, returning to stand. Next, step forward with the left leg, repeating the pattern of movement. Continue alternating to hit your rep range.

Bulgarian Split Squat

The reason Bulgarian Split Squats are part of this list is because, unlike a bilateral movement, you need to focus on each leg separately, helping to balance out deficiencies in each leg.

How to do:

While holding dumbbells at your sides, rest one foot on a bench or platform behind you. You should have enough space to lower down as you would a lunge without having the pitch your upper body too far forward. As you start to bend into the squat, make sure the front knee doesn’t go past the front toes. Once the knee hits 90 degrees, come out of the position, returning to standing.

Hack Squat

The machine-based hack squat is great for the end of a workout when you are starting to get tired and need some extra support. You can also use hack squat to bridge squats and the leg press. You can also go a little heavier than you would with a free weight squat.

How to do: Enter the hack squat machine by placing your shoulders and back against the seat. Your feet are at the middle platform, about shoulder width apart. Feet are flat. Unhook the safety lever then lower yourself down. Stop when your thighs are just about parallel with the machine’s platform. Next, power through your legs towards the starting position. Repeat.

Romanian Deadlift

Though the quadriceps are the focus here, you can’t disregard the hamstrings. The hamstrings balance out the quadriceps and help prevent injury, while also working the lower back.

How to do:

Holding a barbell in front of your upper thighs. Use an overhand grip. Feet are shoulder-width apart. Start to lean forward while maintaining good posture—long spine, a natural arch in the low back, core tightened—and push the hips backward. Keep pushing through the glutes as your spine comes parallel to the floor. You should feel a stretch in the hamstrings. Once there, keep the bar close to your legs as your squeeze through the hamstrings to bring yourself back to standing. Repeat.

Dumbbell & Barbell Step-Up

Who hasn’t done stairs before? This unilateral exercise is both functional and productive when it comes to training the glutes and quads.

How to do:

Holding either dumbbells or a barbell (back position), stand in front of a knee- or hip-high step, bench, ledge, or platform. Start with the feet about shoulder-width apart. Bring one leg onto the platform then drive through the bent leg to bring your body up. The trailing leg comes to meet the standing leg at the top of the platform. Step back with either leg and repeat. You can do this exercise by repeating on the same leg until you hit your rep range or alternate between right and left—whichever is best for you.

The Quadriceps Killing Workout

Now, you have seen the commandants and the exercises. It’s time to talk about putting all of this information together to make a legendary leg day workout.

Depending on your experience level, you will want to tone down the heavy lifting until you are ready to try for a more difficult set. That is why you will notice different rep ranges below. Be sure to warm-up before you go into this workout:

Workout 1

Barbell Front/Back Squat

Experienced: 2 sets, 4-6 reps (85% of 1RM)
Inexperienced: 2 sets 8-10 reps (75% of 1RM)
Rest: 2-3 minutes after each set.
* You can do one or the other or both versions of the barbell squat.

Dumbbell/Barbell Step-Up

Experienced: 2 sets, 4-6 reps (85% of 1RM)
Inexperienced: 2 sets 8-10 reps (75% of 1RM)
Rest: 2-3 minutes after each set.

Romanian Deadlift

Experienced: 2 sets, 4-6 reps (85% of 1RM)
Inexperienced: 2 sets 8-10 reps (75% of 1RM)
Rest: 2-3 minutes after each set.

Leg Press

Experienced: 2 sets, 6-8 reps (85% of 1RM)
Inexperienced: 2 sets 10-12 reps (75% of 1RM)
Rest: 2-3 minutes after each set.
* You can end with a dropset if prepared for that.

Workout 2

Barbell Front/Back Squat

Experienced: 2 sets, 4-6 reps (85% of 1RM)
Inexperienced: 2 sets 8-10 reps (75% of 1RM)
Rest: 2-3 minutes after each set.

Bulgarian Split-Squat

Experienced: 2 sets, 4-6 reps per leg (85% of 1RM)
Inexperienced: 2 sets 8-10 reps per leg (75% of 1RM)
Rest: 2-3 minutes after each set.

Hack Squat

Experienced: 2 sets, 4-6 reps (85% of 1RM)
Inexperienced: 2 sets 8-10 reps (75% of 1RM)
Rest: 2-3 minutes after each set.

Lunges

For both experienced and inexperienced lifters, aim for 2 sets of 8-10 reps on each leg
Rest: 1-2 minutes after each set.

That’s it! You now have two versions of a leg day workout that will help you crush your goals. You can use these workouts, or you can mix and match to make your own.

The Bottom Line

At the end of leg day, you should have trouble leaving the gym or changing out of your gym clothes. The exercises and workouts listed above should help you achieve that. Now you should know everything important about building quadzilla thighs. Be sure to do the right intensity, rep range, and frequency; work hard to overload your leg muscles; and focus on the quality of movement, not the quantity. Do that, and those thighs will grow.

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References
1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26732825

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