Quad Strengthening Exercises are as important as other exercises in our daily workout for everyone because they help us with everyday tasks to stay fit. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, the addition of good quad workouts is important and can be beneficial in the long haul.
What are quad muscle exercises?
Quad muscle exercises are the exercises that help in strengthening our quadriceps femoris. The quadriceps femoris is the muscle group that can be found in front of our thighs. This group is mostly used for extending our knees and flexing. We use them in daily activities like walking and running, and in workouts like jumping and squatting.
Following are the top 20 Best Quad Strengthening Exercises With Their Benefits!
Squats and Quad Strengthening Exercises:
1. Squat
Squats are among the most popular quad strengthening exercises. This exercise doesn’t even take much space because you have to lower down and rise in one place. There are many types of squat exercises that people choose according to their level of experience. But, a simple squat can be achieved by bending down your knees and coming up.
Benefits:
Squad helps in balancing our muscles.
Engage your core and abs as well.
2. Squat Jump
The squat jump is an extension of the simple quad muscle exercises. Right from the name, we can tell why it’s called a squat jump. It is because the person exercising has to bend their knee like they are doing a squat but then jump from their heels as well with their hands on the back. After landing, one has to go back to the squat position again.
Benefits:
Builds leg muscles.
Improves mobility.
3. Pistol Squats
For this exercise, you’ll need to stand straight and start to lift one leg in a sitting position while bending the other. Try to go as low to the ground as possible. Stand up and resume the initial position, completing your first rep.
Benefits:
Known for advancement in balance!
Increases single-leg strength.
4. Goblet Squat
The goblet squat requires the use of a dumbbell, where you use the weight to hold in a vertical position while doing your normal squat. Your elbow will touch your knee, and then you’ll come to the standing position.
Benefits:
Attacks core muscles, quads, and gluts.
It builds biceps as well because of the dumbbell.
5. Split Squat
Split squatting is an excellent exercise to engage your abs and core! The position of a split squat is similar to a forward lunge, where you bend your knees forward to bend at a 90°angle. Each leg would be done separately. Use dumbbells to make the exercise harder.
Benefits:
It increases our single-leg strength.
6. Sumo Squat
The sumo squat requires you to stand wider than in other squats where your feet are rather pointed at a 45° angle than being straight. Now, bend your knees for a squat position to hold for some seconds and come to the initial position.
Benefits:
Targets our gluts and hamstrings.
Helps to build muscle mass.
7. Single-Leg Squat to Chair
You’ll need a chair or high stool to complete this quad-muscle exercise. Here, we shift from a single squat to sitting on the chair. This is an advanced move where you have your hands in front of you and get in the position of sitting in the chair but with one leg at the 90° angle. When you sit in the chair for a second, rise, come back, and repeat.
Benefits:
Helps in increasing our balance.
Increases ankle stability.
Lunges and Quad Strengthening Exercises
8. Simple Lunges
We’ll get to different lunges at the following points but if you are a beginner, a simple lunge is what you need. For a lunge, stand straight with your arms on the side and then get one leg forward at a 90° angle while your other knee at the back touches the ground. Push through, come back to a standing position, and repeat with the other leg.
Benefits:
Beginner friendly.
Improves coordination.
Basic exercise is needed for good quad workouts.
9. Reverse Lunge
The reverse lunasared is the total opposite of a forward lunge, where one leg goes backward as you take a big step. Bend both knees until the background knee touches the ground. Rise up and then up the leg to the front to start again.
Benefits:
Easier than other lunges.
Engages the lower body.
10 Curtsy Lunge
From a straight position, take a step back from one leg while crossing it with another. Then bend until the crossed leg is parallel to the ground. Resume your position after a second.
Benefits:
It helps in engaging the gluts.
Works on the inner thighs.
11 Walking Lunge
Step forward from a standing position where you bend the knees at 90° as in a normal lunge, then without pausing, take the front knee far out back and again, bend both knees at the same degrees. Continue to “walk” as recommended by your trainer.
Benefits:
Engages our calves and abdomen, aside from our quads.
Good for hamstrings.
12. Lateral Lunge
These lunges are powerful quad-muscle exercises that not only help in the engagement of your quads but also your hamstrings, core, and thighs too! This involves moving one leg to another side, holding for a second, and then coming back to the straight stand position. The side-to-side lunge exercise is very popular.
Benefits:
It helps to increase body balance and stability.
Work on cellulite too.
13 Jumping Lunge
The jumping lunge doesn’t give you time to resume the standing straight pose of the lunge to start a rep again. No, in this lunge position, you take one foot forward at a 90° angle, same as in a simple lunge, but then immediately, switch between legs with a jump. This continues for a few moments, as per your routine.
Benefits:
It is helpful for core engagement.
Pays attention to the core muscles.
14. Lunge Twist
This added twist position where you use your hands at 90° at each side as you take a forward lunge makes great exercise that helps to target our core as well!
Benefits:
It is helpful for the quadriceps as well as the core.
Increases body balance.
Floor Strengthening Exercises
15. Single Leg Raise
Lie on the ground, point your one leg bent to the ground while raising the other leg, and take a straight to 90°. Hold for a second, and then come back to the starting position.
Benefits:
A lying quadriceps exercise that is easy.
It works on gluts and hamstrings too.
16. Lying Leg Extensions
Lying leg extensions can be done on the floor with no equipment at all. Get into a kneeling position with your arms crossed over each other. Now, lean back as if you are going backward. After a few seconds, come forward and repeat the process. You can go as deep into the ground as your body allows you to, it will affect the quads accordingly.
Benefits:
Increases our mobility.
17. Kneeling Leg Extensions
In this other kneeling position exercise, you get your hands to the stomach sides and go backward with your hips extended. Go until you touch your foot heels and stop. After a second, come forward to the start and repeat the process.
Benefits:
Great use of quadriceps.
Equipment Quad Strengthening Exercises
18. Step-Ups
For step-ups, you’ll need a box or step-up equipment where you can actually step onto the box from a straight standing position and then resume the position afterward.
Benefits:
Steps up help in strengthening the quads.
Also engages our gluts.
19. Seated Dumbbell Extensions
This kind of quad extension exercise is to be done sitting on a bench where you’ll use the dumbbell on your feet and extend the legs to 90 degrees, then resume the position. Though it may look easy to some, as they may think you are just sitting and raising your legs, it’s a whole other thing to do it with dumbbells!
Benefits:
Activates different lower body parts like the quads and legs.
20. Dead lift
The last exercise to end this list is for the advanced people looking to add other muscle-engaging exercises to their good quad workout: the dead lift. Remember to start with a lighter weight at first and then increase your resistance after some time, giving your body time to adjust.
Benefits:
Perfect exercise to strengthen our hamstrings.
To End
You should choose the quad strengthening exercises as directed by your trainer and which you enjoy the most. But remember to do other body exercises too, including good quad workouts. If done properly, these sculpting exercises are sure to improve your performance on different day-to-day tasks.