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Top 40 Muscle-Building Foods

Protein 101 Those of you following any of my programs and / or striving to be a top bodybuilder or ...

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What Carbs Are Best For Gaining Muscle and Losing Fat?

Muscles store carbohydrates exclusively as glycogen, which is basically a long chain of glucose molecules linked together. The level of ...

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Norepinephrine: For One Last Rep

Picture yourself cranking out a heavy set of squats, your training partner counting down as rep number 20 of an ...

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Super-Mineral Magnesium: Essential for Muscle Gains and more…

In their eagerness to increase strength and build muscle, most devoted iron trainees will ceaselessly pound down the protein, carbs, ...

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What Is The Fastest Way to Lose 10lbs of Fat?

The first thing to discuss here is what it really is to lose 10lbs of pure fat. Most people lose ...

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When Can I Eat Junk While Dieting And Not Get Fat?

When it comes to “Junk” food. First we must clarify what “junk” is. Carbohydrates themselves for example don’t make you ...

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The Essentials of Bodypart Specialization: Chest Training

Let’s face it – seeking out the right information can be confusing whether you are a bodybuilder or just an ...

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Pullups & Pulldowns

BPak's best execution tips for getting the most out of pull-up and pulldown movements!

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Crunching Movements

Ben's top tips for executing the most effective ab crunching exercises for a 6 pack with a pop!

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Ab Leg Raises

The best leg raise movements for the abs, and the best pointers you need for maximizing their effectiveness!

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Ab Vacuums

Looking for a 'trick' to help you get a smaller waistline? Vacuums are what you're looking for...

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The Essentials of Bodypart Specialization: Hamstring and Glute Training

In preparation for writing this article, I wanted to see what exactly was written out on the web when it ...

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The Essentials of Bodypart Specialization: Quad Training

It is important to keep in mind that these 10 key suggestions for Quad training will fly in the face of “gym lore”.   Not a day goes by in the gym where I don’t hear advice from one trainee to another that totally disregards these keys facts about training quadriceps.  Not many people train them hard, or at all for that matter – only the more seriously dedicated bodybuilders put in the enormous amount of effort it takes to train these crucial muscles.  Even so, intense training doesn’t guarantee great results.  If you’ve been training quadriceps and been frustrated with your results, look no further then these 10 vital points:

1)  Squats: NOT the “King” of Leg Development:

Try not to get offended by the title of this first point.  Squats can be a great exercise… just not for everyone.  In fact, the word ‘squat’ has no meaning when you compare one individual to another, therefore you can conclude that they will have the same training effect.  Because of mechanical differences between individuals – whether for a traditional back squat or for front squats – the stimulus (and therefore the result) of the exercise will be entirely different.

Someone with long femurs relative to their shins and trunk will have a more difficult time with traditional barbell squatting than those who have short femurs and relatively long shins and trunk.  The former will bend at the hips to stay balanced thereby creating more resistance to the spinal extensors and less to the quadriceps.  Those who fit in the latter mechanical scenario, will benefit by having more quadriceps resistance and far less spinal challenge while maintaining a more balanced, upright posture.  Those with less ankle dorsiflexion than ideal will also tend to bend improperly and over-pronate at the feet, more then proximal segments (knees, hips etc.).  For these people, squatting is a nightmare.

It’s well-known that squats challenge a whole range of muscles which is why they are commonly hailed as ‘the best exercise’.  However, where and how much challenge on each muscle group during the squat varies significantly amongst the training population.  There is absolutely no fixed percentage.

Those who have trouble squatting because of their less than optimal mechanics, bone lengths, height and limited ranges of motion can experiment with tweaking their technique.  From wider stances (with the appropriate outward rotation of the hips), varying levels of heel lifts, changing the relative location of the resistance (further down the back to front squats) or even using a Smith Machine can impact greatly how squats work for them.

If you are one of those who squats but they just doesn’t work for you no matter how you customize them – have no fear, it’s likely that other exercises will work better for you.  Ignore those that criticize you for not squatting heavy, or at all – because squats are not ‘king’ for everyone.

2) Training “Light” is better than too heavy.

‘Heavy’ and ‘Light’ are relative terms.  One of the biggest mistakes people will make while training legs, including when squatting, leg-pressing and even with leg extensions, is using too much load.  Working within the 1-6 or even 8 repetition ranges often results in trainees sacrificing range of motion and obliterating the intended execution.  It is important to recognize that limiting range of motion will change the line of force relative to the axis (in the quads’ case – the knee), therefore lowering the resistance despite an increase in weight.  The weight is only a portion of the resistance!

Although strength is important, it is unnecessary to continually use excessive loads in the low rep ranges to obtain it.  Ask almost any elite bodybuilder and they will they tell you more often than not, that most hypertrophy in the quadriceps occurs due to higher repetitions (12-30+) with continual tension and lower rest periods.  This is likely due to the fact, amongst other things, that the much larger demand for cellular energy to these substantial muscle tissues becomes a limiting factor to their performance.  Challenging medium/long bouts of stimulus will cause greater hypertrophy due to adaptation to fatigue, than simply high amounts of tension.

This is not to say that training ‘heavy’ should be out of bounds.  Simply put, inducing longer-term fatigue by using higher reps, lower rest times, continuous tension and other techniques (discussed later) seem to enhance quad hypertrophy more so than higher-weight, lower-rep methods, in the long-term.
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3) Isolation Exercises Can Be Your Best Friend

As I’ve discussed previously, “isolation” exercises tend to be either outright forbidden, or put on the back-burner in favor of compound ‘mass building’ exercises by most bodybuilders.  This is a mistake, especially when it comes to leg extensions.  With so much talk about squats being the best movement for quads, people forget very easily that a properly executed leg extension can be just as effective – without too many additional muscles chiming in.

The key here is proper execution.  Leg extensions, as with other attempts at ‘isolating’, tend to be performed haphazardly with excessive pelvic/spinal motion, far too much acceleration at the bottom of the exercise (using other joints/muscles), plus negation entirely of the top of the range of motion where the knee terminally extends.  Any of these mistakes can make this exercise near-useless.

Attempting to isolate knee motion by keeping the hips down in the seat (leaning back and even holding the handles) to prevent bodyweight moving forward towards the knees, while keeping the trunk stable in extension and tightening the quads maximally to the very top of range, will make leg extensions feel like the most quad-focused exercise – as it should be.  Making the speed of the motion more consistent (not necessarily slower) – it would be ideal to use the very same speed at the bottom on the range as at the top.  Often times this strategy requires a much lower weight than previously used, but the resistance on the quads will be much higher than you’ve ever experienced!

4) Don’t bother to attempt to “shape” your quadriceps:

This is one of the most critical errors that a bodybuilder can make.  It seems that this myth will never die.  Trying to emphasize one of the quadricep muscles over another is simply an exercise in futility.  This can be explained by analyzing the knee’s structure.  Because the tibial-femoral joint acts almost like a hinge, the quadricep muscles (which cross-over the patella as one common tendon) have no possible way of influencing knee motion any other way then movement in the one-plane.  This means that pointing your feet/knees in or out, as to shift the knee relative to the line of resistance during pressing/extension exercises, will cause more harm to your knee then it will provide benefit to the individual quads.  The quadriceps individually can influence transverse plane tibial motion (internal/external rotation) however this cannot be reasonably trained.

As discussed in point 3, utilizing the very top (near terminal extension) of a leg extensions is often ignored but can to some degree help to recruit the lower portion of the vastus medialis (VMO) or the ‘tear-drop’ muscle.

5) “Full” Range of Motion May Actually Impair Your Gains.

As discussed in my previous articles, “full” range of motion is a term used far too often with far too little understanding.  When most people say “full range of motion” as in a squat, or leg press, it often means going down past the limits where the weight can take you – this is a big mistake!  When an external load influences more motion than the active muscles can control (develop optimal tension) then too much passive motion may be introduced.  When a joint, such as the knee or hip (like in an ‘ass-to-grass’ squat) goes beyond its active length ability (i.e. the range it can develop actively with only muscles) into a passive range of motion, optimal muscle tension cannot be developed as the muscles are much too lengthened.  This scenario is not only unhelpful for muscle growth but can potentially impair joint function over time leading to excessive joint wear and chronic injury.

“Full Range” is often seen doing leg presses knees-to-chest (with the spinal rolling into flexion) and squatting what is considered ‘ass-to-grass’ – both might be reasonable for some goals, just not bodybuilding or maintaining healthy joints.  It would be best to identify your active motion abilities, like hip flexion, knee flexion and ankle dorsiflexion (remember: using only your muscles of that joint against gravity… no external help) and perform your quad exercises at, or near, those boundaries.  In short, you want to use full active range, not full passive range.

6) Lunges are overrated:

Lunges are one of the most beloved leg exercises, especially among bodybuilders, and particularly women.  Although there is nothing inherently wrong with lunges, when it comes to optimal challenge and muscle tension, lunges tend to necessitate far too much balance and control of several joints, as opposed to developing the greatest amount of tension.  This external balance challenge takes away from producing and sustaining optimal contraction of the quadriceps, plus the hip extension lends the exercise to be performed with sloppy execution, therefore a substandard stimulus.   Simply slowing down steps to decelerate forward momentum of the body, plus altering stepping distance (usually shorter distance preferred) as to mimic ‘split squats’, can reduce or eliminate the potential downsides to lunging.  Backwards lunging is also a potential variation which can enhance quad/hamstring stimulus.

Spending time training hip abduction/adduction, ankle muscles, as well as their associated stability separately from lunges, would be a beneficial prerequisite for this exercise.

Keep in mind that lunging typically is associated with shaping or toning the legs or glutes, when in reality – they carry no more magical effects than other leg exercise.s

7) Utilize Drop-Sets and Super-Sets

As discussed in point #2, employing various intensity enhancement techniques to induce longer-term anaerobic fatigue will develop the quads more than other muscle group in the body.  Using creative combinations of exercises with different demands (leg presses compared to squats or leg extensions compared to lunges) in a supersetting fashion, as well as dropping the weight several times to extend a set to initiate greater amounts of fatigue, will optimize the growth potential in your quadriceps – especially if you’re used to heavy, traditional methods.  Always think: more tension in less time.

8) Train Quads More Frequently

As with any other muscle group, specialization can help.  This means that if you are training quads once a week along with other body parts in a split program, it might be time to increase their frequency to near twice a week.  This might mean reducing overall number of sets and exercises (volume) in exchange for training them in less time with more effort (higher density).  The Quadriceps are large muscles that can handle a lot of load and volume combined and may need to be stimulated more often in many cases.  Altering a split-schedule to train all muscles more often (which may mean ‘bunching’ them in workouts) often stimulates greater growth if all the rest/recovery/nutrition variables are ideal.  If you are training intelligently and not promoting excess stress and inflammation, no muscles will need an entire week to recover (‘soreness’ is not an indicator of a successful workout but over-abuse in most cases).

9) Train the Hip Adductors for More Leg Size

Although the hip adductors that encompass the inside of the thigh do not have much in the way of a functional relationship to the quadriceps muscles, it is important to point out that the large adductor muscles can take up to nearly a third of the upper leg’s tissue mass.  This is a very significant portion of the leg.  Spending some time in the gym training adductor muscles for hypertrophy – which are easily ignored – can go a long way to enhancing upper leg development and creating deeper separations between the inner thigh and quads.  This, without a doubt, also creates an illusion of larger quadriceps!

10) Stay away from “Aerobic” Cardio

This could just as easily be the most important point on this list.  Almost every bodybuilder makes the mistake of riding the bike, using the elliptical or running on the treadmill for extended durations in a relentless effort to ‘burn’ body fat.  Nothing could be more sacrificial to the quadriceps muscles.  Many who are reading this have probably experienced this phenomenon themselves. During weeks and months of continuous aerobic activity, the quadriceps are likely the most affected muscles as far as de-conditioning their anaerobic potential.  Of course, over time, the quadriceps slowly lose their tension generating capabilities (strength) and muscle loss occurs as the muscles of the lower extremity attempt to adapt to the new aerobic stimulus.

This is a much bigger subject perhaps fit for a future article but aerobic training in any amount will hinder muscle recovery and growth to a measurable degree.  Bodybuilders who overuse long-duration aerobic cardio almost always lose quadriceps and hamstring size.  More appropriate methods for adding activity to enhance body fat loss may be anaerobic intervals (or HIIT training) as to not introduce a negative (or opposing) stimulus to the quads, or any other muscles.  Frequently, quadriceps can actually benefit in terms of muscle growth during anaerobic cardio as they may not have been exposed to longer durations of anaerobic fatigue.