Overview

Effective quadriceps training involves targeting the four heads of the quads to some capacity.

These are the vastus lateralus, vastus intermedius, vastus medialus and rectus femoris, in descending order of size.

The vastus muscles are involved in knee extension.

The rectus femoris is a bi-articulate muscle involved in hip flexion and knee extension.

Because of this quad training should generally be thought of as two distinct motor patterns, the squat (knee extension plus hip extension) and the (isolated) knee extension.

Quads and glutes are intrinsically linked, and ditto for glutes and hamstrings, so consideration of your glute and hamstring training is required when planning your quad programming.

Prescription

Minimalist

An absolute minimalist approach means 1 movement ‘slot’.

In this case if we can only 1 motor pattern, there’s a clear winner:

  • Squat

Moderate

If we have more resources to expend on the muscle group, it is of course the preferred approach.

In this case the movement slots would look like this:

  • Squat
  • Split squat
  • Leg extension

Maximalist

This is the approach if we are throwing everything at the kitchen sink. Use sparingly either if you are in a plateau or looking for a specialisation phase.

Here the movement slots might look like this:

  • Squat
  • Split squat
  • Hip adduction
  • Leg extension (shortened biased)
  • Sissy squat (lengthened biased)

Standout exercises

Squat movement

There are three clear top choices that are interchangeably good.

Hack Squat

  • High stability, infinite loading, most machines will have a slight slant to help orient the quads as opposed to the glutes; this is one of the top choices for a squatting motion.
  • Depending on your locale and specific gym, this piece of equipment may be hard to come by. If equipment access isn’t an issue, this is the top pick.

Barbell High Bar Squat

  • A decades old staple that is still one of the best options for general quad development.
  • Some people will suggest a squat doesn’t suit a lot of body types; on occasion this may be true but far more often it’s simply an execution and/or mobility problem. Generally speaking, you can always find ways of making a barbell squat work for you if necessary.

Pendulum Squat

  • Quads just work really well with machines for some reason. Another bio-mechanically near optimal option, the only issue is really equipment availability.
  • This is rarer than a hack squat and most gyms won’t have one, otherwise it’s a S tier choice.

Vertical Smith Machine Squat

  • The vertical smith machine, as opposed to the angled one, is a good candidate for squatting. While it’s not quite as easy to set-up to drive all the load into your quads compared to our top three picks, it’s still certainly superior to the leg press.

Leg Press

  • Yes this is another popular stable, but I want to call it out here as an option that does not replace a true squatting motion as you progress to intermediate and advanced stages.

Leg extension movement

Squats may target 3 of the 4 heads incredibly well, but for rectus femoris development we need an isolated knee extension movement.

Leg Extension

  • This is the exercise for it, thankfully this machine is almost universally present across gyms.
  • Simply a S tier exercise.

Split squat movement

Any number of exercises where you have a split squat stance and you can have the load in front of you or by your side is excellent. Note that we don’t want the weight behind you (i.e. a barbell on your back) as that changes the mechanics of the exercise.

Front-loaded FFE Split Squat and variations

  • In an ideal world, we have a front-loaded variation with a heavy med ball or a zercher hold on a barbell. The front leg can simply be on the ground, or as suggested elevated by 2-3 inches, or elevated by 2-3 inches with an extra raise in the sole either with squat shoes or a heel wedge.
  • There’s countless little variations with equipment and foot height, so you’re bound to be able to find something easily accessible that you can work with.
  • It might be easiest to conceptualise this as the best for movement quality, with the side loaded RFE best for pure hypertrophy. Both should be done.

Side-loaded RFE Split Squat and variations

  • A single dumbbell by the side of your rear leg is a quad demolisher (popularised by John Meadows), with the front-side hand and two dumbbells at a time being good variations as well.
  • This can be done with feet on the ground, or the rear leg can be elevated for an additional hypertrophy focus.

Sissy squat movement

Here we are referring to any exercise that takes us to near maximal hip flexion with knee extension, thus taking the rectus femoris to its lengthened position.

Bodyweight sissy squat and variations

  • A worthy choice for stretching out the rectus femoris. It’s easy to find regressions with hand assistance, holding onto anything such as gymnastic rings.

Sissy hack squat

  • On a hack squat machine, stay on the balls of your feet to perform a quad-dominant squat with your hips coming off the pad into full flexion. This has been around for decades, you can still find footage of Tom Platz performing these.

Smith machine sissy hack squat

  • On a straight-down smith machine, hold the bar behind you resting against your butt or thigh. From here you do a quad-dominant squat. While we don’t take the hips to full flexion, the stability and overload potential is also higher. This is a worthy alternative suggested by Scott Stevenson.

Hip adduction movement

Similar to leg extensions, there is probably a clear winner here done on a machine.

Hip adductor machine

  • This is sometimes unfairly dismissed which is an absolute shame. For maximal leg development for both guys or girls this is almost certainly a necessity.
  • Simply a S tier exercise.

Execution

Programming

Reps, tempo, sets, rest times

Quads are a relatively straightforward muscle group in terms of tempo, sets and rest times.

The real note is rep ranges – quads are such a strong muscle group we need to train up to higher reps than the norm. 5-20 reps is a reasonable starting point; this applies to squats, leg extensions and hip adduction. Split squats probably should be kept in the more usual 8-12 reps range.

Intensifiers and volume

Squats should be done only with straight sets, or perhaps a rest pause set on occasion a la widowmaker sets.

Hip adduction should generally be done only with straight sets, the risk reward just isn’t there.

Split squats are probably also best for straight sets, simply because proper execution is already so fatiguing.

Leg extensions on the other hand can tolerate extreme high doses. Mechanical drop sets suit them perfectly; start with a full ROM with strict form, to a partial ROM with strict form, then finish with cheat reps. You could also use clusters sets and drop sets.

Indeed my absolute favourite combo for leg extensions (and leg curls, for that matter) is a cheat cluster set with an iso hold. Specifically:

  • Set to failure on full ROM reps with strict form, rest 20 secs
  • Set to failure on full ROM reps with strict form, rest 20 secs
  • Set to failure on full ROM reps with strict form
  • Continue with partial ROM reps with strict form
  • Continue with (slightly higher) partial ROM reps with cheaty form
  • Hold an iso hold for 10 secs in the middle position

That’s one set.

Sequence

As always the standard rule with a muscle group with multiple exercises in a session is shortened biased first, mid-range biased second, lengthened biased third.

Leg extensions can often be done early on in lower body workouts. This primes our legs for work and warms up the knees.

If you’re joints feel great and you’re still young and raring to go, squats can be done before leg extensions. After you’ve been training for a decade or more though, you’ll likely want to go back to the former approach.