The Best Exercises to Strengthen your Quads at Home
The quads are one of the leg muscles that intervene the most in activities such as running and riding a bike. Even though many people don’t believe it, it’s totally possible to strengthen your quads at home with some exercises.
Having strong quads is very important to protect your knees. Because of this, it’s vital to know some exercises that can help us to achieve this.
Just as with any other muscle in the body, to make progress in the condition and shape of the quads, we need to increase the intensity of the workout. In this case, the number of reps or the speed will determine your physical progress.
The best exercises to strengthen your quads at home
As you’ll be able to see, most of the exercises we have chosen are simple and don’t require specific training or a lot of space. That’s why we’re going to focus on exercises such as lunges, squats or scissor kicks. Choose your favorite out of the next list!
1. Lunges
The first exercise we’ll talk about is the lunge. This movement helps to strengthen the quads, glutes and hamstrings. The exercise consists of placing one of your legs forward and flexing the other one slightly so that the front legs forms a right angle. Do this while keeping your back straight.
The goal is to remain in this position for a few seconds and then return to the starting pose. Once you’re done with the reps, do the same thing with the other leg.
2. Vertical jump
The vertical jump is an excellent exercise to strengthen the quads. As the name indicates, it consists of jumping as high as possible while lifting your arms. When falling back down, the soles of your feet should absorb the impact while you bend your knees. You can see this illustrated in the main image of this article.
To continue, bend your legs until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Without stopping, jump again and complete the number of reps that you consider appropriate. You’ll be able to see how your endurance and speed increase the more your practice!
3. Scissor kicks
Scissor kicks are a very simple exercise that allow you to train your leg muscles. Paying special attention to your quads, alternate your legs from side to side. This movement will tone your quads, adductors and abs.
To do them, lie on your back and put your legs on the floor, looking up to the sky. Immediately after, place both hands in the lower part of your back. Lift both of your legs and contract your abs.
To complete the exercise, alternate the movement of both of your feet imitating a pair of scissors. Remember to keep moving for at least 30 seconds.
4. Squats: a million ways to strengthen your quads
Easy and simple, squats have infinite variations, and they’re very efficient. As you probably already know, squats are very effective to gain muscle but also to burn fat. Don’t hesitate to introduce them in your training sessions.
We even recommend including one of the basic variations once you have mastered the foundation of the technique or want to increase the difficulty of the exercise. For example, you can do a single leg squat trying to keep your balance or using a support point. Be careful to always keep your back straight.
5. Wall sit
The wall sit is a bodyweight exercise that’s very similar to squats. It’s very simple to perform: lean your back against the wall and bend your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor and your knees are aligned with the tips of your feet.
From there on, the goal is to hold the position for as long as possible. We recommend increasing the time after each set. Avoid using your knees to support your legs so that the quads can work harder.
As you can see, working out at home is not an impediment to get a good training session. As always, remember to warm up properly before doing any of the exercises to strengthen your quads that we mentioned in this article. Don’t forget to stretch your muscles at the end as well!
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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