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Quadriceps Leg Exercises

Quadriceps, also called quadriceps femoris, quadriceps extensor or quads, is a large muscle group that includes four muscles of the femur. Considered as the strongest and leanest muscle in the human body, it is also the great extensor muscle of the knee. This group of muscles plays an important role in walking, running, jumping and squatting actions. During weight and strength training, quadriceps is trained as a part of lower body exercises.

Quadriceps includes five major exercises. These are as follows:

Squat:  Performed by bending down while holding a weight across the upper back and standing up straight again, squat is a compound exercise.  Apart from its main focus on the strengthning of front legs, it also involves buttocks, hamstrings, calves and the lower back. For the support of lower back lifting belts are often used. In squat, body weight, barbell, Smith machine or hack squat machine are the weight training equipment.







Leg Press: This compound exercise of lower body weight training is performed in a seating posture. One has to push a weight away from the body with the help of feet.  Body parts involved in leg press are legs mainly and glutes, as well as hamstrings and calves to a lesser extent. Equipment used is leg press machine. However, it is advisable to keep in mind while doing this particular exercise that overloading of the machine should avoid.




Lunge: It is a specific exercise for knees and is performed in manner that one leg is placed in front of the other bending in a ninety degree angle, so that the knee of back leg touches the ground. While doing this exercise, dumbbells are to be hold in each hand. This quadriceps exercise uses the same muscles as the squat. The only difference is less weight and only one leg is exercised at a time.






Deadlift: Used mainly to improve and strengthen glutes, lower back, lats and trapezius (neck), as well as hamstrings and calves to a lesser extent, deadlift is a compound exercise. It is performed by bending down and lifting a weight off the floor with the hand and then standing up straight again. One notable thing is that face up should not be used to prevent excess stress on the inner arms. Equipment used in this particular weight training exercise are dumbbells, barbell, trapbar or Smith machine.








Leg Extension: Unlike other quadriceps, it is an isolation exercise and required a perfect seating posture. In leg extension you have to raise a weight in front of the body with the help of feet. Overtraining should be avoided as it may cause patellar tendinitis. Dumbbell, cable machine or leg extension machine are the commonly used weight training equipment.






Tags:  Quadriceps, Lower Body Weight Training Exercise, Weight Training, Overtraining, Weight Training Equipment, Strength Training, Lower Body Exercises