The quads are often a time one of the most talked about muscles in the body … and rightly so! They play a massive role in helping to treat and prevent lots of knee injuries, as well as being a key playing in performance for many sports. However, your quads can often be weak either due to injury or just lifestyle factors. In this blog ill run through the basic anatomy and my favourite exercises for getting those quads nice and strong!
In total you have four muscles that comprise the quadriceps muscle group. These are the:
- Rectus femoris – the biggest of the group that only one that runs over the hip and knee. It aids with bending the hip and straightening the knee.
- Vastus Lateralis – Sitting on the outer side of the thigh, it helps to straighten the knee.
- Vastus Intermedius – Sitting in the middle of the thigh, it helps to straighten the knee.
- Vastus Medialis – often a time the most talked about quad muscle, other wise known as the VMO, extends the knee but also plays a large part in helping to stabilize the knee.
With the below exercises, they will range from easy to advance however all can be useful for different parts of your rehab. Most of them can also be done either at the gym, with weights or even with body weight. Be sure to scale them to your own individual level and base strength. If you need help determining or are unsure, come talk to one of our physiotherapists before you begin.
- Knee extension
Sit on the edge of the bed with you knee hanging down. Put your hand on your leg, contracting your quads to straighten your leg. This can also be done with ankle weights or on the leg extension resistance machine.
- Wall sits.
Sit with your back to the wall, then slowly slide down into a wall squat. The deeper down you bend into the squat the more difficult it can be.
- Squats
Start with a chair or bench behind you. Lean forward and poke your bottom out towards the bench. Tap the bench lightly and squeeze your bottom to stand up. Can be done with bodyweight or added resistance.
- Heel elevated goblet squats
Start with your feet slightly narrower and resting on a small raise (I.e a plate weight). Start to squat leading with your knees as much as you can, before
- Bulgarian Split squats
Stand with one foot raised on the bench behind you, slowly bend your front leg lowering into a lunge position. This should work the front quad muscle and the back hip flexor muscles.
If you have any issues doing these exercises, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our friendly Physiotherapists here at Bend + Mend in Sydney CBD.
