What are the quads?

The quadriceps muscles, aka the quads are a group of large fleshy muscles located at the front of your thigh. As the name suggests, they include four heads and their major role is to extend the knee joint. This is critical during running, walking, jumping, and squatting. Stabilizing the patella and flexing at the hip are other important functions of the quadriceps. We all can appreciate a killer quad workout, and there are several leg exercises designed to train the quads. Some require equipment, while others, such as squats, can be done solely with your body weight. Read below for some cool quad exercises at home that you can add to your leg workout routine.

Why you need to train the quads

If you aim is to gain a lot of muscle and simultaneously burn lots of fat, a well designed leg program is your best choice. Quads are the largest muscle group of the human body. If you look in the mirror, you will see that your legs actually make up half of your body. This means that the calories will be torched during the workout itself and several hours after it’s over. The beauty of it is that in order to work your lower body you don’t need to go to the gym. Different exercises can be done with minimal to no equipment using just your body weight. These quad workouts at home will target mostly the quads, but will also hit the glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors, and sometimes even calves. If you have sore knees you can benefit from these body weight leg exercises and strengthen quads for knee pain as well.

Quad exercises at home

Using the weight of your body is an amazing way to challenge your leg routine. Incorporate some of these fresh functional body weight leg exercises into your training and besides adding definition to your muscles, they will raise your heart rate, helping you burn fat. Enough waiting in line for the squat rack. Truly make your leg day count with these quad exercises at home and you will feel your leg muscles burn sooner than you think.

IMPORTANT: These leg exercises are bodyweight with minimal to no equipment. For some of them you will need a mini-band or some type of resistance band. Before starting, make sure to do a good warm-up. These bodyweight quad exercises are interval based, so you will most likely need a stopwatch. Adjust your leg workout according to your fitness level!

How to strengthen quads?

Quad exercises at home:

If you want to note down all these quad exercises at home, here they are:

1. One leg wall hold + heel raises
2. One leg wall hold + bike
3. Squat hold + miniband leg flies
4. Tiptoe lunge
5. Wall hold + leg flies
6. Kneel to squat
7. Sprinter
8. One leg forward bend + leg flies
9. Squat rocking
10. Lunge to squat
11. Wall hold + miniband kicks + leg flies
12. Lateral toe taps from squat
13. Lunge pulses
14. Wall hold + leg flies ver 2
15. Miniband lateral steps from squat
16. Leg flies from wall lunge
17. One leg wall hold + toe raises
18. Backward lean + trunk twist
19. Rotational squat
20. Weight shift from squat
21. Wall hold + miniband heel-toe shuffle
22. One leg forward bend + leg swings
23. Miniband monster steps
24. Backward leans
25. Monster walk
26. Heel-toe shuffle from squat
27. Reverse kneel to squat
28. Wall kicks
29. Runner
30. Sissy squat
31. Forward bend + heel taps
32. Heel raises from squat
33. Squat to lunge
34. Heel-toe shuffle from lunge
35. Forward lunge to leg lift
36. Squat hold + lateral steps
37. Miniband wall hold + knee extension

If you want to try even more leg strengthening exercises, check out this article.

How to do these quad strengthening exercises?

You can scale your leg strengthening based on your level of fitness. If you perform these quad strengthening exercises after an injury, make absolutely sure you do it pain-free. First of all, select 4-5 exercises that you like and try to do them tabata style. Here is a sample routine of these quad exercises at home for beginners:

• Squat rocking: 40 seconds on – 20 seconds off (5 sets)
• Runner: 40 seconds on – 20 seconds off (5 sets)
• One leg wall hold + heel raises: 40 seconds on – 20 seconds off (5 sets)
• Lunge to squat: 40 seconds on – 20 seconds off (5 sets)
• Backward lean + trunk twist: 40 seconds on – 20 seconds off (5 sets)

Depending on your level of fitness chose the exercises that make you work really hard, and you will feel your quads growing stronger each day. Be persistent and keep track of this routine, including work-rest periods, which exercises worked the best, etc. Furthermore, make sure that you wait some time (at least 48 hours) before trying these quad exercises without weights again. This time try to work a little harder, either by increasing the number of quad sets, or decreasing the rest periods.

Timing your quad workouts at home

When doing these quad exercises at home, your will get better results if you use work-rest periods, so you will most likely need a stopwatch or a workout timer of some sort. Do each one for 30-40 seconds and rest for 20-30 seconds. If you can handle it, perform 5-7 sets of each exercise. In fact take a break if you really have to, but try to do them all as fast as you can, making sure to have good form. If you can’t do it for 40 seconds, do it for 30, taking longer brakes, and see if you can eventually progress to 40. Make sure you feel like you are being challenged. The key here is to be consistent and perform these body weight leg exercises regularly. Then your quads will be strong and you will stay injury free.

Don’t forget to do a quad stretch

Loosening tight quads after any activity that works your thighs is an absolute must. There are many ways to stretch this muscle group. The half kneeling quad stretch is a good example of quad lengthening, and is one of the best stretches for the quadriceps muscle. Some may also find gentle stretches for sore quads to be beneficial for delayed onset muscular pain.