There's no doubt that big quads make a statement. Thick, chiseled thighs peaking out of your gym shorts or sculpted in your leggings – it’s no surprise that quad exercises usually take center stage in many leg day workouts.
But one thing’s for sure: Big quads don’t come easy.
If your goal is to get bigger legs and grow your quads, then it will take some serious hard work and dedication, as well as consistently hitting the gym with the best exercises for quad growth.
If you’re chasing teardrop quads, we’ve got the best quad exercises to get you there: You’ll spot some leg day favorites, as well as some lesser-known quad exercises, but we’ve got the technique, form tips, and advice to turn each and every one of these exercises into the ultimate quad pumper. Sometimes all it takes is a slight tweak to your form or a change in foot placement, and you'll feel your quads fire up a whole lot more than you did before!
So, if you’re committed to building thick, muscular quads, we hope you’ve come prepared. These exercises aren’t for the faint-hearted – it’s time to build those quads.
Access the best quad workouts and more on the Gymshark Training App.
Contents:
What Are The Quadriceps?
The Best Quad Exercises To Build Big Quads
How To Structure Your Quad Workout
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What Are The Quadriceps?
You’re probably already well acquainted with the quads. It’s hard to miss that big teardrop muscle on the front of your thigh that helps you extend your knee and flex your hips. But did you know that the quads are not one muscle but actually four key muscles?
These are:
Rectus Femoris: The main muscle that flexes your hips and extends your knee. This muscle runs from your hip bone and your knee.
Vastus Lateralis: The muscle that gives an envious quad sweep. It's the largest of the four quadricep muscles and is located on the outside of your thigh.
Vastus Medialis: Connecting your thighbone with your kneecap, the Vastus Medialis aids in the extension and stabilization of your knee.
Vastus Intermedius: Located between the Vastus Lateralis and Vastus Medialis. The Vastus Intermedus helps to extend your knee.
If you’re looking to grow your quads, the best quad workout will hit all four muscles to build a well-rounded shape on the front of your thighs.
What Are The Benefits Of Training Quads?
Need we tell you that big quads look great? But looks aside, strong quads will boost your numbers across the board when it comes to compound lifts such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, and sled pushes. Strong quads will help soccer players kick more powerfully, American Football players dodge their opponents quicker, and basketball players jump higher to get that slam dunk. Big quads are extremely effective at protecting those knees, too, with quad exercises not only training the quad muscle but the tendons, too, improving stability and function of the knee joint.
This carries over to everyday life, too, with quad exercises directly benefitting everyday movements such as walking, standing up, and climbing the stairs. These might sound like simple movements that you don’t need to train for, but your older self will thank you for putting in the work now – and continuing it as you age. Strength training in older age helps to maintain bone density and independence and reduces the risk of osteoporosis [1]. Multiple studies have specifically linked strong quads to lower mortality [2]. By doing quad workouts, you aren’t just training for your current self, but your future self too [3].
Last (but not by any means least), big quads look great. We probably didn’t need to tell you this one – you know it already. As one of the biggest muscles in our body, the quads are the trophy of the legs that sculpt the front of the thighs. Big quads scream that you’ve put in work in the gym – framed by your 5-inch Shorts or making your Legacy Tight Shorts hug you in all the right places.
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The Best Quad Exercises To Build Big Quads
If you’re wondering how to build big quads, we’ve got the answer. You likely recognize some of these exercises already, but we're going to give you some small form adjustments or foot placement alternations that transform these into the best exercises to grow your quads.
Barbell Front Squat
Heel Elevated Goblet Squat
Hack Squats
Sissy Squat
Leg Press
Lunges
Bulgarian Split Squat
Leg Extension
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Quad Focused Squats
First up: Squats, and not just any type of squat; we’re talking quad-focused squats. Picture this: You’re in the bottom position of a squat, and you’re about to drive through your heels to extend your legs to drive out of the squat. While the glutes and adductors work to extend the hip joint, it’s the quads that extend the knee. The magic of quad-focused squats lies in shifting this emphasis, making the quads work a whole lot harder to drive out of that bottom squat position! How? We’ll take you through it…
1. Barbell Front Squat
When growing your quads is high on your agenda, you’re going to become pretty well acquainted with the front squat. What looks like a small switch from holding the barbell on the back of your body to the front actually results in a massive shift in emphasis. Holding the barbell in a front-loaded position forces you to stay more upright, with less bending at the hips. The result of this? Some killer quad loading that’s guaranteed to burn!
Learn how to front squat.
Front Squat Form Tips:
Don’t load up the barbell with the same weight as your back squat! You won’t be able to take as much weight for front squats, so if it’s your first time trying these, start off light and build up your load slowly.
Keep your elbows lifted and chest up throughout the movement. Think about trying to keep your elbows pointing forward the whole time.
If you struggle with your front rack positioning, try these mobility exercises.
2. Heel Elevated Goblet Squat
You’ve likely tried the goblet squat – but we’ve got a little trick for these that transforms them into one of the best exercises for quad growth. All you need is a plate to make these into a heel-elevated goblet squat – trust us, it’s a winner for big quads.
By raising the heels, greater demand is placed on the muscles that extend the knee and less on the hips, requiring less involvement from the glutes but a whole lot more load through the quads. If that’s not enough, heel-elevated goblet squats are good for those with limited ankle mobility, reducing the ankle bend required to reach the full depth.
Some gyms have a slant board lying around, which is ideally suited to these quad-focused goblet squats. If not, a regular-size 45-lb plate should do the job (This is the standard elevation height—you can increase it, which will make these even more quad-focused, but it will also place greater pressure through the knees and require a little more balance!).
When you stand on the plate, your stance may be narrower than your normal squat stance – this is fine. Select a kettlebell or dumbbell and stand on the plate, resting your heels on the edges and toes on the ground. Then, perform the goblet squat just as you normally would without the plate.
3. Hack Squats
A #GymTok classic that is guaranteed to build your quads. If you haven’t used the hack squat machine before, this one can look a little bit intimidating, but there is absolutely nothing to be scared of here!
Front squats and back squats require lots of core recruitment (and even more concentration!) to keep the weight on your back and chest up and to control the movement the whole time. Hop over to the hack squat machine, and your upper body is supported in place, with little room for error. You're forced to remain upright, meaning all the work for that upward drive comes from one place: the quads.
Little research has been done into the impact of foot placement during the hack squat, but we can take findings from the leg press, which is a similar exercise, and apply them to the hack squat [4]. To make this one of the best exercises for quad growth, it’s recommended to place feet lower on the platform, with a wider stance hitting the inner thighs more, whereas a closer stance works the outer thighs.
One thing to watch with these is the ‘butt wink’: As you get to the bottom of the squat, you’ll want to watch for any rounding of the lower back and the pelvis tucking under. This can place a lot of stress on the lower back, so if you do spot this happening, don’t squat as low and work on some squat mobility exercises.
There’s a reason this exercise is rapidly rising in popularity. Try a few sets of these, and you’ll quickly understand why it’s one of the best squats for quads.
4. Sissy Squat
Despite its name, the sissy squat is one of the best quad exercises. When performing this quad-focused squat, you’ll lift onto your tiptoes, then drive your knees fully over your toes as you squat down. This removes the hips from the equation, putting full tension through the quads.
We’re not sugarcoating anything here: the sissy squat is an advanced exercise. It isn’t easy to master, and it’s maybe not the most beginner-friendly squat, but if you’re feeling brave enough to give it a go, you’ll be seeing big quad gains.
If you’re feeling up for the challenge, a good way to learn the sissy squat is to use a long resistance band to assist you. Wrap the band around a squat rack at knee height. Facing the rig, loop one leg inside each loop so the band sits around the back of your knee. This will aid your stability and balance when performing the sissy squat and take some of the load off of your knees.
Once you have mastered the banded sissy squat, you can progress to a bodyweight sissy squat or a smith machine sissy squat.
5. Leg Press
Granted, this one isn't a squat, but the leg press works similar muscles to a barbell squat, with added support for your back. This means you can focus fully on working your leg muscles.
The leg press may look like a monster of a machine, but up close, it’s really not that scary. As a compound exercise, it works the glutes, hamstrings, and, most importantly for us, the quads. Foot placement can alter how much each of those muscle groups is targeted.
Where the quads are concerned, taking a low foot placement on the footplate will transform the leg press to be an effective quad builder.
Using the safety of the machine to stabilize you through the movement requires a lot of engagement from the stabilizing muscles for this exercise. From a performance side of things, this isn’t necessarily a good thing, but in the case of building huge quads, this really works in our favor, allowing you to pile on the load without worrying about the typically weaker stabilizing muscles letting you down.
The leg press provides the ideal opportunity to experiment with single leg work, training to failure, and performing drop sets. Plus, once you’ve gained confidence, you’ll find you can lift heavy on the leg press – and one thing we’re sure about is that a heavy load can create big quads!
Add this to your next quad workout to create quads that pop in your Vital Seamless Shorts.
Unilateral Quad Exercises
Next, onto some unilateral (or single-leg) quad exercises. Adding unilateral training to your quad workouts is a great way to correct any muscle imbalances and ensure equal development of each leg. Plus, it improves balance and core stability, both skills essential for many compound lifts.
6. Lunges
Lunges are a staple leg exercise, but it might not be the first movement you think of if you’re searching for the best quad exercises. But with a small tweak to the classic lunge, this movement can be altered from a hamstring and glute builder to one of the best exercises for quad growth.
To build your quads using lunges, you’ll want to create a deeper knee bend (just like during the sissy squat). The more the knees bend forward (even over your toes), the more upright the torso remains, and the more heavily you’ll hit those quads. Think about bringing the load to the front of the body and driving your knee over your toe.
Once you’ve mastered the bodyweight lunge, grab a pair of dumbbells or load up a barbell. Putting greater load through your legs will boost muscle growth, so if you want to really build big quads, then start loading up your lunges.
7. Bulgarian Split Squats
Love them or loathe them, our best quad exercises list wouldn’t be complete without this leg builder. The Bulgarian split squat targets the quads, hammies, and glutes while building unilateral strength and balance.
Just like the leg press, we can make small changes to the setup to make these more of a quad exercise rather than glute-targeted.
First, you’ll want to take a shorter stance by keeping your front foot closer to the bench.
Next, keep your torso upright, rather than leaning over your front leg, to reduce glute and hip involvement.
Finally, make sure your knee tracks over your toe – you really want to emphasize this! (Starting to see a pattern here with these quad exercises?) Think about driving your front knee forward as far as you can over your toe while bringing your glute on the working side down to your ankle.
For even more quad development, add a plate or a slant board under the heel of your front foot. Raising your heel increases the range of motion, bringing the knee into further flexion to place even greater work through the quads.
Get confident doing Bulgarian split squats without weights first, then grab one or two dumbbells to up the intensity and really grow your quads.
Isolation Quad Exercises
Finally, we've got an isolation exercise to really test and develop your quad muscles in the latter part of your quad workout.
8. Leg Extension
As an isolation exercise, the quads do all the work in the leg extension. If you’re looking for maximum quad growth, the effectiveness of the leg extension is pretty much unmatched.
You probably know these best as a finisher – and if it’s that post-session quad pump you’re after, then these are your exercises! However, the leg extension can also be used earlier in your session.
Unlike squats, which tax the whole body throughout the movement, leg extensions purely work the quads while the rest of the body is supported by the machine. This makes them much easier to recover from, so the leg extension can be placed more frequently in your quad workouts and with less rest needed between sets.
For even more quad activation, perform these using a single leg at a time or add an isometric hold at the extension – if either of those doesn’t give you big quads, then we don’t know what will!
There’s no cheating your way out of this one.
Quad Exercise FAQs
In an ideal world, training each muscle group twice a week is found to be the sweet spot for muscle growth. This gives enough training volume whilst providing time for rest between workouts [5].
Muscle growth has been found to follow a dose-response relationship in terms of volume, with at least ten sets per muscle group per week leading to greater muscle growth compared to doing less than ten a week [6]. Taking this into account, you should be doing a minimum of 5 sets of quad exercises per workout – at a minimum. Applying this to the hypertrophy (muscle growth) rep range of 8-12 reps for 3 to 4 sets per exercise leaves us with a minimum of 2 quad exercises per workout (however, if big quads are your priority, you may do more than this).
These findings are generalizations, and ultimately, it’s important to remember that how often you train your quads is going to depend on your current fitness level, goals, available time, and training split, among other factors.
In summary:
“In an ideal world, you would train your quads twice a week, with at least two exercises per workout – at a minimum. You may choose to do 3 or 4 quad exercises per workout if growing your quads is a priority. Always leave enough time between sessions for recovery (at least 48 hours for training the same muscle group) [7].
This varies per exercise, but generally, for quad exercises, you want to emphasize the knee tracking over the toe, which demands greater involvement of the quads and less from the glutes. This can be applied to squats, Bulgarian split squats, sissy squats, and lunges. Raising your heel using a plate or slant board can help with this, particularly if you find ankle mobility a limiting factor.
For quad exercises where the feet are placed on a platform, such as during the leg press or hack squat, you’ll want to aim to place your feet lower down on the foot pad to increase knee flexion and reduce hip flexion. This will make these exercises a lot more effective at building big quads rather than the glutes.
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Time To Hit Your Best Quad Workout
If you’re looking to size up your Hoochie Daddy Shorts, building your quads is a guaranteed way to do so (What are Hoochie Daddy Shorts, anyway?). Building big quads is not an easy task, But these quad exercises are guaranteed to grow, tone, and chisel your thighs.
The best way to structure your quad workouts? Start with some compound quad exercises to engage multiple muscle groups (front squats, hack squats, leg press, etc.) before moving on to more focused work in the form of isolation exercises (this is where the leg extension comes into play). This is a great opportunity to add some supersets and pair quad isolation exercises with some hamstring builders (whilst we’d love to just focus on those mirror muscles, we can forget the importance of building the posterior chain, too!).
So, if you’re feeling up to the challenge of a quad-focused leg day, download The Gymshark Training App and get ready to hit the gym. Create your own quad workout using the quad exercises above, or access hundreds of pre-made plans expertly programmed by our in-house Gymshark trainers.
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WRITTEN BY: Alex Kirkup-Lee
Alex is an inhouse Content Writer for Gymshark’s Health & Conditioning categories. A qualified Personal Trainer, CrossFit Level 1 and Functional Fitness Coach, Alex is experienced in training clients from a range of sporting backgrounds. With a passion for functional training, her favorite workout is anything that includes deadlifts, rowing, or wallballs.
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