Build Big Quads Without a Leg Extension Machine | Men’s Health Muscle - video Dailymotion

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Build Big Quads Without a Leg Extension Machine | Men’s Health Muscle

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00:00 I've always wanted a big badass set of quads.

00:03 As instantly eye-catching as a jack set of arms or a big chest is, strong powerful thighs

00:08 really complete your physique.

00:09 And the teardrop look that comes from ripped quads is a big key to making your lower body

00:14 stand out.

00:15 The easiest way to get a crazy local burn in your quads and grow your quads is to use

00:20 the leg extension machine.

00:22 And plenty of big box gyms have them.

00:24 But many gyms also don't have them and that can leave you without a real way to truly

00:29 isolate your quads.

00:30 Thankfully there are other ways for us to really blast our quads as long as we're willing

00:34 to think outside the box.

00:36 Now none of these moves will truly attack your quads the same way that a leg extension

00:41 machine does, but there's still solid alternatives that will help smoke the dominant muscles

00:45 along the fronts of our thighs.

00:47 So in general our quads serve two purposes.

00:51 First their primary purpose is to straighten our knee.

00:54 Their secondary purpose is to help flex our hip.

00:58 Doing leg extensions lets us hammer that primary purpose and the best part about leg extensions

01:03 is that they keep tension on our quads through the full range of motion, giving us tension

01:08 in the stretch portion of our range of motion.

01:11 They also let us do this without piling up too much systemic fatigue so we can focus

01:15 on taking our quads to failure without something else like core strength or grip or overall

01:20 body fatigue becoming a limiting factor.

01:23 This is what we're looking for in any leg extension alternative and to be honest it's

01:27 really hard to find.

01:29 We can't truly duplicate that with most other exercises, but we can challenge our quads

01:33 to straighten our knees.

01:35 Our goal is to find moves that will let us challenge our quads in the stretch position

01:39 while also letting us pile up volume and ideally not letting our upper body fatigue too early

01:45 in the process so that we can't really take down our quads.

01:49 The easiest option that we have and the one that's going to come to your mind first is

01:52 the resistance band leg extension.

01:55 This move is going to let you replicate the leg extension movement pattern almost one

02:00 to one, but it is not perfect.

02:02 You're going to lose a lot of tension in the bottom position of the leg extension because

02:07 of the nature of bandage resistance.

02:09 It is hard to go heavy on this move as well so you'll need to take this very high rep

02:14 to get any stimulus and you'll really have to focus on a good mind muscle connection

02:18 and squeeze on every rep.

02:19 The reps are going to get so high though that to some extent it's just not going to be worth

02:23 it and that's why this is at the bottom of the options when it comes to replacing our

02:26 leg extension.

02:27 As we start to look at better exercises to replace our leg extension, we come to the

02:31 bodyweight sissy squat.

02:33 Now these are exceedingly hard, but you will get a ton of time under tension for your quads

02:39 and the unique thing is that you'll also duplicate the challenge in the stretch position of the

02:44 leg extension.

02:45 But sissy squats have a downside.

02:48 First off, these are hard to do period.

02:50 When you're learning them, go only as deep as you can go to do them.

02:54 Not everyone needs to be able to touch their knees all the way to the ground.

02:57 The other issue with sissy squats is that even once you've mastered the move, you can't

03:02 really progressively overload it.

03:04 Granted, bodyweight reps done properly will create plenty of quad tension, but they'll

03:09 also tax your torso too.

03:11 So this is a solid alternative, but we still have better options too.

03:14 A better option that will get you plenty of range of motion for your quads and offer more

03:18 progressive overload opportunities is the box step up, as long as you do it right.

03:23 When you do a box step up, you get an opportunity to create extreme knee flexion and we start

03:29 the motion under plenty of tension.

03:31 It's also easy to load this move with dumbbells, so we can progressively overload this.

03:36 But there are downsides to this move from a quad development standpoint.

03:40 The biggest of these is that there is next to no tension at the top of the movement.

03:45 When you straighten your knee, a position where the leg extension makes you work, you

03:48 get to take tension off of your quads during the box step up as your joints basically stack.

03:54 You also don't have the stability to truly overload this movement.

03:58 Balance can be a mitigating factor instead of muscular fatigue, and your glutes wind

04:02 up heavily involved too, especially on the descent.

04:05 You can't really avoid that either, depending on your lower body levers.

04:09 An even better option than the step up is the front foot elevated reverse lunge.

04:13 And this has a lot of characteristics that are similar to the step up, but because your

04:17 back foot is closer to the ground, you won't feel as out of balance.

04:21 That allows you to overload the pattern a bit more, making you have to fight for the

04:25 straight leg position.

04:27 It's still not perfect, but we're getting a little bit more activation at the top.

04:31 You can also play with the elevation using a larger elevation to create even more knee

04:36 flexion and quad stretch at the start of the movement.

04:40 The downside here again is that your glutes are still heavily involved in this movement,

04:44 so while you can load it, you won't just tax your quads.

04:48 And for as much as you face tension in that straight leg position, much of that will come

04:52 from your glutes driving your hips into extension.

04:55 This is still not a pure quad movement.

04:58 That's why we start looking at exercises like the heels elevated front squat or goblet squat.

05:03 And my favorite version of this is the goblet version.

05:07 Here we're going to use a wedge or a set of plates to elevate our heels, and we're going

05:11 to close up our stance to make this movement focus even more on knee flexion.

05:16 The elevation of our heels and the closed stance let us drive our knees out in front

05:20 of our toes, and because of the placement of the load, we can't lean our torso too far

05:25 forward.

05:26 Because of that, we get a nice long thigh lever at the bottom of every single rep, and

05:31 this becomes a prime position of tension for our quads.

05:34 This is a great option because you'll be able to keep most of the tension on your quads

05:38 throughout the life of each set, and to great extent, you can progressively overload this,

05:42 especially because most people can goblet squat a lot more weight than they think.

05:47 It's not perfect in that your upper body and your thoracic spine may fatigue before your

05:51 quads, but combining this with an approach that uses drop sets and rest/pause sets, you

05:56 can get some serious quad mileage out of this move.

05:59 Still, if there is a shortcoming to the heels elevated goblet squat, it comes in that there

06:04 is still a lack of tension as we straighten our knees.

06:07 We can solve that though by introducing a resistance band into our squat and lunge ideas

06:13 so that we can attack an idea called terminal knee extension, basically the act where we're

06:17 really straightening our legs and flexing our quads.

06:20 And whether you do this via a Spanish squat or the TKE, terminal knee extension, split

06:26 squat, it's your best option for replacing leg extensions.

06:29 Essentially, you're going to set up as you would for any standard squat or split squat,

06:34 but you have a band anchored in front of you, wrapped around your knee, and this will cue

06:39 you to straighten your knee aggressively on every single rep and offer the tension needed

06:43 to fully contract your quad.

06:46 Both the Spanish squat version of this and the TKE split squat can be effective, although

06:50 the TKE split squats have a slight edge because you get to focus on one knee and you get to

06:56 overload that knee with as much weight as your upper body can handle.

06:59 So the big lesson here is even though you don't have a leg extension, you still have

07:02 plenty of options to grow your quads.

07:05 You're going to find one of the moves on this list that really resonate with you.

07:08 Stick with it, work through progressive overload on it, and your quads will grow.

07:12 Trust me.

07:12 [music]

Build Big Quads Without a Leg Extension Machine | Men’s Health Muscle

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