Stretching Exercises For Quads: How To Achieve Deep Quad Stretch
Importance of Healthy Quads For Your Body
Keeping your quads healthy is essential for having a healthy and long-lasting fitness journey. Quadriceps muscle group will also keep your knees safe if they are functional.
That means your quads should be both strong and flexible. They will ensure your knee remail stable during running and agile enough to tackle end-range movements such as kicking or jumping.
Here is the list of 8 efficient stretching exercises for quads that will keep your quad muscles flexible enough that you don’t have to worry about quadriceps muscle strain during your favorite physical activity. Explore advanced stretching exercises for quadriceps in this stretching book.
8 Most Efficient Stretching Exercises For Quads
1.Standing Quad Stretch
- Start from a standing position.
- Grab one knee with your arm.
- Pull your heal until you reach your glutes.
- Hold for 30s.
2.Standing Quad Stretch With Hip Extension
- Start from a standing position.
- Use a chair to stabilize your body.
- Grab your leg with your arm.
- Move your knee backward going into hip extension.
- Pull your heel to your glute.
- Hold for 30s.
3.Side Lying Quad Stretch
- Lay down on your side.
- Grab one leg with your arm.
- Pull your heel toward your glute.
- Hold for 30s.
4.Prone Quad Stretch
- Start from laying down on your belly. (prone position)
- Bend your knee as much as you can.
- Use your arm to add more stretching pressure on your quads.
- Hold for 30s.
5.Prone Quad Stretch With Hip Extension
- Start from laying down on your belly. (prone position)
- Place a towel under your quads to emphasize hip extension.
- Bend your knee as much as you can.
- Use your arm to add more stretching pressure on your quads.
- Hold for 30s.
6.Kneeling Quad Stretch
- Start from one leg kneeling position.
- Push your hips forward until you reach moderate stretching in quads.
- Hold for 30s.
7.Kneeling Quad Stretch With Ankle Support
- Start from one leg kneeling position.
- Lift your ankle up and place it on an object.
- Push your hips forward until you reach moderate stretching in quads.
- Hold for 30s.
8.Kneeling Quad Stretch For Both Legs
- Start from kneeling position.
- Place your hands behind your body.
- Gently lean backward while holding your knees on the ground.
- Hold for 30s.
What Muscles Are Your Quads?
The quads are four muscles located in the front of your tight. They consist of:
- Rectus Femoris
- Vastus Lateralis
- Vastus Medialis
- Vastus Intermedius
Quadriceps are muscles that cross two joints: knee and hip. Thus they perform movements such as knee extension and help with flexion in the hip.
The inner part of the quadriceps (m.vastus medialis) muscle is important for stabilizing the knee when the leg is slightly bent. That part is also prone to atrophy quickly and thus creates dysfunction in the knee.
The quad muscle group makes up most of the muscle mass from the front of the thigh.
They are active in everyday activities such as climbing stairs, running and jumping and can withstand heavy physical exertion. Therefore quads require regular stretching, among other things.
Learn more about stretching and muscle function/anatomy by reading these stretching books.
Why Should I Stretch My Quads?
There are three reasons why you should stretch your quadriceps.
The first one is to reduce the risk of muscle strains.
The second one is to improve knee health.
The third one is to improve athletic performance.
Let’s talk first about quad muscle strain.
Quadriceps strain occurs during sudden movement or excessive contraction during sports / physical activity.
Since the quadriceps is very active during sports such as football, basketball, athletics and others, quadriceps strains are often.
Stretching exercises for quads will make your muscle more resistant to these sport related injuries.
Stretching the quads is recommended as a warm-up and cooldown routine.
Start with dynamic quad stretches first, and end your training session with a few static quad stretches.
Let’s move on to knee health and quads.
Regular stretching of the quadriceps reduces the chance of developing inflammation of the quadriceps tendon.
This phenomenon is known as quadriceps tendinitis and can provoke pain above or under the knee cap.
With tendonitis, knee will suffer from light physical activity such as going downstairs, and quads will not be able to produce maximal strength.
Here is what you need to know about quads and sports performance.
Elastic quadriceps are necessary for highly demanding physical activities such as sprinting, jumps, or deep squats.
When quadriceps can perform these activities with great ease, you will have increased sports performance.
And stretching exercises for quads will help you achieve flexible and elastic quadriceps.
How to Achieve Deep Quad Stretches?
- The starting position is kneeling on one leg.
- Then push your hip forward until you feel a tightening from the front of the thigh.
- Hold in that position for 10s and do the following.
- Press your lower leg against the ground as if you want to stretch your leg and contract your quads for 5s.
- Then relax your quads and go further into a deep stretch.
- Repeat static quads contraction/deep stretch three times.
See the pictures below.
How to Stretch Quads Without Bending Knee
Here is how you can stretch your quads without bending your knee:
- Start from a standing position.
- Use a chair as support for balance.
- Push your leg backward into hip extension.
- Another option is to push your leg diagonally, combining hip extension and abduction.
- Repeat 20 times.
See the pictures below.
To stretch your quads without bending your knees you need to move your leg actively into hip extension.
Hip extension is the opposite movement of hip flexion, so quads will stretch to some grade.
I recommend you focus more on stretching exercises for quads that involve knee bending to get the most effect from your stretching training.
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