![]() ![]() To reduce knee torque, slightly rotate your legs in the direction your feet are facing. Sit squarely on the seat with your back supported and feet under the pad turn both feet outward (or inward). START | Adjust the seat so your knees are just off the edge and bent 90 degrees. This single-joint move is done as a pre-exhaust to more strongly tax the lower quads before the compound exercises that follow. Do not use such extreme foot positioning when your feet are planted against a stable surface that you push against, as when doing squats, leg presses and hack squats. ![]() > To put extra emphasis on the inner quad (vastus medialis, or teardrop), turn your feet outward to target the outer quad sweep (vastus lateralis), turn your feet inward. Bringing up your lower quads will have you seeing tears of joy. Get in the habit of making a few subtle changes to your leg routine to fine-tune areas you want to build or bring up. You undoubtedly focus some chest workouts on the upper or lower pecs for optimal overall development, and it should be no different with your leg workouts. And since you're doing sets of just six reps for this exercise, you can pile on the weight. ![]() Because you're limiting your training to an area that's particularly strong over the range of motion (well above the so-called sticking point), you can really overload the area where you have the greatest strength. > Partial Reps Doing very heavy half-squats in which you descend only halfway instead of using a full range of motion, in this case on the hack squat, puts more stress on the quads (which are more active over the top half of the movement). Ultimately, this method forces your quads to work overtime while reducing the emphasis on the other major muscle groups involved in the compound exercise. This allows you to fatigue the target area (quads) with the leg extension so it can be further fatigued on the compound exercise, turning it into the weak link: When you reach muscle failure, it will be the quads that have failed, not another contributing muscle group. > Pre-Exhaust Start the workout with a single-joint pre-exhaust move for the quads before doing a multijoint exercise. Turn your feet outward to focus on the teardrop (inner quad). > Foot Position On a single-joint move such as the leg extension, turning your feet inward more strongly activates the muscle fibers of the outer quads. While multijoint movements work the quads, hams and glutes, the leg press in particular shifts some emphasis to the teardrop, and a narrow stance on the hack squat better targets the outer quads (sweep). > Stance II How far apart you position your feet affects muscle recruitment. The single-joint leg extension also isolates the quads, and that move plays a prominent role in this workout. Foot position is also important in an exercise such as the Smith machine squat, where you can really shift the muscular stress. The hack squat with your feet low on the platform is an excellent example. > Stance I Any squatting move in which your feet are directly under your body and your knees travel over your toes more directly hits the quads. To emphasize the quads over the glutes and hams, change up a number of things in your routine. But not every exercise hits them equally, which is why you can target a weak spot of your quads, such as the inner and outer portions of the lower quads, by making adjustments in your leg workout. Multijoint leg exercises hit three large muscle groups: the quadriceps, glutes and hamstrings. When all is said and done, the only tears you'll see will be the ones that sit just above your knees. By changing up the order of your single-joint and compound moves, repositioning your feet on a couple of exercises and doing very heavy half-squats, your quads will beef up in no time. Instead of accepting such shortcomings, it's time to step up and radically rearrange your leg workout to focus on moves that emphasize the quads, specifically the teardrop and outer sweep (vastus medialis and vastus lateralis, respectively). ![]() If you can relate, the good news is there's no reason to weep over legs that need work. (Curse you, Longhorns!) Instead, his lament concerns his legs: They're pretty well-developed overall, but the state of his so-called "teardrop" muscle near the knee makes him downright misty-eyed, and the sweep on his outer quads, well, let's just say the only sweeping he's doing these days involves a broom. We're not talking about a sensitive "modern" guy who's in touch with his inner self, eyes welling up just watching a TV rerun of Titanic or whose football team lost the championship on the final play. ![]()
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