Brandon Michael Young,
Big quadriceps are quite awesome to look at. I can
remember being fifteen years old and staring at pictures of Ron Coleman, Jay Cutler, and Tom Platz
in astonishment. I could not see how a person could possibly get legs that were so huge. I was
curious though, and started checking out professional bodybuilding quad routines. Most of them
included the squat, leg press, leg extensions, and lunges. The routines did not work for me.
Looking back, many of them did not include front squats, which I find to be a shame. Front squats
are, in my opinion, the absolute best quad exercise in the world. They have done more for my quads
than any other exercise.
You may ask, "Why front squats instead of back
squats?". I used to perform back squats, but they did not hit my quads. If you currently perform
back squats, and they hit your quads well, keep doing what works. People have different body types
which make the effects of exercises different. It amazes me how many people have gotten big quads
from doing back squats. I always feel the emphasis on my glutes and hamstrings. I am not anti back
squats. I am just telling you that front squats work much better for me, and suggesting that they
may work better for you. If back squats are not working that well for you, try something new. Try
front squats.
To perform front squats, you will assume the same foot
position as you would in a back squat. You can use a crossed arms grip, resting the bar on your
anterior deltoids, holding the load as close to your body as possible. This works pretty well for
me, but you may need to find another way of holding the bar. The hand position you choose is really
irrelevant. Pick a hand position that works for you. When you do get the bar into position, unrack
the weight, step back, maintain eyes forward to a fixed point, keep your knees from moving in or
out so your knees track properly, keep your knees behind your toes, descend, at a slow, controlled
tempo, until your quads are parallel with the ground, and then ascend.
To be sure, front squats work many muscle besides quads. As a side
benefit, they work your abdominals quite effectively. Many stabilizer muscles are also used to
balance the load. In essence, the majority of your body will be worked out by incorporating this
exercise into your routine, but it will predominantly work your quadriceps. I suggest that you vary
your repetitions between 6 and 20. You will have to find what works best for you. It should be
somewhere in between those two numbers. Play around and find your personal sweet spot.
There are many people in the world with huge legs built primarily
from back squats, and it used to make me really angry that my legs would not grow by doing them. I
tried various set and repetition schemes, and trained with different amounts of intensity, but my
quadriceps never grew from doing them. Back squats gave me a big butt, and that was about it. I did
not want a big butt. I had to find an alternative. I found front squats to be most effective quad
builder for me. Try them out. Switching to front squats could possibly be the best thing you ever
did for your quads.
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