You can’t have strong, athletic-looking legs without well-defined quads.

But … how do you get well-defined quads? Other than a suitably low body fat percentage, which often requires dieting (to some extent), a big part is simply size — the bigger your quads are, the more they’ll “pop”.

Lots of people love to complicate quad training with deranged-looking exercises like Bosu ball squats (God, all that SHAKING!) when ...

The truth is that there are only really 3 quad exercises you need for mass.

How did you come up with this list of quad exercises?

Just so you know, we didn’t pull this list of quad exercises out of our ass um, well, here’s an emoji: 🍑. We picked the quad exercises because of their ability to:

To learn more:

Wait … Partial Range of Motion Is Now Better than Full ROM?

The days of full ROM training is over. Or ... is it? While research increasingly supports partials produce better hypertrophy, there’s a catch.

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The only 3 quad exercises you need

Now that we’re all clear on that, here are the 3 quad exercises that made the “gold-tier” list.

#1: A “basic” squat

These include your barbell back squat, Smith machine squat, hack squat, and 45-degree leg press.

Because they’re knee-extension-based exercises that emphasize the bottom, “stretched” position, they’re perfect for targeting your 3 vastus muscles (intermedius, lateralis, and medialis).

“But,” you may be wondering, “Which is the ‘best’ quad exercise of those squat variants?”

IF you had to pick one strictly from a hypertrophy POV, it’d be the hack squat.

@coraashleyy im going to upload a full quad day soon but this is one of my favorite exercises for quads - close stance hack squat. keep your feet close together & as low on the platform as possible without allowing your heels to come up. then just squat! #hacksquat #squat #legday #quadday #legworkout #quadworkout #quads #fyp #girlswholift ♬ Boy's a liar Pt. 2 - PinkPantheress & Ice Spice

Note: you can play around with feet positioning and width to find the best configuration for you.

Compared to the:

• Barbell back squat: Easier to set up, more stable, less demanding on mobility (you can play around with feet positioning without worrying much about stability)
• Smith machine squat: More stable (the hack squat machine supports your entire torso)
• 45-degree leg press: More range of motion (unless you intentionally increase your ROM by placing a pad or 2 between your back and the machine’s backrest, like in this video)

Then again, that’s from a hypertrophy POV for maximal muscle gains.

There’s also from your POV — TBH, you can’t go wrong with picking any of the squat variants mentioned above; they’re all fantastic quad exercises. So, you should pick based on:

• The equipment that’s most commonly available at your gym
• What you prefer (Love the leg press? Then do it!)

#2: Leg extensions

Chances are, you’d have noticed a muscle missing from the quad muscles activated by the squat variants.

The rectus femoris.

What’s “special” about this quad muscle is that squats can’t effectively target it. Why?

Because it’s the “two-way” acting muscle that crosses over the hip and knee joint mentioned earlier.

This means it helps with both hip and knee extension, actions that happen simultaneously during squats. In other words, the rectus femoris doesn’t undergo a meaningful stretch, which limits its ability to grow on the squats.

What’s the workaround? Leg extensions.

These essentially “lock” your hips in place, isolating the knee extension movement, which the rectus femoris helps with.

Here are a few tips that’ll help you get the most out of leg extensions:

#3: A unilateral squat exercise

The final candidate on our list of “gold-tier” quad exercises is a unilateral squat exercise that could target any quad muscle imbalances between your dominant and non-dominant legs.

(This is not just great for aesthetics, but also for injury prevention.)

Great unilateral quad exercises include the lunges and the Bulgarian split squats. Once again, if you had to pick one solely from a hypertrophy POV, go with what’s probably the most dreaded exercise: Bulgarian split squats.

It’s as effective at targeting the quads as it is painful because it elevates your non-working leg, which effectively:

• Forces you to shift more of the load to your working leg (less cheating!)
• Increases your range of motion on the working leg (more ROM = good)

And here’s a tip for those who can’t figure out the balance thing: try Smith machine Bulgarian split squats. In addition to added stability, these also remove the stress of worrying about your grip strength failing as you progress in weights.

Check out this video to see what Smith machine Bulgarian split squats look like:

Want truly massive legs?

Let’s be honest.

You will look really funny with massive quads without equally massive hamstrings to pair with them.

Just imagine having huge biceps without the triceps to balance them off … which is why you should check out this article next for the 3 hamstring exercises you should always do:

3 Hamstring Exercises You Should Do, Always

Here’s some bad news: just because your legs are sore the next morning, doesn’t mean that you’ve sufficiently worked your hamstrings, the bands of muscle on the backs of your thighs.

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Also, somewhat unfortunately, just knowing which hamstring and quad exercises to do doesn’t guarantee that you’ll successfully grow your legs. Beyond focusing on the right exercises, you’ll also need to account for:

• Adequate training volume according to your lifting status
• Rest days
• A good balance of training other muscle groups (e.g., your chest)
• Nutrition (e.g., enough calories and protein to fuel your body)

Sounds like a lot? Then, you’ll appreciate the GymStreak AI Workout App.

This intelligent workout planner with nutrition tracking guides you through the perfect set, rep, and weight combination while helping you stay on track with your nutrition targets to reach your fitness goals in record time.

Catch a sneak peek of the app below: