How To Get Bigger Legs FAST (3 Science-Based Tips For Bigger Quads)

When it comes to how to add mass to your legs or how to build bigger legs, you need to do the right leg workouts. But even with the right leg workouts and quad exercises, you still may not be seeing any visible quads growth. Within this video I explain why that may be the case by covering three leg workout mistakes I see people make all the time, which are slowing down their quad gains. And to prevent you from making the same mistakes, I'll go through each error in detail, so you know what not to do when it comes to how to get big quads. I’ll also show you what to do instead so you can build bigger quads, faster.

First, if you want to add size to your legs, pay attention to your exercise execution. What most people don't realize is that you can make minor tweaks to the way you perform your leg exercises. In doing so, you'll shift tension away from the glutes and hamstrings, onto the quads. For example, by tweaking the angles of your shin, torso, and application of force through your feet, you’d be able to shift the emphasis of the forward lunge from your glutes and hamstrings, to your quadriceps instead. Also, by shifting your feet placement down on the leg press slightly, you'd be able to emphasize your quads further. But do keep in mind that these tweaks will shift a little more force and stress onto the knees as a result.

When training quads, the second mistake I commonly see in the gym is a short range of motion for leg exercises. But multiple EMG studies have found that your quads are only increasingly activated the deeper you go. And this holds up until around 105-120 degrees of knee flexion. This means that it’s the very bottom of these lifts that seem to be the most important for quad growth. This is supported by a 2013 paper that found significantly greater quad muscle growth with a full range of motion squat, in comparison to a partial one. You can start increasing your range of motion for your squat or any similar movement by aiming to get your upper thigh at least parallel with the ground, or even slightly lower. And for your leg press, go past 90 degrees of knee flexion and as deep as you’re capable of doing safely.

If you struggle with increasing your range of motion, you need to look at mistake 3: neglecting your ankle's mobility. A 2015 paper found that increasing ankle mobility was strongly correlated with a greater ability to squat deeper. Which is problematic for most of you out there trying to get bigger quads. That's because if you try to achieve a full squat or leg press or even if you try to apply the quad modifications without sufficient ankle mobility, your body biomechanically won't let you. Instead, it will compensate by lifting your heels and/or bending your torso forward, for example.

So when it comes to how to get big quads and improve your form, you need to focus more on your ankle mobility. You can do so easily by just getting into the habit of regularly doing the following described routine. First, roll out the bottom of your feet and then your calves side to side as well as your shins to loosen up the soft tissue. Then, you'll want to move onto a couple of dynamic ankle mobility drills like the knee to wall drill and/or a weighted stretch. By regularly doing a routine like this, especially right before your actual leg workout, you're going to drastically improve your ability to apply the various tweaks I mentioned in this video and hence boost your quad growth in the long run.

By learning how to build big quads the proper way, I hope you now see why you may not have been seeing the leg growth that you’re after. And for a step-by-step program that avoids these mistakes for you and applies the science to enable you to build muscle and add size as effectively as possible, just like Brian over here did in 9 months, then take the start point analysis quiz below to determine what program is best for you:
builtwithscience.com/bws-free-fitness-quiz/gend…

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Filmed by: Bruno Martin Del Campo

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soundcloud.com/lakeyinspired

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STUDIES:

FORWARD LUNGES
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24345718

LEG PRESS
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24345718

RANGE OF MOTION (LEG PRESS)
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8827313

RANGE OF MOTION (SQUATS)
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24345718

FULL VERSUS PARTIAL RANGE OF MOTION (2013 PAPER)
link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00421-013-…

FULL VERSUS PARTIAL RANGE OF MOTION (VARYING WEIGHTS)
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23254544

KNEE JOINT LOAD
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23821469

ANKLE MOBILITY
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4415844/