Most of you may remember the legendary AC Milan player, Clarence Seedorf, for his cool name and enormous talent, had remarkable thighs. More specifically, it's the quadriceps that stand out. In this post, we'll show you five exercises that will make your quads pop (including the hamstrings, of course) and if you can even come close to Seedorf's, you've already achieved a lot.

Tip

If your only goal is to build muscle, then of the exercises shown we recommend doing hack squats, leg press, a split squat variation such as RFESS (with elevated heels) and leg extensions, in a repetition range of more or less 8-15 reps. Not all exercises need to be integrated into one programme at the same time. We recommend the barbell squats if we do not have a leg press or hack squat available. These exercises, especially leg press, hack squats and squats, can make you very tired. If you are not in the off-season, you need to know how to proceed.

#1 Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat (RFESS)

You can hold the weight in the opposite hand if balance is a problem. If this works well, you can also hold dumbbells in both hands. In this exercise, try to move up and down, not forward and back. I.e. your knee may never be fully extended and that's ok. Keep the spine neutral. To further stimulate the front thigh, try maximizing knee flexion and let your knees go over your toes. Additionally, you can elevate the heels here as well. Knee flexion tends to be maximized when the foot is closer to the body, while placing the foot further forward would be a strategy to work more of the gluteal muscles. If the bench is too high, you can also place the back foot on a couple of weight plates.

#2 Leg extension

The mechanical joint of the machine and the knee joint should be at the same height. Control the movement and pause at the upper position (knee extended).

#3 Hack Squat

As much range of motion as possible with "neutral spine. As much knee flexion as possible to stretch the anterior thigh muscles.

#4 Leg press

The same applies here as with the hack squat. The greatest possible knee flexion is more likely to be achieved if the feet are placed lower.

#5 Squats with the barbell

In this video, improvisation was done and the heels are very elevated. The best solution is to buy heel wedges made to elevate the heels during squats. Raising the heels makes the exercise more dominant for the front thighs. Squats with the barbell is a challenging exercise. If you have no experience, get coaching and start with easier squat variations (e.g. goblet squats).

We'll give you more tips and tricks during our personal training. Arrange a free trial training now!

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