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The Best Quad Exercises, Ranked

Eight exercises for the front of your thighs in the order worth trying them, plus every other quad exercise in the library.

8 ranked picks44 exercises

By Jobri Fitness

The short answer

Combine a squat pattern you can load heavy, like the barbell squat, leg press or hack squat, with leg extensions. Lunges and split squats train each leg on its own and fit in well as a third exercise.

The 8 best quad exercises

  1. Squat

    Barbell

    The main lower-body lift: easy to load heavy and to track, and it trains your glutes along with your quads.

    How to do it: Squat

    Also with: Dumbbell, Smith machine, Bodyweight

  2. Leg Press

    Machine

    Lets you push your quads hard without balancing a bar, so it's easy to take sets close to failure.

    How to do it: Leg Press

    Machine only

  3. Hack Squat

    Machine

    A guided squat that keeps your torso upright, which shifts more of the work to your quads.

    How to do it: Hack Squat

    Also with: Barbell

  4. Bulgarian Split Squat

    Dumbbell

    One leg at a time with the rear foot on a bench. Hard on the quads and glutes with fairly light weights.

    How to do it: Bulgarian Split Squat

    Also with: Barbell, Smith machine, Bodyweight

  5. Leg Extension

    Machine

    The only exercise here that isolates the quads, which makes it a good second quad exercise.

    How to do it: Leg Extension

    Machine only

  6. Goblet Squat

    Dumbbell

    Holding a dumbbell at your chest makes it easy to squat deep with an upright torso, a good way to learn the squat.

    How to do it: Goblet Squat

    Also with: Kettlebell

  7. Front Squat

    Barbell

    The bar sits on the front of your shoulders, so your torso stays upright and your quads do more of the work.

    How to do it: Front Squat

    Also with: Dumbbell, Kettlebell

  8. Walking Lunges

    Dumbbell

    Stepping forward leg after leg with dumbbells trains your quads and glutes and needs only a bit of floor space.

    How to do it: Walking Lunges

    Also with: Barbell, Bodyweight

How these are ranked

The order favors exercises that are easy to load heavy and easy to progress, so the squat and the leg press lead. Machines come early because they let you push sets hard without a spotter, and the single-leg picks follow for balance between sides. If a lower pick suits your knees or your gym better, use it.

How much quad work you need

The number of hard sets you do each week matters more than which exercise you pick. How many sets per week to build muscle covers the numbers, and how to get bigger legs puts them into a plan. The training volume calculator counts your weekly sets per muscle, and the workout plan generator builds a week around them.

All 44 quad exercises

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Log every set, see what you lifted last time, and follow your estimated one-rep max on the free progress chart.

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