Are you prioritizing quads? Matthew Carmona teaches how to do it
Matthew Carmona works for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, but this does not prevent him from being a star in the world of fitness and having an active life. He is an example of how everyone can have a healthy life, even if the work is sedentary.
On his Instagram account, Carmona will share with his followers several fitness tips. The one we are going to present next has to do with the quads. Are you prioritising the quads?
“Quadriceps are like the biceps of the lower body. When developed, these muscles can set a physique apart by delivering greater full-body proportion and shape. And like biceps, these are the muscles that peek out during those warmer months when we're all in shorts.", start by saying.
“Quadricep translates to four heads, or four-headed muscle. Like biceps and triceps, the quads are a collection of multiple muscle heads. That means that we can emphasise different muscle heads - and more efficiently drive hypertrophy - via exercise selection and execution."
“That's why so many leg exercises such as dumbbell squats encourage small variations, such as changing foot; heel; and load placement. These adjustments can help shift the emphasis of the movement to different muscle heads and support overall development. For example, a narrower stance might activate the outer-quad (i.e., vastus lateralis) more than a standard shoulder-width stance; in contrast, a wider stance might place a slightly greater emphasis on the inner quad (i.e., vastus medialis/VMO). For context, the VMO is the muscle head that looks like a tear drop and its above the knee.”
“When I'm training legs, I try to include at least two quad-dominant exercises. I consider barbell squats a glute movement, so that means that I'll prioritise exercises such as Bulgarian split squats, leg extensions, or wall sits. All three of these exercises have the quads as the primary movers. You'll also notice that each exercise is quite different from the other. I'm not doing both barbell lunges and Bulgarian split squats during the same gym session; those two movements have somewhat similar movement patterns and may not engage different muscle heads as effective. By prioritising different modalities (e.g., dumbbells, machines, kettlebells) I can ensure that I'm engaging my quads in multiple ways each workout.", he concludes.
