Anatomy of the Human Body - Musculus quadriceps femoris / quadriceps femoris

Often we see that an article mentions a muscle, but not every reader knows what muscle it is. Based on this, we have decided to create a series of articles in which we will discuss the basic anatomy of the human body and introduce the muscles in more detail. Among other things, we will also show you which exercises to use to exercise a given muscle part correctly and, conversely, which exercises to avoid. The first two parts we decided to devote to perhaps the most famous muscles of all - triceps and biceps. This was followed by the front pectoralis anterior, large pectoral,deltoid, trapezius, rectus abdominis,large gluteus maximus, small + medium gluteus maximus, posterior thigh muscles and in this article we will focus on the quadriceps femoris.

Quadriceps / quadriceps femoris

The quadriceps femoris, which is a strong muscle on the front of the thigh, is the main extensor of the thigh. It consists of four large heads. They all join into one tendon tendon above the knee. This thigh muscle stretches the hip at the knee joint and is also part of the extensor system that gives us support against gravity. Some of the tibial extensors, such as the rectus femoris, are also the hip flexors at the hip joint.

• The rectus femoris was named because of its straight course down the thigh, starting at two points on the hip bone and running vertically down to the knee, where it attaches by a flattened tendon to the patella, which is attached by a ligament to the tibial tuberosity. This patellar ligament is referred to as the 'common tendon' due to the fact that it is the common point of attachment of all four heads of the quadriceps femoris muscle.
• The lateral and anterior heads start at the side and back of the upper part of the femur. Their fibers wrap obliquely around the body of the femur on each side, meet anteriorly, and taper into a common attachment.
• The middle head starts at the upper two-thirds of the femoral body and tapers into the common attachment.

What to avoid when exercising the quadriceps femoris?

We asked Robert Humpal of the Supertrener.cz project again

Remember that the quadriceps respond not only to heavy weights with fewer reps in a set, but also to heavy weights with more reps of 15-20. It's definitely a good idea to use both rep ranges in your training. Equally important is choosing the right exercises for you, ones that target and feel your quads well and where you can progressively add load over time. You have to progressively overload your thighs or you won't move from your spot. This is true for all muscle groups.

Basic exercises to strengthen the quadriceps femoris:

Back squat

Hacken squat

Bulgarian squat

You can find more exercises to develop your hamstrings in our section - Exercise Database.

Sources: image - Kenhub.com, Anatomy of the Body and Movement (Theodore Dimon, Jr.)