Opinions on building up more of a sweep to the quads

[maldorf]

My legs have decent development, but much of their size seems to be in the inner thigh. The sweep to my quads needs to improve, build up the vastus lateralis.
Right now I do the following exercices: leg extensions, squats, front squats, leg presses, and hack squats. When I squat I use a slightly wider than shoulder stance, similar to powerlifting. reps in the range of 4 to 14. A typical workout would be 1) 3 sets of leg extensions to failur to pre-exhaust 2) 4 sets of squats to failure 3) 3 sets of hack squats to failure. When I do front squats instead of regular squats I will do leg presses in place of hacks.
Ive read, but not sure how much I believe, that if you use a narrower stance it will build the sweep more. Can anyone attest from actual experience that this is true? I do know that is seems to place more stress on that area because I tore something in the area of my sweep when I tried squating narrower. You could hear it tear, like a t-shirt ripping. Painful and swollen, but no bleeding. I think it might have been in the IT band or something, fascia. Anyhow, I decided not to squat narrow again since I had that painful setback. So can anyone tell me from real life experience if switching from a wider stance to more narrow increased the sweep of the thigh?
Any other tricks you have learned to build that area of the thigh? Just feel like what I am doing isnt working and need a change. Thanks for replies.

 

[aw1218]

In my opinion, you should add 4 sets of narrow,(i mean very narrow, feet touching) leg presses. moderate weight, and some more hack squat, or hack sissy squat

 

[aquaholic]

take more drugzzzzz

 

[hotttsauce]

yea, more drugs

 

[aquaholic]

or leg implants

 

[hotttsauce]

you might try silicon leg implants

 

[hotttsauce]

or this new thing called a chotch implant!

 

[Trenababoon]

Yes, I do very close stance on quads mostly, can't right now, can't squat at all since my knee is pretty damaged. But close stance made my quads really *pop* after doing the for awhile

 

[maldorf]

In my opinion, you should add 4 sets of narrow,(i mean very narrow, feet touching) leg presses. moderate weight, and some more hack squat, or hack sissy squat

Yeah, ive been thinking about doing leg presses with a narrower stance. I have already brought my feet closer together, but nowhere near touching. Think ill try moving them even closer.

 

[NPCLight]

Thank the maker above that I have been blessed with great legs. They are my best bodypart and just grew SO MUCH faster than anything. They actually could be a 200 lb competitor but yet i compete in the 165 range ( til next year ) I do the follwing stuff on Quad day....

Ext
2 sets of 20 reps to warm
Squats 4 working sets shoulder width stance
Front Squats 4 working sets narrow stance
Leg presses 2 sets shoulder width stance and 2 sets with narrow stance ( these are done in a rest pause fashion
Lunges 4 working sets all the way up to 60 lb DB's
Ext 4 working sets ( 1 leg at a time with a 2 sec pause on the contraction)

I switch from fronts to hack's every other leg workout, hams are done with back on Wed and again Fri night. I only hit qauds once per week but hams twice...

 

[thedonker]

leg extentions with feet pointing inwards together, hits the vastus lateralis specifically. like pigeon toes ( toes touching/ ancles as far apart as possible), then extend, should develop that muscle specifically. walking lunges? more dynamic exercise and builds the whole lot. just additions maybe

I used to do outdoor walking lunges, uphill for about 30 yards. Heart feels like it will explode however, plus it gets you outside.

hope this may be of some use.

 

[Phidias]

Yeah, ive been thinking about doing leg presses with a narrower stance. I have already brought my feet closer together, but nowhere near touching. Think ill try moving them even closer.

In my experience, the closer the more sweep. But can only be done on leg press... squat is pretty unstable. Now i only do squats for hams and glutes using the wider stance i can and putting a plate under each of my heels.

 

[aquaholic]

Yeah, ive been thinking about doing leg presses with a narrower stance. I have already brought my feet closer together, but nowhere near touching. Think ill try moving them even closer.

don't' you find it grinds your hips too much?
maybe it's a lack of flexibility for me?

how far down/in do you go for your leg presses?

 

[db006]

extreme fascia stretching and IMO and many others, the same sets and reps of moderate weight isnt going to make your legs grow. progressive heavy slag...

 

[Beta]

single leg leg press, foot in the center.

 

[Jarconis]

+1 on feet close together and higher on the deck on the leg presses

 

[maldorf]

don't' you find it grinds your hips too much?
maybe it's a lack of flexibility for me?

how far down/in do you go for your leg presses?

I go as deep as I can, but do feel like when I go more narrow that my knees end up digging into my chest and stop the movement prematurely. When I go a bit wider I can bring my knees around toward the side of my waist and get deeper. There is much danger though going too deep, causes your lower back to lift up off of the pad. I did strain it rather bad once doing this.
I think I will go more narrow on my front squats, hacks, and leg presses. Sounds like the narrow stance has produced some results for those on here. I do notice that Ronnie Coleman goes rather narrow on his stance when doing most leg exercices, even when he goes real heavy.

 

[maldorf]

Thank the maker above that I have been blessed with great legs. They are my best bodypart and just grew SO MUCH faster than anything. They actually could be a 200 lb competitor but yet i compete in the 165 range ( til next year ) I do the follwing stuff on Quad day....

Ext
2 sets of 20 reps to warm
Squats 4 working sets shoulder width stance
Front Squats 4 working sets narrow stance
Leg presses 2 sets shoulder width stance and 2 sets with narrow stance ( these are done in a rest pause fashion
Lunges 4 working sets all the way up to 60 lb DB's
Ext 4 working sets ( 1 leg at a time with a 2 sec pause on the contraction)

I switch from fronts to hack's every other leg workout, hams are done with back on Wed and again Fri night. I only hit qauds once per week but hams twice...

Wow, thats an incredible amount of volume for quads. I am surprised you dont get over trained on that. I think if I tried to do that I would grind my legs down to bloody stumps!
I think I maybe need to bite the bullet and do some lunges. I have never really done them before, might be just what I need.

 

[Mr_Magoo]

a narrow stance will work well, most people who can't do it have flexibility issues stemming from avoiding certain exercises, get a foam roller and hit the IT band and all other parts of the leg

 

[maldorf]

a narrow stance will work well, most people who can't do it have flexibility issues stemming from avoiding certain exercises, get a foam roller and hit the IT band and all other parts of the leg

what is a good web site to order one of those rollers? I need to break down and get one. Heard so many good things about using them.