exercises for quadracep weakness

Hi, Julie,

I'm not a trainer or anything (hopefully Marin will chime in here, soon), but I just wanted to give you a few things I do for my quads.

Have you tried light (as in weight) squatting? Lunges? Leg press? Leg extensions? Since you already lift, it shouldn't be too hard physically to incororate a few of these exercises into your lifting routine.

Here's what I do: I lift three days a week, mixing both arms and legs. I have always worked my legs and arms individually whenever possible (i.e. on leg extensions and leg curls, I do one leg at a time). Every track coach I've ever had encouraged doing that to keep the strong leg from over-compensating for a slightly weaker one.

I do three sets of all my exercises; the first set is at about 70% of the max I can lift; the second set is at 80% and the third set is at 90%. The number of repititions decrease as the weight goes up (i.e. 1st set at 10-12 reps; 2nd set at 8-10 reps and 3rd set at 6-8 reps). 

For exercises that I work one leg at a time, I'll start with, say, left leg, then do right, then do both together for those same 10-12 reps in the first set. The second set begins with the right leg, then left, then both together with 8-10 reps and the third set starts again with the left leg. For leg extensions, my quads are burning when I climb off the machine, but tt most certainly builds strengthrelatively quickly - without adding bulk.

I try not to overtax any one muscle group on a lifting day and do usually no more than three exercises for my quads each time (i.e. lunges, leg press and leg extensions one day, squats, leg press and leg extensions the other); I try to do a leg exercise then and arm exercise to not fatigue the muscle to failure. 

Again, this is just what works for me. I hate lunges and squatting with a passion, but they do help a lot. The lifting with the running has helped me feel very confident in my ability to do get the heck out of dodge (run, Forest, run!) or knock the wind out of someone with a kick to the solar plexus if neccessary (like it is whenever we spar in class, lol)

Hope this is helpful... 

I really like the site below. It has tons on exercies and show a sample of how to perform.

After getting here - you can select a muscle group to focus on. Also, ask if OK to up your protein intake. I add protein powder to two drinks daily.

Edited my Moderators to remove link as requested by 3rd party.