G'day Dimitri speaking from exercises.com.au today we're doing quads exercises.
So we're going to start with some squats, we're going to move on to some dumbbell lunges,
we're going to do some leg press, finish off with some leg extension.
So let's start with the squats.
So from here, I'm just going to duck under, make sure I'm nice and even with my grip,
straighten the center of the bar, take the weight, stepping forward, I'm going to pitch
shoulder width apart, slightly bent through those knees to start with.
From here, we want to really make sure those glutes travel backwards and we come down to
about 90 degrees, keep your head up and then pushing, squeezing forward and really making
sure that at the top of the movement that we're not locking out those knees, keep them
slightly bent, keep that head up straight, don't look down, don't look up with the head,
that way we're staying nice and straight with our body posture and not going to compromise
our spinal position.
So all the way down, around about 90 degrees, squeeze it up at the top, making sure that
there's no bend at the top of the knee, the knees are not locked out, they're still slightly
bent, sorry, because we want to get nice and deep, keep the pressure on those quads, all
the way down, squeeze at the top, locking those glutes, locking those quads.
At the end, racking it up, get ready for our next one and move on to our lunges.
All right, we're ready for our dumbbell lunges.
So we've got our dumbbells here, we can start nice and straight, I'm going to pick a line
here, I like having a line that I can travel forwards and backwards to, and that way I can
make sure I'm going back to my starting position.
So I'm going to take a step forward from here, you want to go straight down, straight back
up, then transition back to that starting point, alternate it, straight down, straight
back up again.
So I want to be nice and straight with my body, structure and posture, I don't want
to be compromising my structure by leaning forwards at the hips, want to be nice and
upright, retracting the press through those shoulders, so I'm coming straight down, straight
back up, transitioning back to the starting point.
So taking a nice wide step out, then straight down, straight back up, we're done with those
knees traveling forwards too much and ideally, again, we want to make sure that we're going
down and up.
So if you're taking a small step, you're going to really struggle to not have that
knee or rather to have that knee stay inside of those toes, so make sure you take a nice
step out wide, going straight down, straight back up, and then pushing back to the starting
point.
Straight down, straight back up, just back to our starting point, how about we really
isolate in those quads, isolate in those glute muscles.
Let's get on to the next one.
All right, let's get on to the next one, which is our leg press.
So it's got to be a favour for those glutes and quads, stepping into position here, making
sure the feet are nice and high, we don't want too low.
If your feet are too low, your knees are going to travel in front of your toes, we don't
want to do that.
So we want to have our feet nice and high, we're just going to push up, take the pressure,
let those legs come all the way down as far as you can, and then pushing up.
So if you can, really relax, make sure your whole body is relaxed up against that chair,
that support, that those knees come right down deep, and drive through the heels, ideally
if you can, really make sure that the toes are not, that your heels are not coming up
off the plate, that your heels are staying on the plate, and we're driving that weight
through those heels.
So at the top of the movement, again, with our normal squats, we don't want to lock out
those knees, we want to keep them slightly bent, engage those quad muscles, keep those
quad muscles engaged, using, getting work, and if you can, keep the knees slightly turned
in as well.
So we don't want to spray the feet out like that, we don't want to be working inside,
outside, we want to really make sure that those tellers are kept in place, we're really
isolating these VMO muscles by keeping those knees slightly turned in, nice and deep, pushing
through those heels, really engaging those quads and those glute muscles.
We've got to get on to our next one, we're going to finish off with the leg extensions.
Okay, let's finish off with our leg extensions, so we're in here, ready to go.
I'm going to grab a hold of the slide here, I'm going to make sure that my body weights
really nice and supported up against the machine here.
What I want to do is at the top of the movement, I want to extend my legs out straight, I want
to hold that for one second, resist as it comes down, so all the way down, and then at
the top of the movement, lock it out, hold it there for one second, before we resist
as it goes back down to the starting position, so all the way down, try not to let the plates
touch again, want to come all the way up, hold it just for a second, and then back down
again.
So if you can't hold it for that second, it's probably a little bit too heavy, want to back
the weight up, make sure that you're holding that isometric squeeze and hold it at the
top of the movement, really resist as it comes back down to the starting position, and then
let it go again.
So all the way up, hold, back down, always try as well to keep those toes slightly turned
in, that way we're really isolating those DMO muscles, squeezing out those quads back
down to our starting position.
So that's our quads exercises for today, we started off with our squats, we went to the
dumbbell lunges, then we went to our leg press, we finished off on the leg extension.
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