Best exercise to build medial head of the quads?

[bentley67nc]

What is the best exercises to build the vastus medialis quad muscle?

[kanis999]

Good question. My medial quad is really soft compared to the lateral quad (damn thing is like a brick even when I try to relax it, probably TOO tense). Looking forward to the answer.

[n0t0riouS]

Squats

[k9pit]

Barbell Hack Squats
Single Leg, Leg Extensions with foot pointed out

Single Leg, Leg Press

supersetting the BB Hacks with the Extensions or doing them in the same routine work wonders (for me, at least). Out of the 3 above, I've gotten the best results for the Medialis and the very upper hip quad area tie-in atop the rectus femoris with BB Hacks.

[Bostongeorge617]

Widen foot stance to emphasize inside, narrow the foot stance to emphasize outside.

Personally, I don't try and focus emphasis. I go middle ground and gun for overall mass. I'm doubtful anyone needs to specialize until they hit pro levels.

[Reidallaboutit]

Widen foot stance to emphasize inside, narrow the foot stance to emphasize outside.

Personally, I don't try and focus emphasis. I go middle ground and gun for overall mass. I'm doubtful anyone needs to specialize until they hit pro levels.

Agreed

[Sean Tierney]

In my experience the best exercise for bringing up the medial head (aka the teardrop) have been hack squats with toes and knees pointing out. To make it harder bring your hips forward off the back of the machine Another good one to mix in near the end of your workout is Sissy Squats. They put a ton of emphasis on the lower portion of the quads. Don’t attempt this one if you have any knee issues.

[Tyciol]

What is it about sissy squats that would make them hit the distal/inferior insertion of the quads on the patella and not the proximal/superior origin of the quads on the femur? (am ignoring rectus femoris, I don't think squats hit it much)

Actually screw quads we should just say vasti. It's those main 3 that get all the stretch and do all the work.

[Sean Tierney]

Hey man, while I don’t have any scientific studies or EMG analysis results to back up my opinion on the sissy squat, the nature of the movement does put a great amount of tension on the quad in the stretch position, unlike most other quad exercises. Because of this, I would argue that it stimulates the quads in a different way to other exercises. As most know, it’s impossible to isolate just section of the quads but speaking from my own experience, the two exercises I’ve listed have been the most effective in adding size to the medial portion of the quad. While I don’t have huge quads by any means, I have added some size in that area over the past year while including these two.

[prbell824]

This thread has some pretty good information and its still relatively early! Def checking back in here.

[bentley67nc]

Thanks for the feedback guys I will def. try this out.

[miamibodybuilder]

when it come to building your sweep and/or tear drop, in my opinion it all comes down to foot stances on different exercises. if you wanna build the outer portion of the quad then use a narrow stance on your exercises, if you want to hit the inner portion of the quads then widen up the stance. now for squats i wouldnt go too narrow due to balance issues unless you're going to perform the exercise on the smith machine. but other than that, the leg press, hack squats, and any other machine you use you can vary your foot stance to hit different parts of the quad.

[xStevenx]

squats are all you need

[pezking7p]

Deep squats hit the vastis nice and hard for me. Anything where I'm getting a lot of knee flexion.