Question about a quad exercise

[$BIg Daddy$]

Is there an isolation exercise that works the Vastus Lateralis and the rectus femoris?

thanks in advance

[Pink Dumbbell]

Squat with a close foot position for the vastus lateralis...
Squat for the other too.

Summary: Squat

[westtexasfury]

You can take out rectus femoris by passive ineffeciency by keeping your hip straight while you do quad extensions. Since your rectus femoris crosses 2 joints, you can stretch the muscle using the secondary joint, which takes away its ability to move the primary joint.

The first gym I ever went to, they had a machine where you stood up and did quad extensions, which was used for this purpose.

But that is about the only way to achieve any type of isolation in the quadriceps group.

Either do that or work them all.

After that, genes play the role on how much each muscle works (precise muscle attachements, etc.)

[Mr_Slim]

out of your quads, the rectus femoris is the primary hip flexor, as it is the only one that goes over the hip joint as well. therefore, an exercise that focuses on hip flexion will work the rectus femoris.

one that i do for it is that i tie a theraband (yes i know, not the most resistance possible, but better than nothing) to a bench, the other end around your ankle. then i perform reverse lunges (front leg stays static w/ flat foot, rear leg starts as far back as you can stretch, standing on the ball of your foot. then drive your rear leg forward, as if you were running. Drive it up as high as possible, flexing the hip as much as possible.

The only problem is you can only do one at a time, but that's still not too bad. Some people do this holding a DB in each arm or holding a BB behind their head, but this will not work the rectus femoris, only the quads as a whole as you drive up. to really focus on the rectus, you need to put resistance on the actual hip flexion movement, which is what the theraband does.

keep in mind that your hip flexors are strong, so you'll need a pretty tough theraband, or if you can think of another way, let me know.

I hope this helps mate, just something that i do.

[Tyciol]

Rectus femoris: do straight leg raises. Or a knee raise and then extend the leg, I dunno.

What Pink said I've heard before, the laterali are recruited more with closer foot positions.

Since a wider stance gives you more stability, I would think when doing close-stances, doing a leg press is better. This way you don't have to worry about falling over sideways. You could even have your insoles touching if you wanted to this way. Of course, the RoM would be horrible I guess, whatever.

If there's a way to possible to leg extensions with your knees/feet together that would work too right? Probably different than a load-bearing pressing exercise though, I hear there's a tendency to internally rotate at the hip during some leg extensions which might be bad when you're trying to do the lateralus. Would focusing on twisting your legs out (external rotation) help or hinder?