Frog Hops

Muscles worked

The muscles under tension are the quadriceps across the front of the thigh, which straighten the knee and, just as importantly, control it on the way back down.

A stretch loads them at the far end of the range they normally work in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.

Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the glutes finish hip extension; the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down.

Every exercise for:QuadricepsCalvesGlutesHamstrings

How this movement works

The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.

It is filed under stretching, so the target is range of motion rather than force — a position you can settle into and breathe in, held long enough for the tissue to give.

What you need

These train the quadriceps too, using equipment this one does not:

• Front Barbell Squat To A Benchbarbell
• Front Squats With Two Kettlebellskettlebell
• Hack Squatmachine
• Hip Adductioncable
• Hip Flexion with Bandband

Difficulty

Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.

Of the 173 quadriceps exercises in this database, 62 are listed at intermediate level.