maratoolIron Crosses (stretch)
How to do the iron crosses (stretch)
- Lie face down on the floor, with your arms extended out to your side, palms pressed to the floor. This will be your starting position.
- To begin, flex one knee and bring that leg across the back of your body, attempting to touch it to the ground near the opposite hand.
- Promptly return the leg to the starting postion, and quickly repeat with the other leg. Continue alternating for 10-20 repetitions.
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.
Every exercise for:Quadriceps
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
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:
- Jefferson Squatsbarbell
- Jogging, Treadmillmachine
- Kettlebell Pistol Squatkettlebell
- Lateral Lunge with Bicep Curl with Dumbbelldumbbell
- Lying Prone Quadricepsbody only
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.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.