maratoolLying Prone Quadriceps
How to do the lying prone quadriceps
- Lay face down on the floor with your partner kneeling beside you. Flex one knee and raise that leg off the ground, attempting to touch your glutes with your foot. Your partner should hold the knee and ankle. This will be your starting position.
- Attempt to extend your knee while your partner prevents any actual movement.
- After 10-20 seconds, relax your muscles as your partner gently pushes the foot towards your glutes, further stretching the quadriceps and hip flexors.
- After 10-20 seconds, switch sides.
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
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
No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.
Every exercise using:Body only
These train the quadriceps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Lying Squatmachine
- Narrow Stance Squat with Barbellbarbell
- One-Arm Overhead Kettlebell Squatskettlebell
- Pile Squat with Dumbbelldumbbell
- Quadriceps-SMRfoam roll
Difficulty
Listed at expert level. It asks for range, stability or speed that takes time to build, and it punishes a rushed set-up much harder than an easier movement would.
Of the 173 quadriceps exercises in this database, 18 are listed at expert level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.