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Of the many muscles that power our stride as runners, we all know our quadriceps do a lot of hard work. They work in tandem with our hip flexors, glutes, hamstrings, calves, core, and more to help us take step after step.
Understandably so our quads can often become sore, especially after a tough workout.
There are a lot of things that can help prevent and alleviate muscle soreness. Doing a dynamic warmup, foam rolling, stretching, sleep, hydration, good nutrition, and even strength training can help.
In this article, I’m going to focus specifically on the quads since they do so much for us and deserve some much-needed love. We’ll explore what the quads are and do, why stretching is important, why you might also need to be doing strength training, and the best quad stretches to help you recover.
What are the Quadriceps?
The quadricep muscles are a group of powerhouse muscles on the front of your thigh. According to the Cleveland Clinic, they “contain more mass than any other muscle group in your body.”
While the word “quad” implies there are 4 muscles that make up the quadriceps, there are actually 5 muscles. These include the rectus femoris, the vastus…
