Strengthening the quadriceps plays a fundamental role in injury prevention.

The quadriceps is the largest muscle in the human body in terms of muscle mass, and is made up of four muscles: rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and vastus intermedius. These 4 muscles are connected to the same tendon at the knee.

So, even when performing a natural activity carried out almost by inertia, such as walking, the role played by the quadriceps muscles is fundamental. Because of its central position, this muscle is frequently called upon and subjected to shocks.

In this article, we look at how to intelligently strengthen your quadriceps muscles to prevent injury.

Injury prevention: physical preparation, recovery and lifestyle

Physical preparation and planning depend on the sport you practice.

Upstream, a perfect knowledge of the sport practised is fundamental. You should warm up before practising your sport. Recuperation or calming down after the session is just as important.

It's also important not to overload your training schedule, and to always leave plenty of time for recovery. Muscle recovery is a crucial aspect of any sports preparation. It concerns every sportsperson, whatever their level of experience. Often underestimated, this phase is essential to guarantee safety. Whether active, involving low-intensity exercise and stretching, or passive, with the help of external tools, it plays a key role in maintaining fitness. Before exploring these methods in more detail, it's important to understand the concept of fatigue in relation to workloads. 

In addition, it is always advisable to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Both nutrition and hydration play a key role.

Frequency of quadriceps injuries

The main function of the quadriceps muscles is to flex the hip and extend the knee. Injuries to this joint are of particular concern, according to incidence statistics. Over 90% of muscle tears occur in the lower limbs. In football, for example, studies have produced statistics on the muscle groups affected with 19% of injuries involving the quadriceps.

The frequency of dislocations, sprains, strains, tendon and meniscus injuries is definitely high in winter and contact sports. This is often due to poor preparation and care of the muscles (the classic Sunday sportsman, the amateur who injures himself at a football match...).

After the general prevention advice above, let's look specifically at how our Compex electrostimulator can help you prevent quadriceps injuries.

Strengthening the quadriceps with electrostimulation

Compex offers a complete programme offering designed to protect and strengthen the quadriceps muscle area. To do this, download the CompexCoach app, which will guide you through the positioning of the electrodes:

  • Monday: Warm-up programme. This will help you to familiarise yourself with the ‘training’ stimulus. For the first week only. The following week, Monday will be a rest day.
  • Tuesday: Resistance programme. This is the best programme for recruiting slow fibres. Always start gradually and isometrically, for example in a seated position, resisting knee extension.
  • Wednesday: Regenerating massage programme. Allow your muscle to recover. You can also replace this programme with a pressotherapy session using Compex Ayre.
  • Thursday: Resistance programme.
  • Friday: Reviving massage programme.
  • Saturday: Resistance programme.

Sunday: Capillarisation programme. This programme is a workout. It makes your legs feel much ‘lighter’. It increases blood flow by improving the efficiency of your muscles.

Note: if you're new to electrostimulation, it's important not to perform all the contractions in a programme in your first session. Start gradually: the first time: 10 contractions, the second: 15 and so on. For the first 2-3 weeks, perform all the contractions in a programme.

Then move on to the dynamic exercises. Here's an example of a dynamic exercise:

After the third week of training, always take a week's break. You'll only be doing massage and capillarisation programmes.

This way, your muscles will develop their resistance and strength. And all without excessive muscular pain and with the best ratio between volume and power.

If you don't yet have a Compex electrostimulator, choose the one that's right for you here.

A man doing a squat, using the Compex SP 6.0 EMS muscle stimulator for a quad muscle strengthening session

Proven Effectiveness

Backed by clinical studies proving their effectiveness, Compex stimulators also belong to the category of Class II medical devices. They also meet the needs of the European Medical Standard 93/42 EEC.

Compex - Always with you

We're on the side of athletes, amateurs and ordinary people, from the search for improved performance to post injury recovery, from post fatigue massage to pain treatment. At Compex, we have just one goal: people's well being.

Choose the one that's right for you, by taking a look at our buying guide.

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