Stupidly tight quads

[Emily Mattes]

I have incredibly tight quads and am not having any luck loosening them up. I've tried static and PNF stretching, I've tried rolling, I've tried the stretch where you lie on your stomach and wrap a band around your ankle and use that as resistance. My vastus lateralis remains a very thick, tight cord and I see no improvement. Has anyone had luck loosening their quads? I'm paying for two years of unintentional quad overdevelopment combined with little to no stretching.

[kderbyshire]

Have you tried a professional massage? Not a permanent solution, but might help get things loosened up so the other stuff will work.

Katherine

[Emily Mattes]

That's a good idea Katherine, unfortunately I don't have a lot of extra cash for one. :(

[glennpendlay]

That's a good idea Katherine, unfortunately I don't have a lot of extra cash for one. :(

Where do you live?

[kderbyshire]

Building up your glutes and hamstrings will probably help. I had very tight shoulders for a long time, that not much -- including professional massage -- seemed to cure for any length of time. But I've been doing a lot of upper back work over the last few months, and they seem to be getting better. My theory is that my pectorals were out of proportion with my traps, and so as the traps are getting stronger they're gradually pulling my shoulders into a better alignment.

Katherine

[BSmith]

I have incredibly tight quads and am not having any luck loosening them up. I've tried static and PNF stretching, I've tried rolling, I've tried the stretch where you lie on your stomach and wrap a band around your ankle and use that as resistance. My vastus lateralis remains a very thick, tight cord and I see no improvement. Has anyone had luck loosening their quads? I'm paying for two years of unintentional quad overdevelopment combined with little to no stretching.
check out k-star's mobility wod website. He does a lot stuff with a lacrosse ball that may help (albeit, probably hurt a lot). You can search his site for keywords to pull up videos that will help your situation.

[Emily Mattes]

Where do you live?

I'm in the Philadelphia area.

Katherine, I definitely have issues with a weak posterior chain, I've been working on it for a year but they have a LONG way to go. The tight quads are actually interfering with my ability to do that since they restrict my extension.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I've been working with stuff from the MobilityWOD, I'm just having trouble seeing any progress.

[ku2u]

I'd go buy a thick pvc pipe from home depot, they're like $6. I used to be extremely quad dominant as well and there was no way that a normal foam roller was going to do the trick. The pvc pipe works a lot better.

Earlier this summer I actually did some Max Strength EMS work using Charlie Francis protocols on the hamstrings only and I really think it helped my quad dominant issue a ton. I actually feel my hamstrings being at an equal ratio with my quads now.

[Emily Mattes]

I have a PVC pipe I use on it already. That max strength work sounds good though--could you elaborate on it?

[ku2u]

I have a PVC pipe I use on it already. That max strength work sounds good though--could you elaborate on it?

I used the EMS on my hamstrings during a max strength phase earlier this summer. I followed Charlie Francis's methods almost to the T. I did two heavy lifting sessions per week. One (monday) being a heavy squat day, two (thursday) being a heavy DL day in which I either used SDL or Trap bar DL. My EMS sessions were always at least 2hrs after the heavy lifting sessions, usually before I went to bed. I would take a hot shower, do a short dynamic warmup, then do some light pulsing before starting the session. I placed 4 x electrodes on each hamstring, and performed 10 x 5sec on/55sec off. I cranked as high as possible for the 5sec on, I only got up to 65% max power on my EMS unit.

I did about 6 sessions on my hamstrings and I did notice an increase in strength. I know this because my clean and squat numbers went up, and I'm almost able to do a full russian lean now. A guy on another forum used EMS on his hamstrings and he went from doing 4 reps on his russian lean to 11 reps.

[Jamie Crichton]

What EMS unit do you use?

[ku2u]

What EMS unit do you use?

Bought the Neurotrac Sport XL from London for $120USD. I also have the EMS 7500 which you can buy for under $50 nowdays, but its not very powerful. There are much better/powerful units units out there like the Globus and Compex that go up to $600-$1200 range.

Keep in mind the less bodyfat you have, the less electrical resistance the EMS has to fight against when it has to stimulate the muscle groups. A guy like me has 7-8% BF, and using weaker unit like the Neurotrac Sport XL on my hamstrings is no problem.