Backwards Treadmill Walking for Stubborn Quads

The quadriceps (a.k.a. the quads) can be a tough muscle group to develop.

If you've hit a plateau with your leg training and your quads just aren't keeping up with the rest of your body in terms of development, I've got just the solution for your lagging legs.

You see, one major issue that holds back muscle development is lack of blood flow to a muscle. The greater the blood flow your muscle has, the more nutrients will get into the muscle and the more muscle you can build. If blood supply is poor, then you'll ALWAYS have a hard time building that muscle.

So if your quads are lacking, you're going to love this one.

This exercise specifically targets the quads and will give you a quad burn and pump like you won't believe. It's PERFECT for forcing a tremendous amount of blood into the quads and developing the blood supply to the muscles.

For an example of this, look no further than speedskaters...they have massive quads and primarily train with moderate-load, high-volume training which results in tremendous blood flow to the quads (I know this from experience as I was a speedskater when I was growing up).

Set the treadmill to a high incline and set it on a low speed. In the demo, I've got my treadmill set for 15 degrees incline and 3.0 mph speed. You may need to adjust the speed and incline to your own comfort level.

Stand backwards on the sides and hold on tight to the side railings, being ready to catch and support yourself if you lose your footing. It's a very different feeling than walking forwards and you'll definitely want to be careful. Keeping in solid contact with the railings is critical.

Walk at this slower speed, focusing on extending the thighs with each step, consciously pushing yourself up and back. Each step you take is like doing a leg extension (only without the shearing force on the knees because you're involving your entire leg, working as it's meant to).

There are two ways to do this...

First, you can go for as long as you can.

Do the walking continuously until the burn and pump in the thighs forces you to stop. This forces a huge volume of blood into the quads and works wonders on building them up if they're stubborn. The massive influx of blood brings in a ton of nutrients to help with growth.

Second, you can do this as a five-minute "finisher" to every single workout that you do.

Just hop on the treadmill and walk backwards for 5 minutes and you'll see major payoffs in quad development. It's also a great way to add a little extra low-intensity fat-burning work as well.

Once you get more experienced with this backwards treadmill walking and feel confident in it, you can step things up and RUN backwards on the treadmill as well. That's definitely a more advanced movement and walking is the safer bet of the two.

Give this technique a try next time you're at the gym...helping fix stubborn quad development in this fashion is one of the best uses of the treadmill that I've ever found.

I would also recommend trying One-Arm Gripping Dumbbell Squats, done for high reps for bringing up weak quads.

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