Your quadriceps are the big, powerful muscles located on the front of your thigh. They have many important functions that involve shock absorption and propulsion, making any discomfort in the area a tough thing to deal with. Quad pain when running is a debilitating condition to say the least, and this article is going to teach you how to fix it.

Quadriceps & Running

There are four (quad) quadriceps muscles:

• Rectus femoris
• Vastus lateralis
• Vastus medialis
• Vastus intermedius

The main function of the quadriceps is knee extension; i.e. straightening the knee. Rectus femoris, which is the most superficial of your quadriceps muscles and the only one to contribute significantly to hip flexion (bringing the knee closer to the chest), also happens to be the one that gets injured the most among athletes.

In order to alleviate quad pain when running, and prevent it from happening in the future, we need to understand why the rectus femoris and other quad muscles get irritated in runners. When we start to understand the roles our quadriceps have to help us run, some of the root causes of this type of pain becomes obvious.

(Credit: Adobe Stock)

Roles of the Quadriceps When Running

The running gait is typically broken up into two main phases; stance phase and swing phase. Stance phase is characterized by the time in which your foot is in contact with the ground. Swing phase is characterized by the time in which your foot is swinging through the air. The quadriceps are contributing in different ways depending on which phase your leg is in.

Quadriceps During Stance Phase 

Initial Contact

Stance phase begins when the foot makes first contact with the ground. The quadriceps play an important role in controlling the descent of the leg and absorbing the impact forces. They eccentrically contract to resist the pull of gravity and prevent the knee from collapsing.

Mid-Stance

As the body passes over the foot and the leg takes on its full weight, the quadriceps continue to engage to maintain knee stability and control. This phase involves an isometric (non-moving) contraction to prevent excessive flexion at the knee joint.

Propulsion

Towards the end of the stance phase, as the body prepares for push-off, the quadriceps contribute to the extension (straightening) of the knee joint. This concentric contraction generates the force necessary to propel the body forward and lift the heel off the ground.

Quadriceps During Swing Phase

Early Swing

During the early swing phase, the quadriceps play a role in flexing the hip and lifting the thigh. This action allows for adequate clearance of the swinging leg over the ground, preventing tripping or stumbling.

Mid-Swing

As the leg continues to swing forward, the quadriceps remain relatively inactive during mid-swing. At this point, the hip flexors take on a more dominant role in lifting the leg.

Late Swing

In the late swing phase, the quadriceps engage once again to prepare for ground contact. They eccentrically contract to control the descent of the leg and help set the foot down in a controlled manner.

(Credit: Adobe Stock w/edits by author in red)

Solving Quad Pain When Running

It is the transition from stance to swing where a lot of acute quadriceps strains occur. The dual action of the rectus femoris (knee extension and hip flexion) means it has a lot of responsibility in this phase of gait, and they’re jobs it has to do thousands of times while running. Any kind of jump, change in speed, or hike in elevation significantly increases these demands, as well.

To prevent strains, pulls, tears, and any other kind of overload and irritation that may be causing quadriceps pain, we need to ensure the tissues are healthy, mobile, and strong. To do this, simply running alone is not enough — we need the help of a balanced strength and mobility program that is designed to account for the stresses of running and the muscle imbalances it creates.

Below we have given one strength exercise and one mobility exercise to help mitigate and prevent quad pain when running. These are borrowed from the extensive programming we’ve created here at Dynamic Runner, which is designed to help runners be stronger than they’ve ever been before and run pain-free. Try us out for 7-days free by clicking here!

Strength Exercise: Lunge w/Twist

Instructions:

• You can use just your bodyweight, or, add a weight such as a dumbbell to make this exercise more difficult
• Hold the weight (if using) in front of you, otherwise, just interlock your fingers together
• Step back with one leg into a deep lunge (picture 2)
• Rotate your torso to the opposite side of your back leg (picture 3), stretching your arms out straight as you do so
• Rotate back to center
• Press yourself back up to the starting position
• Repeat for 10 reps or 30 seconds on one leg
• Switch to the other leg and repeat

Benefits

This exercise strengthens the quadriceps while at the same time putting them into a semi-stretched position at the bottom of the lunge. Incrementally challenging a tissue with load in a stretched position is one of the best ways to make them resilient against different forms of injury.

Mobility Exercise: Quad Stretch w/Wall

Instructions: 

• Get into a lunge position with your back foot up against a wall
• The closer your back knee is to the wall and the more upright your torso, the more intense this stretch will be
• Try to find a back knee position that allows you to get your hands up on to your front knee for support
• Hold this position for 30-120 seconds
• Switch legs and repeat

Benefits

This is one of the best stretches you can do for the quadriceps. If you’ve never done it before, you’re in for an…interesting…experience. Move slowly into this one and find a position you can hold with relatively little grimace on your face. It may be intense, but the benefits far outweigh the discomfort. Start to include it in your stretching routine for stronger, more flexible quads.

Written by Eric Lister – Certified Personal Trainer & Corrective Exercise Specialist