Lagging Vastus Lateralis

I workout at a place called the TNT gym. It’s one of those gritty, full of mold, hole in the wall places known as a hardcore gym. The only equipment the places offers is dumbbells, power racks, olympic weights and olympic barbells which is just fine by me. I put on the posing trunks yesterday as I have a show coming up May 16th and noticed while a V shape has come around. My legs appear like sticks from the back and when relaxed from the front. My legs measure pretty decently but only the middle part and inner part of my quadricep have really grown. Is there any movements or varations on the squat stance. As I’m already doing front and back squats. That could work the outer sweep a bit better.

narrow stanced squat movements are what add the sweep on the side. If you normally do wider stance you will have the thickness that you explain but will lack the outer quad sweep.

Have you already tried a narrow-stance (hip width) squat (back or front), with feet pointing straight forward? Add a couple of sets in your regular training and see if VL gets worked. Squatting with heels elevated may help, too.

Just my two cents, all the best for your show!

I’ve been trying to bring up my sweep a lot the last few months, and what I’ve focused on is the leg sled, with feet low on the platform, placed very close to each other (‘close stance’), and not worrying about a full ROM, but moreso the portion closer to full extension (not locking out, but coming damn close and then squeezing hard)

S

Single leg exercises (split squats, lunges) seem to help me.

A big bodybuilder at my gym does very narrow stance squats for this.

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
I’ve been trying to bring up my sweep a lot the last few months, and what I’ve focused on is the leg sled, with feet low on the platform, placed very close to each other (‘close stance’), and not worrying about a full ROM, but moreso the portion closer to full extension (not locking out, but coming damn close and then squeezing hard)

S
[/quote]

has this helped? I haven’t tried narrow stance. I’ve only ever used the form taught in the book starting strength volume 2, the author said doing the exercises any other way would take away from your functional strength. I do a ton of lunges and bulgarian split squats. I will try the narrow leg extension and stu’s leg sled thing. Hopefully it works thanks for all the help. Any more advice is very much appreciated.

AS suggested narrow stance, and the lower you can go the better.

Well, I think it’s helped -lol. Of course the drastic dropping of bodyfat has probably contributed to a better overall look as well, so I can’t say that this is the only contributing factor. I definitely feel that it’s helping though.

S