Any advice on how to get the vastus medialis bigger? I read around online, all I basically saw is turn your feet outward when doing quads. Anyone have success bringing up the teardrop?
Thanks.
Leg extensions… front squats… back squats with feet really close together.
Front squats with feet close did it for me.
hacksquats also
I gotta disagree. A close stance during squats will target the lateralus. I’ve been doing it myself the last few months the difference in my outer sweep is surprisingly quite noticeable. In fact, I’m sure that the prominence of my medialus is because of my wider, toes pointed outward stance for so many years.
S
Extensions man. With a long concentric. Front squats too ATG for your last set really stretches em out.
Squatting ATG will work the vastus. If you don’t have the leverages for low squats, simple leg extensions work the vastus to. Hopefully you have access to a well made leg extension. Some are much better then others.
Also sissy squats will hit the vastus like no other exercise.
Best of luck with your goals.
Michael
rotating your hips externally on the knee extension will do nothing
Front squats with wide stance did wonders for my vm. 
Leg extensions with toes pointed out, super set with high rep band terminal knee extensions. I agree with Stu that wider stance toes out hits the medialus, while close stance is better for sweep.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
I gotta disagree. A close stance during squats will target the lateralus.
S
[/quote]
x2
Stu and Michael get my vote on this one. Toes out= teardrop, close stance=sweep, ATG=teardrop in my experience.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
I gotta disagree. A close stance during squats will target the lateralus. I’ve been doing it myself the last few months the difference in my outer sweep is surprisingly quite noticeable. In fact, I’m sure that the prominence of my medialus is because of my wider, toes pointed outward stance for so many years.
S
[/quote]
x2.
In kinesiology (or kinesiologically, if that is a word) the muscle is activated the most in the last few degrees of extension, so training the leg extension with a static hold is effective.
Turning the feet outwards places more of the load on that muscle too - so should be done.
However my largest gains in the area (i am one of those who has little muscualrity around the patella and always will) came from going deep in squats. I suspect it is the stretch the muscle gets at the bottom of the move that seems to do the trick (it most certainly is not the load at the top of the movement - and heavy statics in the squat won’t do jack).
A point of mild interest may be that the muscle seems to atrophy faster than the Vastus Lateralis (and maybe the other quadruceps muscles). The significance is primarily in sports injury applications, but it may be useful to consider as it may be that for extra growth in the area a higher frequency may be useful…
Now this atrophy was not explained to me, but i assume it is merely down to little involvement of the muscle in everyday life (to the degree specific exercise will recreate) which means it will not stay unnecessarily big for long.
However, the more frequent training will only serve to be a positive and not a negative so i suggested it regardless.
[quote] Brook wrote:
The Mighty Stu wrote:
I gotta disagree. A close stance during squats will target the lateralus. I’ve been doing it myself the last few months the difference in my outer sweep is surprisingly quite noticeable. In fact, I’m sure that the prominence of my medialus is because of my wider, toes pointed outward stance for so many years.
S
x2.
In kinesiology (or kinesiologically, if that is a word) the muscle is activated the most in the last few degrees of extension, so training the leg extension with a static hold is effective.
Turning the feet outwards places more of the load on that muscle too - so should be done.
However my largest gains in the area (i am one of those who has little muscualrity around the patella and always will) came from going deep in squats. I suspect it is the stretch the muscle gets at the bottom of the move that seems to do the trick (it most certainly is not the load at the top of the movement - and heavy statics in the squat won’t do jack).
A point of mild interest may be that the muscle seems to atrophy faster than the Vastus Lateralis (and maybe the other quadruceps muscles). The significance is primarily in sports injury applications, but it may be useful to consider as it may be that for extra growth in the area a higher frequency may be useful…
Now this atrophy was not explained to me, but i assume it is merely down to little involvement of the muscle in everyday life (to the degree specific exercise will recreate) which means it will not stay unnecessarily big for long.
However, the more frequent training will only serve to be a positive and not a negative so i suggested it regardless.[/quote]
Good words Brook! I like your train of thought.
I have basically zero teardrop development. Leg genetics suck but whatever, I will just second what Stu said. After months of close stance toes straight ahead, my sweep is the only thing that really improved.
“Pointing the toes out” rotates the hips externally but has no effect on knee movement or vastus medialis involvement. You cannot target the medial knee extensors preferentially by rotating the hips.
Single leg work like split squats, bulgarians and lunges
Along with squatting with your feet close together, sprinting is also very good at developing the VMO.
since i’ve been venturing back into more bodybuilding stuff, i’ve been doing a ciruit of leg extensions- toes pointed out, with a very strong contraction at the top. then i do either walking lunges or front squats ATG pausing in the bottom. after only a couple weeks i have a much more development around the knee. since i started powerlifting, i hadn’t done much of anything other than squat variations. as a result, i had huge upper thighs that got smaller as they reached the knee. i’m working on changing that now.