7 Effective Dumbbell Quad Exercises

You can use dumbbells to work many different muscles. Find out what dumbbell exercises are effective for working your quads.

One thing to note is that some of these exercises could fatigue your forearm grip muscles before your quadriceps had a good workout. In that case, it may be smart to use something like lifting straps.

Additionally, you don’t want to forget to do dumbbell hamstring exercises either too to avoid leg muscle imbalances.

1. Dumbbell lunges

Lunges are a popular compound exercise with a lot of focus on your quads.

Even though its bodyweight form can already be hard enough, you can easily add dumbbells to lunges. Take the following steps to do two walking repetitions of this variation:

1. Stand up straight with your feet at more or less shoulder width. Hold one or two dumbbells in your hands.
2. Take a big step forward so that you get into a position where both of your knees are at a 90-degree angle. Your front foot should be flat on the ground and your back foot should only touch the ground with the ball of the foot (front).
3. Move your back foot forward and get into the same position as step 2 but with your other foot in the front. Make sure you use your leg muscles and not the momentum of your arms to do this movement.

Since lunges do involve some balancing at times you generally want to go for one dumbbell in each hand instead of one dumbbell in two hands. By doing weighted lunges this way you can still move your arms for balance.

By adding dumbbells you make lunges more challenging for your quads. In turn, this can lead to faster and more muscle growth.

2. Dumbbell squats

Squats are one of the, if not the most, popular leg exercises, and for a good reason. They are a great compound exercise for training a variety of leg muscles including your quads.

Take the following steps to do a dumbbell squat:

1. Stand up straight with your feet at more or less shoulder width. Hold one or two dumbbells in your hands.
2. Slowly lower your hips by bending your knees. How far depends on different factors like knee health but at your lowest point you want your hips to be at or lower than your knee height. You will likely have to bend forward for balance but keep your back in a straight line throughout the movement.
3. Push yourself up again into starting position by stretching your legs.

To make squats challenging enough to get in a good workout you likely want to use relatively heavy dumbbells.

The most convenient way to do squats with heavy dumbbells is by holding one dumbbell in each hand and letting your arms hang down beside your body.

If you want to focus more on core muscles you can also do a back squat which means holding the dumbbells on your shoulders.

You can also do a goblet squat which is a variation where you hold one dumbbell in both of your hands right in front of your chest.

This will take some focus away from your glutes which could lead to more quad training. However, it is harder to do a goblet squat with very heavy dumbbells.

3. Dumbbell deadlifts

Deadlifts target a wide variety of muscles. Your quads will definitely get good training in a set of deadlifts. Take the following steps to do a deadlift with dumbbells:

1. Stand up straight with your feet at more or less shoulder width in front of one or two dumbbells. You can set them up for a grip angle that is comfortable for you.
2. Slightly fold your knees and tilt your upper body forward to grab the dumbbell(s) on the ground.
3. Stretch your knees and tilt back your upper body at the same time until your upper body and legs are stretched in one straight line. When doing a deadlift it is very important to keep your back in a straight line during the exercise.
4. Slowly move back into the position of step 2.

Deadlifts do focus more on your glutes, hamstrings, and lower back but it is fair to say they work your quads to a nice extent too.

Before trying to deadlift the heaviest dumbbells it is smart to improve your technique first with light dumbbells. This exercise is relatively punishing for suboptimal technique.

After that, the deadlift is traditionally an exercise that is done with relatively heavy external weights. You may need two heavy dumbbells to make this exercise challenging enough for your quads.

4. Dumbbell step-ups

For step-ups you need a stable object or platform strong enough to stand on. Keep the extra weight of the dumbbells on top of your body weight in mind.

The plyo box may be a good option depending on how much pressure you want to put on it. Something like a concrete platform works too.

Once you have a suitable object or platform, take the following steps to do two dumbbell step-ups:

1. Stand upright in front of the object facing toward it with your feet at shoulder-width. Hold one or two dumbbells in your hands.
2. Raise one foot and put it on the surface of the object. Make sure your sole is entirely on the surface.
3. Raise your body by exerting pressure with the leg of the foot that is on the object.
4. Put your second foot next to the other one.
5. Step down with the first foot.
6. Step down with the second foot.
7. Do a repetition with the other foot first.

Dumbbells are an especially useful piece of fitness equipment to make step-ups weighted. This is because they still allow you to use your hands for extra balance which comes in handy when doing this exercise.

Your quads are some of the main muscles worked with step-ups. Some other muscles this compound exercise trains include your glutes, calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, core, and traps.

5. Dumbbell Bulgarian split squats

For Bulgarian split squats, you want a step, bench, or any other stable object at about knee height. Once you have that, take the following steps to do a Bulgarian split squat with dumbbells:

1. Stand in front of the stable object with your back toward it. Keep about half a leg distance between you and the object. You can hold preferably one dumbbell in each hand. Your arms can hang by your sides.
2. Move one leg back and put the foot of this side on the object. The top of your foot should lean on the surface of the object.
3. Slowly lower your hips by bending the knee of your stretched leg until your hip is at about the height of your knee of the previously stretched leg. Use your arms for balance if needed.
4. Push yourself up again into the position of step 2.
5. Repeat the same number of repetitions on the leg of the other side to keep your muscle distribution balanced.

The Bulgarian split squat is an exercise that is great for putting the pressure from all the weight you have available on one leg. This makes it a good option if the dumbbells you have are not that heavy.

6. Dumbbell jump squat

Take the following steps to do a dumbbell jump squat:

1. Stand up straight with your feet at more or less shoulder width. Hold one or two dumbbells in your hands.
2. Slowly lower your hips by bending your knees. How far depends on different factors like knee health but at your lowest point you want your hips to be at or lower than your knee height.
3. Push yourself up by stretching your legs fast so that at the top of the movement you make a jump.
4. To reduce the shock on your knees you can try to land more on the front of your feet. This way of landing does put your ankles under a bigger shock.

Keep in mind that jump squats can be rough on body parts like ankles, knees, and back, especially with the weight of the dumbbells.

It is possible to jump on an elevated platform which is more of a box jump. For this, you do have to know your own limits well.

The way you train your muscles influences what fitness component you improve. The quad exercises at a slower pace will train either muscle endurance or muscle strength.

Weighted jump squats can be a good alternative if you want to work on your muscle power fitness component.

7. Isometric dumbbell squat holds

Take the following steps to do an isometric dumbbell squat hold:

1. Stand up straight with your feet at more or less shoulder width. Hold one or two dumbbells in your hands.
2. Slowly lower your hips by bending your knees. How far depends on different factors like knee health but at your lowest point you want your hips to be at or lower than your knee height.
3. Hold that position for an extended period of time.

The squat hold is a type of isometric exercise. In simpler words, this means that you engage your muscles in a more static way, without moving a lot.

On the other hand, you have isotonic exercises where you engage your muscles in a dynamic way, by moving.

Isotonic exercises are generally more useful for building muscle. That means that the other isotonic exercises on this list are likely better dumbbell quad exercises for building a lot of muscle.