Quadriceps Muscle Strains

The Quadriceps Muscle is located in the front of your thigh, above the knee and is one of the largest, strongest muscles in your body. Without these reliable muscles, we wouldn’t be able to walk, run, or basically do anything with our legs!

How exactly does it work? The Quadriceps works in a pair, like other muscles, with the Hamstring, located at the back of your thigh. When you extend your leg the quadriceps muscle becomes flexed, whilst the hamstring is stretched, when you bend your leg the quadriceps become stretched, and the hamstring is flexed. Your triceps and biceps work in the same way as this.

Quadriceps strains can be quite common in sports like football, as you are consistently running as well as kicking, which requires use of the muscle. These strains are graded into 3 levels.

Grade #1

Some strains of the muscle fibres, which can last for around 10 – 21 days.

Grade #2

Generally some small tearing in the muscle fibres lasts around 1 – 2 months.

Grade #3

The is a complete tear of the muscle fibres, and you may need three months plus to fully recover from it, as well as the factor of maybe needing surgery to repair the torn muscle fibres.

The main symptoms of a quadriceps strain are pain or swelling in the quadriceps area, also some redness may occur.

• You may limp when walking or running, which wouldn’t normally occur.
• Bruising or swelling in the area of the quad injury.
• A Popping or cracking sensation rarely occurs, but does happen, often when the quadriceps muscle fibres are tearing.
• Muscle spasms can occur too.

To fasten the recovery time for your injury, sports scientists recommend the R.I.C.E. treatment plan. This consists of rest, meaning no hard physical activity, maybe some stretching of the muscle when confident you won’t hurt it. Ice, meaning put something cold on the area where the muscle injury is, do not apply heat unless warming up to do physical activity, which is only recommended towards the end of the muscle complaint. Compression, using a compression bandage on the quadriceps helps lessen the swelling of the strain. Elevation, keeping your strained quadriceps higher than your heart for the first 24 hours or so can help reduce the swelling of the injury.

You cannot strap up quadriceps, you can only buy a compression bandage generally from a pharmacy, chemist or sports medicine facility.

There are a few ways you can help prevent the quadriceps strain from occurring or re-occurring. Stretching often will increase your flexibility on the quadriceps, helping you do more things without injury happening. You will know you are doing well when you can stretch the muscle further, but only stretch to the point of discomfort. Remember, stretch the hamstring as much as the quadriceps, they work in pairs and a muscle imbalance can increase your chances of injury.

Muscle building helps dramatically in preventing injury, and also helps decrease the risk of bone breaks and improves your sporting abilities. Remember, don’t overdo the muscle building and train your hamstrings as much as your quads. And most importantly, learn how to do the thing you are doing properly.