If you’ve been doing a lot of hill running or fast intervals lately, you might stand up from your desk one day and think “holy moly, my quads are sore.” The quads produce about 40% of the total force we need to run (study), so it makes sense that they get sore from time to time. Today we’ll explain what causes quad soreness then show you a few things runners can try to fix sore quads and keep them from getting sore down the line!
Why do my quads get sore when I run?
(awesome gif from wikipedia)
The four muscles shown in different colors above make up your quadriceps, but runners can think of them as one simple system. Their strength and health affects our ability to prevent all sorts of running related aches and pains. Healthy quads make healthy runners.
But what about when they get sore? When we feel sensations of soreness in our legs, it’s usually our body sending us a signal that we’ve gone a little beyond our comfortable training tolerance. More miles, faster average pace, or more time on hills leads to increased load on our legs. When that training load is too much for one of our muscles, it uses the nervous system to send a message to the brain. That soreness is your body’s way of saying, “hey bud, I’m struggling over here!”
One common myth about sore quads
Running blogs and magazines with outdated information often say things like, “your quads are ‘overdeveloped’ relative to your hamstrings” or “you get sore because you run with a ‘quad dominant’ stride.” The quad and calf muscles naturally produce a great majority of the force in the running stride (study). Running is inherently quad dominant. There’s nothing wrong with your body. Those old ideas were cobbled together out of incomplete research and coaches intuition, but now we know more. Long story short, your technique is most likely not the problem. (Note: always question ideas built on body shaming. It’s far more likely you just ran a bit too much and could use a bit of strength training 
)
Quick fixes for quad soreness.
The running coaches of the past believed that slow jogging flushed soreness from the legs by increasing blood flow. The great 800m runner, and Notorious Quadzilla, Peter Snell used to run very slowly in the morning to “work out the aches and pains of yesterday’s session.” They had the right idea, but the wrong mechanism.
(Image from the New Zealand Herald. Quads from god.)
Recent science suggests it’s more about the nervous system than the circulatory system (study). Low intensity aerobic exercise like walking, jogging, swimming, or cycling at an easy pace in effect resets the nervous system. The same groundbreaking (study) found that low intensity exercise works best at reducing soreness in between workouts. It beats foam rolling, stretching, and cryotherapy by a mile. 2:06 marathoner Takayuki Inubushi used to play handball at a local community center. This super easy exercise helped him work out the aches and pains of running 160 miles per week (not recommended).
Long term fixes for quad soreness
The way to prevent your quads from getting sore in the future is to expand the tissue’s capacity for training. That’s just a fancy way of saying “get stronger.” Stronger muscles = more training capacity = lower likelihood of frustrating soreness and injury when you run more miles.
Banded Quad Extensions
Why it works: it’s important to isolate the quad to make it stronger. Using a band or quad extension machine is a great way to dial in on that muscle.
Lunges
Why it works: adding weight to a movement like this increases the stimulus to the quadriceps. They might make you more sore in the short term, so introduce them slowly.
Split Squats
Why it works: split squats are another great way to work the quads hard. If you can begin to add weight to exercises like this, you’ll see benefits to every aspect of your running training.
If you want to run more, hurt less, and recover faster, we think you’d love our App. The recover athletics app helps you target areas of your body, get stronger, and run healthier than you ever have before. Your first routine is free.
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