Struggling with Quad Activation — Any Tips?

I’ve noticed during squats and leg presses, my glutes and hams take over, and I barely feel it in my quads. I’m trying to isolate and grow them more, but something’s off.

Has anyone fixed this? I’ve been trying slow eccentrics and foot placement tweaks, but there has been no major difference yet.

Any form cues, warm-ups, or accessory moves you swear by?

 

Totally relate to this - quad activation can be trickier than expected, especially if your glutes and hams naturally take over.

A couple of things that helped me:

✅ Pre-activation drills - I started doing bodyweight sissy squats or terminal knee extensions (TKEs) before my main lifts. Gets the quads firing early.

✅ Heel elevation - Even a small plate under the heels during squats shifted more load to my quads and helped me feel them more.

✅ Tempo & mind-muscle connection - Slowing down the descent and really focusing on pushing through the mid-foot helped too. Sometimes I even pause at the bottom to kill momentum.

Also, front squats or Bulgarian split squats with a slight forward lean tend to hammer the quads more directly than back squats for me.

Curious - are you getting any quad DOMS after leg day? Or do they stay quiet even after heavy sets?