3 Degrees of Quad Muscle Injury From Lunges and Their Symptoms
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3 Degrees of Quad Muscle Injury From Lunges and Their Symptoms

3 Degrees of Quad Muscle Injury From Lunges and Their Symptoms
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Updated on July 31, 2025
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Lunges are popular for toning and strengthening your legs, including a group of muscles called the quadriceps. Your quad muscles extend from your hips to your knees at the front of your thighs.

Having a muscle imbalance, neglecting to warm up before doing lunges, overusing your leg muscles, or exercising them while they're fatigued can raise your risk of a quadriceps injury. Recognizing the symptoms of a pulled or torn quadriceps can help you assess the extent of the damage. But a doctor will need to make the final confirmation of the injury’s grade based on a physical exam and imaging scans.

Grade 1: Mild to Moderate Thigh Pain After Lunges

If you're doing lunges and you experience minimal tearing and stretching of the muscle fibers in your thigh, you've most likely got a first-degree quadriceps strain. This causes swelling within the muscle fibers but no internal bleeding or change to the structure of the fibers.

You might have mild to moderate cramping and tenderness in the front of your upper leg.

Bending the knee of the affected leg and moving your thigh forward and back might cause mild pain and tenderness. But the discomfort might not always be severe enough that you must stop exercising. However, the tightness and pain may gradually feel worse after you finish exercising, and bleeding and swelling start to affect the muscle.

Grade 2: Sudden Thigh Pain

You may recognize a second-degree pulled quad muscle by a sudden, sharp pain that stops you in your tracks — you’d feel it right away.

 The muscle fibers have partially but not completely torn, resulting in more severe pain than that of a first-degree strain.

The muscle becomes moderately weak. And you won’t be able to move your thigh forward and backward as far as normal by bending your knee without feeling moderate pain.

Pressing on the affected area with your hand causes pain. So does bending and extending your knee, and moving your thigh forward and back. You may be able to feel an indentation or lump at the site of the pulled muscle.

 After one or more days, you might see bruising.

Grade 3: Torn Quad Muscle

If you hear or feel a pop or snap in the front of your thigh and experience a sudden, intense, debilitating pain, you may be dealing with a third-degree quadriceps strain. This involves a complete tear of the muscle.

 The healthcare provider who’s taking a look at the injury might be able to feel the tear upon touching the leg.

You may notice swelling that moves from your thigh to your calf and even your ankle. This and black-and-blue bruising might take one or two days to develop.

 You may need crutches to walk and surgery to repair the muscle fibers.

Quadriceps Injury Management and Recovery

Regardless of the severity of the pulled muscle, initial management typically involves following the RICE protocol. This involves rest, icing the muscle, compression, and elevation.

A doctor might recommend taking medications to relieve the pain. Once the pain subsides, they usually refer people to a physical therapist, who can create a personalized plan involving stretching and strengthening exercises to restore muscle flexibility and strength. You may also need to use a knee brace to keep the muscle and tendon stable during the healing process.

Surgery for severe tears may involve using cables, wires, or stitches to repair the tendon and keep the kneecap in place. For the best results, surgery should take place soon after the injury to reduce scar formation and improve mobility after recovery.

The recovery time depends on the nature and severity of the injury and the treatment received. A mild, grade-one muscle strain often heals quickly.

 Most pulled quad muscles heal within one or two months.

If you have a complete quadriceps tear, it can take around four to six months to recover and roughly a year to return to full activity. But most people get their full range of motion and strength back.

Use Safe Lunge Form to Reduce Injury Risk

One of the best ways to help prevent thigh pain after lunges is to be sure that you use proper form. You might benefit from practicing lunges while standing in place before moving on to more-complex lunges like stepping or walking lunges.

According to the American Council on Exercise, correct form involves the following:

  1. Stand with your feet in a split stance. Your front thigh should be parallel to the ground and your knee should reach a 90-degree angle.

     Your lower leg should be leaning forward a little.
  2. Keeping your chest up, your torso straight, and your back neutral, bend both knees at the same time to lower yourself down toward the ground. Be careful to avoid driving the hips forward or wobbling. Avoid letting your knee roll outward or inward.
  3. Lower as far as possible without quad pain, or until your back knee lightly touches the ground. Pull back if you’re tired, in pain, or you start to lose your form.
  4. Activate your glutes (butt muscles) and thigh muscles to stand back up, straightening your knees while you do so.

Once you feel comfortable, you can then progress to stepping lunges: Step one foot forward or one foot back while using proper form.

The Takeaway

  • Quad muscle injuries can occur during lunges due to overuse, fatigue, poor form, or direct trauma. These injuries can cause pain, tenderness, and reduced range of motion. The symptoms become worse with deeper tears. Bruising and swelling may also occur, sometimes a day or two after the initial injury.
  • You might be able to finish an exercise with a mild strain, but a moderate or severe strain will significantly affect your ability to move your knee. And you may be able to feel a change in the muscle shape if you touch it with a finger.
  • Treatment may involve conservative management, pain medications, a knee brace, or surgery for severe injuries. Recovery time varies depending on severity.
  • Warm up your muscles before doing lunges and maintain correct form to reduce your risk of quad muscle injuries.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Quad Muscles. Cleveland Clinic. March 23, 2025.
  2. Muscle Strains in the Thigh. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. June 2024.
  3. Arriaza Loureda R et al. Update on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Quadriceps Muscle Injuries. Revista Española de Artroscopia y Cirugía Articular. January 2022.
  4. Emergency and Urgent Care - Thigh Injury - Quadriceps. National Health Service. October 2023.
  5. Muscle Strain. Cleveland Clinic. February 18, 2025.
  6. Robinson JN. Muscle Strain: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment. Hospital for Special Surgery. June 16, 2024.
  7. Kary JM et al. Diagnosis and Management of Quadriceps Strains and Contusions. Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine. July 30, 2010.
  8. Quadriceps Tendon Tear. Cleveland Clinic. December 5, 2023.
  9. Lunges. University of California, Davis.
  10. Lunge Exercise. Mayo Clinic. February 9, 2023.
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Reyna Franco, RDN

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Reyna Franco, RDN, is a New York City–based dietitian-nutritionist, certified specialist in sports dietetics, and certified personal trainer. She is a diplomate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and has a master's degree in nutrition and exercise physiology from Columbia University.

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