Position:

Lie on your back on a firm surface and bring your bent knee towards your chest and place your hands behind your leg.  Flatten your back and relax your neck and arms. Start with your knee relaxed and your foot dangling. 

Movement: 

Count to 10 as you lift your foot up as far as is comfortable then resist gravity as you allow your knee to bend to a count of 20. Allow your foot to dangle again as long as there is no pain, and you aren’t getting a strong stretch.  Then move your knee an inch or 2 away from your chest, keeping your back flat and your upper body relaxed. Slowly straighten your knee picture dragging your toes through heavy, wet sand then focus on the smoothness as you lower your foot down. Your quad is contracting in a lengthening, releasing fashion. On your last repetition, your knee is directly above your hip.

Notes:

1. Do 2-5 times on each side.
2. You are supporting your leg with your hands to reduce hip flexor (muscles in your hip crease) overuse and to help keep your back flat. You can use a belt or a scarf to help hold your leg up.
3. Keep your ankle/foot/toe muscles relaxed

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Quad Release Application

Ideally, you go up stairs with your glutes by pressing down through your heel. Many people use their quads and knees to climb stairs.

Focusing on your sitting bone area for the lifting power will preserve and protect your knees and your low back.

Unfortunately, your glutes cannot help you when going downstairs. Being pain-free when descending stairs depends on strong and flexible quads.

Doing this exercise will make your quads smart, meaning strong (they have the power to lower your body weight down against gravity), long (able to support you while your knee is bending and your quad is lengthening and relaxed (able to go into full bend without provoking your stretch reflex).

One of the most exciting things about this exercise is that you can remodel your cartilage.

Cartilage is a living tissue and with chronic compression, it presses the synovial fluid (joint lubrication juice) out of the tissue.

I’m going to use the hip joint as an example. The joint is a ball and socket. When your foot lands on the ground, the ball is driven into the socket which squishes the fluid out of the little reservoirs. Then as your leg is swinging through the air, the ball is slightly distracted out of the socket, allowing fluid to flow back into the microscopic puddles . If you have tight muscles, it doesn't allow the normal piston-like motion to occur as the bones are held in a compressed state. When cartilage is not adequately nourished, it is vulnerable to injury and deterioration.