Joylee Taylor

· 18 Jan 2022

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Adductor exercises.

What are the adductors?

The adductors are an important group of muscles located on your inner thighs that serve to bring your legs toward the center of your body. This motion of bringing your legs inward is called adduction — not to be confused with the term “abduction,” which means just the opposite.

The adductors span from various points on the public bone to several locations on the backs of the femurs. For this reason, they are often referred to as the “groin muscles.” If you squeeze your legs together, you’ll feel the muscles of your inner thigh activating these are the adductors.

Why are they important? What do they do?
Considering that the adductors, along with the other leg muscles, are among the largest muscles in the body, they serve an important role in activities of daily living and athletic activities. Their primary function is to provide lower body stability during daily activities such as walking, going up stairs, and squatting.

They are especially important when performing exercise. Athletes, in particular, depend on this muscle group to aid in explosive movements such as running, jumping, and quickly moving from side to side. In addition, they provide mobility at the hip joint, which is essential for injury prevention.  

By regularly training your adductors, you can help prepare them for the demands of physical exercise, greatly reducing your risk of injury.

Exercises to work your adductors.
The adductors serve as secondary supporting muscles during many common exercises, such as squats, deadlifts, box jumps, and sled pushes. While simply performing these exercises can work the adductors to a certain extent, you may wish to target them specifically to increase strength and reduce injury risk.

Here are 7 of the best adductor exercises with varying levels of difficulty — to include in your training regimen if you’re looking to target your inner thigh muscles.

Adductor machine.
When many people think of isolating the adductors, they may think of the classic adductor machine found in gyms across the world. Though this machine can do a great job of training the inner thigh, it’s not the only movement that can yield good results. Considering that you can adjust the amount of weight and width of the pads, this movement is great for beginners. It’s best to start out super light to get a feel for the exercise and avoid getting injured.

Lateral lunge
The lateral lunge is a great choice for any skill level. You can modify it by adding more weight if you want to make it more challenging.

Copenhagen hip adduction
This exercise is an option for more advanced trainees. It fully isolates your adductors using your body weight.
While strength athletes commonly use it as an accessory exercise, it’s also an option for athletes in other sports as well as for those just looking to strengthen their inner thighs.

Be particularly cautious when performing this movement, because it puts your adductors in a slightly compromised position and could lead to increased injury risk if not performed properly.

Training tips for adductor exercises.
When training the adductors, there are a few important factors to keep in mind to maximize the efficiency of the exercise and reduce the risk of injury.
Gradually increase range of motion
If you’re just getting started with adduction training, it’s best to start with a limited range of motion to reduce your risk of injury.

As you get stronger and more experienced, you can slowly increase the range of motion and resistance to put more stress on your muscles.


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