Inner Thighs Exercises for WomenI’m not a big fan of performing isolated inner thighs exercises. unless there’s a valid reason for it, like, rehabilitating an injured muscle or improving certain body areas because of neglect and not being trained efficiently like the rest. In order for these women, to perform the inner thighs exercises for the intended muscles a basic anatomy of the human muscle biomechanics is good to understand… Basic Human Anatomy Understanding some basic human anatomy can help you to overcome this obstacle. Hence, I’ll briefly discuss some of the different types of muscles’ planes of motion. If this part of the reading will bring tears to your eyes because of boredom, then skip this part down to the exercises. Inner thighs exercises and the involved muscles There are five primary inner thigh muscles or hip adductors and they’re part of the hip joint* and pelvic girdle* muscles. Hip joint is basically the ball and socket joint which includes the head of the femur attaching to the acetabulum. Pelvic girdle consists of two pelvic bones (right and left) attached by the sacrum. The adductor –inner thigh- muscles are… • Adductor brevis muscle • Adductor longus muscle • Adductor magnus muscle • Gracilis muscle • Pectineus muscle (relatively less effect than above four adductor muscles.) Their primary tasks are to bring the hips to the center/midline of the body. Example, if you’re standing on both legs and you swing one leg towards the other, you’re involving the inner thighs muscles to work. And this motion is called adduction; therefore, these muscles are adductors. Or, squeezing your legs together while you’re seated is an excellent way to make these muscles work. The adductor (inner thigh) muscles work in harmony with abductor (abduction is swinging the leg away from the other leg) muscles to balance the body on a vertical straight line during the movement. So another benefit from firming your inner thighs is bringing balance to the body as a whole by having an equal strength from the inner thigh muscles (adductors) and outer side muscles (abductors). The above muscles have other tasks as well -They assist in hip flexion (ex., bringing your knee toward your stomach) -Rotating the hip to the outer side -Flexion of the knee (bending the lower part of the leg towards your hamstrings) Effective Inner Thighs Exercises Frog leg Squeeze
Position 1 (inner thighs exercises)
Position 2 (inner thighs exercises) This exercise is so powerful in the sense of how it directly works your inner thighs that you need to be careful when you perform it; so start with a gradual light resistance when you apply it to you. Here’s how you do it… • Sit straight on your butt and bring your feet together so the feet soles are hugging each other • Place the palm of your hands on the inner side of your knees to provide self-manual resistance • Now, bring your knees together while your hands are pushing out resisting • Do not resist too much, but enough to be able to do 8-12 reps. You can start with 1 or 2 sets of 8-12 reps and after few weeks as your inner thigh muscles get stronger you can increase the workout volume to be able to perform 3-4 sets. Leg Adduction w/tube You can use a resistance tube or band for the leg adduction exercise. And it can be performed standing, sitting, or lying down on your back. I’ll illustrate the three position exercises… Standing Leg Adduction • Have the tube handle grip around your left foot • Make sure the tube is stretched enough to have tension on it before you start • Pull the resistance tube with your left foot towards your right leg and cross it • Bring the left foot back SLOWLY to the start position
Seated Leg Adduction • Have the tube handle grip around your knee • Make sure the tube is stretched enough to have a good tension on it before you start • Pull the resistance tube with your left knee towards your right knee • Bring the left knee back SLOWLY to the start position Lying-down Leg Adduction
Pulling with your knee
Pulling with your foot (make sure you keep the leg semi-extended) • Wrap the resistance tube around your knee or foot (see pictures) • Make sure the tube is stretched enough to have a good tension on it before you start the exercise • Pull the resistance tube with your right knee towards your left knee • Bring the right knee back SLOWLY to the start position Knee press w/towel You can perform this inner thigh exercise sitting in different positions, but I’ll illustrate the seated knee press version.
Side view (inner thighs exercises)
Front view (inner thighs exercises) Fold a bath towel* to have a 6-8 inches thickness. • Lie down on your back and place the folded towel between your bent knees • Relax your hands on the floor and squeeze the towel for one second • Release the tension, then squeeze again • Try not to involve your abs too much and focus on the inner thigh muscles to do the work * you can also use a small size cheap beach ball or medicine ball as an alternative. This exercise is a semi-isometric tension, meaning there’s limited range of motion but it’s very effective to stimulate the inner thigh (adductor) muscles. Perform one of these inner thighs exercises on a daily basis to bring them into action. You can start performing 1-2 sets and each set consists of 10-20 repetitions. After a few weeks of performing the inner thighs exercises, you can change the loading parameters having more resistance and less repetitions and so on. Additionally, varying between the above exercises is the best way to expose the inner thighs to different tensions, motion planes, and angles. So take advantage of the above inner thighs exercises and utilize them. Don’t forget to check in the future more inner thighs exercises to build toned and strong thighs overall.
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