14 Best Hip Adductor Exercises — Build Bigger and Stronger Inner Thighs

Command a gym full of bros to train their legs; most will probably sprint towards the squat rack or call dibs on the leg press. However, you’ll probably find the hip adductor machine rusting in a corner, provided your training facility has one. 

The adductors, commonly known as inner thighs, are arguably the most neglected lower body muscle group. This article is our way of raising the alarm about the gains you’re leaving on the table by skipping hip adductor exercises. 

Hip adductors are small muscles in your inner thighs responsible for bringing your thighs together, providing balance, and supporting proper hip alignment. 

Many women often lead themselves down the wrong path by chasing a thigh gap, which has become a physical attractiveness and fitness symbol. A thigh gap is the space between the thighs when standing upright with the feet together. 

Many ladies take drastic steps, including following fad diets, fasting for long periods, and overexercising to achieve a thigh gap. However, not only does this jeopardize their health, but it is also an unrealistic beauty ideal primarily dependent on your bone structure and genetics—where you store body fat. 

What are Hip Adductors?

Hip adductors primarily help adduct the hips or bring the thighs together to your body’s midline. The adductors span from various points on the public bone to several locations on the backs of the femurs. If you squeeze your legs together, you’ll feel your inner thighs activating. For this reason, they are also called groin muscles.

Hip adductors are a group of five muscles in the inner thighs:

1. Adductor Brevis: It is the shortest adductor muscle that helps adduct the thighs and plays a role in hip flexion and external thigh rotation.
2. Adductor Longus: The most anteriorly located adductor muscle, it helps adduct the thigh at the hip joint. Additionally, it helps with thigh flexion and extension. 
3. Adductor Magnus: The largest adductor muscle; it aids in thigh adduction and flexion. 
4. Gracilis: It is the weakest and the most superficial adductor muscle. The gracilis functions as a flexor and internal leg rotator at the knee joint.
5. Pectineus: Latin for comb, the pectineus is a short, flat muscle located at the front of the upper and medial area of the thigh. It helps flex and adduct the thigh at the hip joint.

Difference Between Hip Adductors and Hip Abductors

Even though hip adductors and abductors play opposing roles, most people confuse the two. While hip adductors help bring your thighs together, the abductor aid in sending the thighs away from your body’s midline.

Here is an easier way to remember their function. In a hip add-uction, you are putting one and one together. So, when you bring your legs together, you are effectively adding them.

Benefits of Performing Hip Adductor Exercises

Here are the benefits of adding hip adductor exercises to your training regimen:

1. Increased Rotational Power

Strong adductors boost your rotation power, which is especially great for people who participate in physically demanding sports like baseball, football, soccer, or tennis. 

2. Improved Balance

Performing hip adductor exercises can help improve your balance by adding stability and keeping your body upright when making sudden lateral movements.

3. Enhanced Hip Extension

Hip extension plays a crucial role in compound exercises like the deadlift and squat. Adding hip adductor exercises to your regimen can improve your performance in other lifts and day-to-day activities. 

4. Reduces Risk of Injury

Groin injuries are one of the most common sports-related injuries. They are caused due to weak or tight adductor muscles. Performing hip adductor exercises will not only strengthen these muscles but will also improve your flexibility and mobility. 

Risks of Having Weak Adductors

Many bodybuilders never train adductors and stick to working their quads, hamstrings, and calves. However, developed inner thighs are what separate the men from the boys. Developed adductors can make your legs look wider and aesthetically appealing. 

Furthermore, not training your adductors can lead to groin injuries, especially in sports that require quick lateral movements where players have to change directions quickly and repeatedly. 

A study found that professional ice hockey players were 17 times more likely to sustain a groin injury if their adductor strength was less than 80 percent of their abductor strength. [1]

Another study published in the ​Journal of Sport Rehabilitation​ concluded that hip adductor strains are among the most common lower extremity injuries in people involved in sports [2]. So, if you are an athlete or work a physically intensive job, you should never skip training your adductors. 

How To Test for Weak Adductors?

Now, you might think that you squat 225 pounds for reps like it’s nobody’s business, and there is no way you have weak adductors. However, the hip adductor strength test might surprise you. 

1. Copenhagen Plank

How to perform: 

1. Lie down on the floor on your side.
2. Your lower legs should be under a flat bench placed perpendicular to your body. 
3. Get into a side plank position by placing your elbow on the floor and raising your hips off the floor. 
4. Place your top leg on top of the bench while subsequently lifting your other leg and placing it under the bench’s pad. 
5. Hold this position for as long as possible while contracting your adductors. 
6. Switch sides and repeat. 

You have weak hip adductors if you cannot hold the Copenhagen plank for even 10 seconds. 

The Copenhagen plank helps you determine if you have weak adductors. Furthermore, it is a great exercise to bring up the weakness, making it the number one exercise on our top fourteen hip adductor exercises list. 

14 Hip Adductor Exercises

Now that we’ve covered one exercise, here are the remaining 13 hip adductor exercises that you should add to your training regimen:

2. Clamshell

How to perform:

1. Lie on your side, with your legs stacked and knees bent at a 45-degree angle.
2. Rest your head on your lower arm, and place your other hand on your hip.
3. While keeping your feet touching, raise your upper knee as high as possible without shifting your hips or pelvis. Don’t move your lower leg off the floor.
4. Pause and contract your adductors at the top before returning to the starting position. 
5. Repeat for recommended reps. 

3. Low Lunge

How to perform:

1. Get into a push-up position on the floor with your hands under your shoulders, and your feet placed next to each other. 
2. While keeping your right foot in place, lift your left foot and place it on the outside of your left hand. Your ankle should be under your knee. 
3. Pause and contract your left hip adductor.
4. Return to the starting position and repeat on the right side.
5. Alternate between reps.

4. Sumo Squat

How to perform:

1. Stand with a wider than shoulder-width stance with your toes pointing outwards.
2. Lower yourself by pushing your hips back and down by bending at your knees. 
3. Go as low as possible and contract your adductors. 
4. Return to the starting position, pause, and squeeze your adductors again.
5. Repeat for reps. 

Pro tip: As you get better at the lift, you can use a dumbbell or barbell to add tension to the target muscles. 

5. Side Lunge

How to perform:

1. Stand upright with a shoulder-width stance.
2. Step out to the side with your left leg while maintaining your balance and squat down until your front upper leg is parallel to the floor.
3. Pause and contract the adductor of the extended leg at the bottom. 
4. Return to the starting position by driving through your heel.
5. Repeat this movement with your right leg.
6. Alternate between legs for recommended reps.

6. Cossack Squat

How to perform:

1. Stand with a wider than shoulder-width stance.
2. Lower into a squat while leaning to one side by dropping your hips down and back. Squat as low as possible. 
3. Your other leg will be extended with your heel on the floor and your toes pointing up. Pause and contract the adductor of the extended leg at the bottom. 
4. Return to the starting position by pushing through your bent leg. 
5. Repeat on the other side.
6. Alternate between reps for recommended reps.

Compared to the side lunge, you will work in the frontal plane and go side to side in the cossack squat. At the bottom of a cossack squat, the toes of your extended leg will come off the floor. 

7. Single-Leg Glute Bridge with Squeeze

How to perform:

1. Lie on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. Place your arms on your sides.
2. Put a foam roller between your thighs. 
3. While keeping one foot on the floor, lift the other and extend it so it is in line with your torso. 
4. Thrust your hips towards the ceiling. 
5. Pause at the top, press your thighs against each other, and squeeze the foam roller as hard as possible.
6. Slowly return to the starting position.
7. Repeat for reps before switching sides. 

8. Side-Lying Adduction

How to perform:

1. Lie on your side on an exercise mat with your legs on top of each other. Ensure that your hips are stacked.
2. Place your bottom arm under your head and your top hand in front of your chest.
3. Bend your top leg and place your foot flat on the floor in front of the bottom leg’s knee. 
4. While keeping your bottom leg extended, lift it off the floor as high as possible.
5. Pause and contract your hip adductor at the top.
6. Return to the starting position.
7. Repeat for reps before switching sides. 

9. Frog Stretch

How to perform:

1. Start in a tabletop position with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.
2. Lower yourself to your forearms while slowly sliding your knees away from each other. 
3. Turn your feet outward so that your inner feet and knees are touching the floor.
4. Slowly, rock back and forth and left and right in this position.

The frog stretch is one of the best hip adductor exercises for folks with tight adductors.

10. Slider Slide Lunge

How to perform:

1. Stand upright with a shoulder-wide stance, one foot on a sliding disc and the other planted on the ground. 
2. Push your hips back and slide the disc far out to your side while lowering your hips, bending your other knee, and keeping your leg extended. Keep your weight on the heel of your planted foot.
3. Lower yourself until the thigh of your bent leg is parallel to the floor.
4. Pause and contract the adductor of your extended leg at the bottom.
5. Stand up by sliding your foot back to the starting position.
6. Repeat for reps before switching sides.

11. Kneeling Slider Adduction

How to perform:

1. Kneel on the floor and place a slider under each knee.
2. While maintaining an upright torso, slowly slide your knees apart as far as you can possible. 
3. Pause and contract your adductors at the bottom.
4. Return to the starting position by closing the knees.
5. Repeat.

12. Seated Banded Adduction

How to perform:

1. Wrap a resistance band around a solid anchor, such as a power rack or another piece of equipment.
2. Sit on an elevated platform with either side of your body facing the anchor point and band.
3. Wrap the band around the knee that is closer to the anchor point.
4. Sit at such a distance from the anchor point so that there is tension on your adductor at the bottom of the movement.
5. Allow the band to slowly pull your leg toward the anchor point.
6. Bring your leg back toward the midline of your body by contracting your adductors. Pause and contract your adductor at this point.
7. Repeat for desired reps before switching sides.

13. Cable Hip Adduction

How to perform:

1. Stand next to a cable pulley adjusted around the calf level and use an ankle strap attachment for the exercise.
2. Attach the strap to the ankle closest to the pulley and take a couple of steps away from it. 
3. Stand upright with a closer than shoulder-width stance. This will be your starting position.
4. Brace your core and place one hand on the pulley machine and the other on your side or abdomen.
5. Lift the leg attached to the pulley off the floor and allow the pulley to slowly pull your leg. Contract your adductors at the bottom.
6. Return to the starting position and squeeze your inner thighs again.
7. Completed desired reps before switching sides.

14. Hip Adduction Machine

How to perform:

1. Setup in an upright position with your back against the pad and your spine neutral.
2. Slowly pull the legs together as you squeeze the pads inward. Pause and contract your adductors at the top.
3. Return to the starting position in a controlled motion. Squeeze your inner thighs at the bottom.
4. Repeat for desired repetitions.

Wrapping Up

You’re developing an Achilles heel in your upper legs by not training your adductors. Hip adduction exercises can be the key to powerful, athletic movement. Add them to your workouts to build lower body strength and improve your aesthetics.

Furthermore, you could use a resistance band in most exercises mentioned above to make the movement harder by adding more resistance. 

References

1. Moreno-Pérez V, Nakamura FY, Sánchez-Migallón V, Domínguez R, Fernández-Elías VE, Fernández-Fernández J, Pérez-López A, López-Samanes A. 2019. The acute effect of match-play on hip range of motion and isometric strength in elite tennis players. PeerJ 7:e7940 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7940
2. Delmore RJ, Laudner KG, Torry MR. Adductor longus activation during common hip exercises. J Sport Rehabil. 2014 May;23(2):79-87. doi: 10.1123/jsr.2012-0046. Epub 2013 Aug 12. PMID: 23945760.

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