Five muscles, including the pectineus, adductor longus, gracilis, adductor magnus, adductor brevis, and vastus medialis comprise the muscle group called the inner thighs or adductors. These muscles move your leg toward your body's center and stabilize your pelvis. Toning your inner thighs improves the appearance of your legs, protects or rehabilitates your knees from injury and enhances certain sport specific skills.
Exercise Selection
Adductor exercises fall into different categories. Choosing the best depends on your fitness goals. Closed chain exercises keep your feet in contact with the ground. These weight bearing activities help you maintain bone density, which may prevent osteoporosis. Closed chain inner thigh exercises also engage multiple muscle groups, and train the inner thighs to support your knees during sport-specific activities. Open chain exercises, in contrast, keep the foot in a free position. These isolation exercises zero in and tone the inner thigh muscles.
Rehabilitation and Basic Toning
Since knee surgeries such as anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction often cause medial knee instability, inner thigh exercises play a key role in the post operation rehabilitation. Physical therapists at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma use the side-lying adduction exercise. Lie on your injured side, keeping the leg extended. Bend your top knee, and place the foot on the floor in front of your bottom leg. Keep your heel turned toward the ceiling as you lift your bottom leg from the floor. Perform 20 repetitions. Side leg lifts are also an effective inner thigh exercise for those new to resistance training. Add ankle weights as your strength increases.
Sport Specific Training
The results of a 2002 study published in the "American Journal of Sports Medicine" show that slide board training is one type of exercise that prevents groin pulls in ice hockey players. Slide board exercise may also prevent medial knee injuries in athletes involved in sports with lateral movements, while improving lateral movement skills. Put the special slide board booties over your shoes, and stand with one foot on the end ramp, and the other on the board. Push off with your outside leg, and glide to the opposite end of the board.
Treadmill Training
Lateral treadmill training, suggests Auburn University exercise physiologist Michele Olson effectively balances the leg muscles. In an April, 2003 article featured in "Muscle and Fitness" magazine, she asserts that as a side benefit, it may even increase caloric expenditure , thereby decreasing all-over body fat. Place the machine at a slight incline, and stand sideways. Turn on the machine, beginning with a slow pace. Hold the handrails as needed, and step sideways with your top foot, bringing it closer to the treadmill console. Bring your bottom foot up to meet it. Gradually increase the incline and tempo. Perform a 20-minute workout, or 10 minutes on each side.
References
- Nismat.org; Orthopedic Sports Medicine Corner: Guidelines for the 1st Week after ACL Reconstruction ; March 8, 2007
- The American Journal of Sports Medicine; The Effectiveness of a Preseason Exercise Program to Prevent Adductor Muscle Strains in Professional Ice Hockey Players; Timothy F. Tyler et al, 2002
- Muscle and Fitness; Thighology; Kat Ricker; April 2003
- Momentum Media; Sliding Through; Mike Boyle;October, 2001
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