Gracilis

Stretches for the Gracilis

Your gracilis is a long, slender muscle that runs down the inside of each thigh. It crosses from the lower end of your pelvis to the top of your tibia, the larger of the two bones in your lower leg. Because it crosses multiple joints, your...

Gracilis Stretch

The gracilis is a long, thin muscle that stretches from your pubic symphysis in the groin and inserts in the medial tendon that attaches to your tibia. It works with other leg muscles to flex the hip and knee joints and to move your leg toward and...

Gracilis Exercises for Women

The gracilis is a long, thin, superficial muscle of the inner thigh. It works with your adductor muscle group to bring your thighs together. The gracilis also flexes and medially rotates your thigh and works with your hamstrings to flex your knee....

Sartorius & Gracilis Injuries

If you are an active person, you likely rely on your thigh muscles to move the leg forward, backward and to the side. Two muscles, the Sartorius and gracilis are integral to these movements. When injury occurs, this can sideline you from activity...

Exercises for the Gracilis Muscle

The gracilis is a long, thin muscle that runs along the inside of your thigh. Along with three other muscles near the same location, the gracilis helps adduct your thigh at the hip joint, moving it toward and across the center of your body....

Gracilis Muscle Hurts When You Play Soccer

The gracilis muscle is one of the five adductor muscles that make up the groin, connecting the pelvis bone to the knee. Playing soccer can cause strains or tears to the muscle, which is usually felt more when active. Consult your physician if you...

How to Build Gracilis Muscle

Your gracilis muscle is a long, thin, superficial muscle located in your inner thigh. The book "Anatomy and Physiology" notes that the muscle works with the adductor muscle group to adduct, flex and medially rotate your thigh. Your gracilis also...

How to Strengthen the Gracilis & Biceps Femoris

The gracilis and biceps femoris are related muscles that work together to perform common movements, such as bending your knees. The gracilis is an inner thigh muscle that also turns the hip inwards and brings it laterally toward your body. The...

The Muscles in the Inner Thigh Which Flex the Leg

Anatomically, the term "leg" refers just to the lower leg, below the knee. Flexing your leg is the same thing as bending your knee. Only one leg flexor, the gracilis, lies entirely in the region of the inner, or medial, thigh. However, the tendons...

Leg Muscles in the Body

Your leg muscles are a large powerful group of muscles that act on the hip, knee and ankle joints. You rely on them to stand and walk, sometimes run and jump, maybe even hop or skip. Understanding their complex anatomy will give you a new...

How to Find Inner Thigh Exercises

Your inner thigh muscles draw your legs toward the midline of the body. Such muscles include your adductor magnus, adductor longus, adductor brevis and the gracilis. All adductor muscles and your gracilis originate on your pubic bone. The...

Lateral Stepping Stretches

Tightness in the inner thigh can be problematic and lead to movement compensations that will predispose you to groin injuries, according to Dr. Vincent Morelli's overview of groin injuries appearing in the "American Family Physician". Groin...

What Do Leg Curls Strengthen Besides Hamstrings?

Leg curls are an isolation exercise to strengthen the muscles at the back of the thigh. To perform a leg curl, flex your lower leg toward your buttocks against resistance. The move may be done in a standing, lying, or sitting position on...

How to Strengthen the Top of the Inner Thigh

The top of your inner thigh is made up of three main adductor muscles. From highest to lowest, these thigh muscles are the pectineus, adductor longus and gracilis muscles. You have other inner thigh muscles that will also be toned while you're...

What Muscles Are Used in Leg Curls?

Leg curls help you add size and strength to your rear thigh muscles. The exercise is performed on a machine by curling your legs against a form of resistance. The machine can include a padded support or set of cables attached to ankle cuffs to...

Hip Muscle Strengthening Exercises

The muscles and bones of your hip joints must remain strong to maintain your functional capacity. Your hip joint is a ball and socket joint, which means the muscles of that joint can move your leg bone forward, backward, sideways, at a diagonal...

Muscles of the Hip Area

Numerous muscles cross your hip joints, providing weight-bearing support and facilitating abduction, adduction, extension, external rotation, flexion and internal rotation ranges of motion. The hip muscles allow you to execute basic movements,...

Will an Elliptical Machine Tone My Lower Body?

Cardiovascular exercise is performed for an extended time in a repetitive fashion. This type of exercise increases your heart rate and causes you to break a sweat. Elliptical training falls into the category of cardiovascular exercise. If you are...

What Muscles Do Jumping Jacks Work?

If you show up early enough to a sporting event, you might see the participants performing jumping jacks, either collectively or individually, as part of their pre-game routine. The exercise, which involves spreading your legs apart and arcing...

What Muscles Do Leg Lifts Strengthen?

Lifting your legs against the force of gravity while lying on your back, front or side helps strengthen the muscles that surround and act on your hip joints. Learning about these muscles can help you determine how to incorporate leg-lift exercises...

What Does the Leg Curl Work?

The leg curl is a resistance training exercise that works the upper legs. When you do a resistance exercise, there are three muscles involved: the target, synergist and stabilizers. The target is the muscle performing the movement, the synergists...

ACL Rehab Strategies

An anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, injury involves the knee, specifically the ligament connecting the anterior tibial plateau to the posterior femoral intercondylar notch. Vigorous activities such as sports and weight training frequently cause...

How to Work Out the Inside of the Thigh

The muscles located on the inside of your thigh include your hip adductors, pectineus and gracilis. This collection of muscles contract to adduct your hip joint, or bring your legs back to the center line of your body after being spread out....

How to Exercise the Muscle Inside Your Legs

The inside of your legs is comprised of several muscles, called hip adductors. These include four short and mid-length muscles and the long, slender gracilis that reaches all the way to your inner ankle. You stretch these when you sit in a...

ACL Surgery Options

A torn anterior cruciate ligament can result in an unstable knee. Depending on symptoms and activity, the surgeon may present several options to repair or replace a torn ACL. The replacement options include using the patient's knee tendons or...

Sample Inner Thigh Exercise

The gracilis, adductor brevis, adductor longus and the pectineus are muscles that make up your inner thigh. The inner thigh adducts your leg, meaning this muscle group moves your leg across the vertical center plane of your body to the opposite...

Rehab for Hip Adductor Pain

The hip adductors include the adductor brevis, adductor longus, adductor magnus and gracilis muscles -- they cross the inside of the joint and attach to the inside of your thigh except the gracilis, which attaches to the tibia bone below your...

Do Hip Flexors Shorten or Lengthen in an Overhead Squat?

Your hip flexors shorten and lengthen in an overhead squat. The same is true for your hips, hamstrings and quadriceps. Some of the muscles stretch on the way down, others on the way up. Your hip flexors contribute to both the up and down action as...

Butterfly Groin Stretch

As its name suggests, the butterfly groin stretch targets the groin muscles, which are located within your inner thighs, crossing the inside of your hip joints. These muscles facilitate hip adduction, which occurs when you move your legs together...