These Inner-Thigh Exercises Will Strengthen Your Whole Lower Body

Plan your average week of lower-body workouts , and you might decide to treat your glutes to heavy hip thrusts and squats. You could add in good mornings to fire up your hamstrings, plus lunges and leg extensions to work your quads. But you may not be giving your inner-thigh exercises as much forethought.

Your inner thighs are made up by the pectineus, adductor brevis, adductor longus, adductor magnus, gracilis, and obturator externus. These muscles are collectively known as hip adductors, and they work together to adduct the leg (read: move the leg toward the midline of the body). Any time you're moving side-to-side or performing powerful movements, such as plyometrics , these muscles are firing up, says Khetanya Henderson , a NASM-certified personal trainer, 600-hour comprehensive Pilates instructor, and the founder of KKRU .



So, the best inner-thigh exercises target this group of muscles. Your adductor muscles also help stabilize the knees and hips — and, in turn, support proper alignment of all your joints, Henderson says. If your inner-thigh muscles aren't strong enough, your knee, for instance, can begin to cave inward, which can lead to a domino effect of changes in the positioning of your ankles and pelvis, she says.

"Our ankles, calves, knees, the muscles around the knees, inner thighs, outer thighs, glutes — we need all of that to work functionally together," says Henderson. "Because when one of those building blocks falls, then the building starts to collapse toward that side." Weak adductors are also a risk factor for muscle strain, hence the need for inner-thigh exercises.

For the record, it's impossible to "spot tone" specific areas of your body, a common misconception I hear as an ACE-certified personal trainer. You can use isolation exercises, moves that call on a single joint and rely primarily on one muscle group, to strengthen specific muscle groups. You'll reap the most benefits, though, when you continue to perform compound exercises — movements in which multiple joints and muscle groups all work in unison — along with your isolation moves.

All that's to say squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, good mornings, lunges, and some isolating inner-thigh exercises make for a well-balanced body. So on your next lower-body day, test out some of Henderson's favorite inner-thigh exercises shown here, many of which are compound moves that strengthen other muscle groups, too. Khetanya Henderson , is a certified personal trainer through NASM, 600-hour comprehensive Pilates instructor, and the founder of KKRU .

Alternating Side Lunge To best engage your adductors while practicing this compound inner-thigh exercise, imagine squeezing a big beach ball between your legs as you press up out of the lunge, suggests Henderson. For a low-impact variation, perform the movement without stepping out to the side; just stand with your feet spread wide, shift your weight to one side, and lower into a lunge. Do 10 to 12 reps on each side, alternating sides.

Curtsy Lunge With Side Kick Imagine squeezing a book between your thighs while you curtsy back into your lunge to activate your adductor muscles, says Henderson. Bonus: This move also targets your hip abductors (the muscles on the outside of your thigh and butt, specifically the gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, and tensor fascia latae) with the added kick to the side. Do 10 to 12 reps before repeating the steps on the opposite side.

Walking Lunge To engage your inner thighs during a walking lunge, "imagine you're driving your knee inside of a small space," says Henderson. "The wall on the inside is the inner thigh, the wall on the outside is the outer thigh. We're hugging them toward each other so that it keeps the placement of the knee.

" To scale down, try a forward lunge and return to standing rather than immediately stepping into your next rep. Do 10 to 12 reps. Slider Lunge A classic reverse lunge with a slider, demonstrated below, will surely call on your inner thigh muscles.

But if you want to up the challenge, use the sliders for a lateral lunge; you'll need to actively pull the foot on the slider back to the start using your adductors, says Henderson. Do 10 to 12 reps. Switch sides; repeat.

Squat Jump A squat jump becomes a difficult inner-thigh exercise when you focus on pulling your heels together as you leap toward the ceiling, Henderson says. Do 10 to 12 reps. Sumo Squat As you press up out of your sumo squat, imagine driving your heels together — without them actually moving — to further activate your inner-thigh muscles, Henderson says.

Do 10 to 12 reps. Step Up A step-up is a great progression once you've nailed the walking lunge, Henderson says. Plus, it mimics real-life conditions, like walking up your apartment building's stairs or climbing a steep hill on a hike.

Start with a low step or bench and slowly increase its height as you progress. Do 10 to 12 reps per side, alternating sides. Is It Better to Work Out in the Morning or at Night? Experts Settle the Debate Leg Lift This classic core movement works double-duty as an inner-thigh exercise.

To increase adductor engagement, perform the move with your heels together and toes apart (known as a Pilates "V"), picturing yourself holding a grain of sand between your feet, suggests Henderson. You can also place a small stability ball between your heels and ankles and squeeze the ball as you lower and lift, she adds. Do 10 to 12 reps.

Elbow Plank Though the forearm plank is often seen as a core-building movement, it can also help you strengthen your inner thighs, says Henderson. Place a yoga block in between your ankle to further activate your adductors and lift your pelvic floor — both of which make for a plank with perfect form and full-body engagement, she explains. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds.

Superman Lift The superman is a sneaky inner-thigh exercise, as it requires total-body engagement, says Henderson. By holding a yoga block between your ankles, you'll further activate your adductors which, in turn, can help protect your lower back, lift your pelvic floor, and further activate your core, says Henderson. Do 10 to 12 reps.

Clamshell A clamshell is often seen as a hip abductor exercise, but so long as you think about squeezing a ball when closing your shell, so to speak, you can get in some inner-thigh work, too, says Henderson. You can even use a small exercise ball in between your thighs to amp up that inner-thigh engagement. Do 10 to 12 reps.

Switch sides; repeat. Megan Falk is an experienced health and wellness journalist and editor whose work has been published by PS, Shape, Livestrong, Women's Health, Well+Good, mindbodygreen, Wide Open Spaces, and other outlets. She has served as an editor on Equinox's content team and at Shape, where she primarily covered exercise tips, fitness modalities, workout trends, and more.

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