Have you ever finished a hill or track workout and wondered why the insides of your thighs felt so tight? The adductors are a set of muscles that run from inside the hip to just above the knee. They help position the femur in the running stride. When you up the incline or pick up the pace, they have to work harder and might end up feeling tight. Today we’ll show you the best adductor exercises to help you build strength, get rid of soreness, and prevent injury.
Diagram from wikipedia (greatest website in the world besides this one)
Nerdy note: aBductors rotate the hip outward (away from the centerline of the body) and aDductors rotate the hip inwards towards the centerline! Sometimes medical pros will pronounce these as “A.D. ductor” and “A.B. ductor” for clarity!
Why runners should strengthen their adductors
Runners should strengthen their adductors if they frequently feel sensations of tightness or soreness on the inside of their thighs. We know from some very interesting research that muscle range of motion does not correlate with sensations of tightness (study). Crazy right? A feeling of “tightness” is just the body’s way of communicating (from the muscle to the conscious mind) that your training load has gone beyond your muscle’s training tolerance. It’s not saying “I’m not flexible” – it’s saying “I’m not strong enough for this. If you keep going in this direction you might end up with an injury.”
The way to get rid of these sensations of tightness is to strengthen the muscle. This increases its training tolerance, and over time will likely prevent it from sending those tightness and soreness signals.
The best adductor exercises for runners
When we want to make a muscle stronger we need to rely on the science of “progressive overload.” That’s just a fancy way of saying, “gradually increase the difficulty of your exercises over time.” We’ll start by showing you an easy adductor exercise, then we’ll show you how to make it harder as you get stronger.
Introductory Adductor Exercise: Adductor lifts with Bench
Why it works: This is a great way to start building strength in your hip adductors. Be sure to go slow. You’ll be surprised how challenging it is!
Adductor Exercise #2: Eccentric Adductors with Bench (in side plank position)
Why it works: this is the progression of the first exercise. The important part is the lowering phase so be sure to go slow.
Adductor Exercise #3: Lateral Lunges
Why it works: When we step out, our adductors work hard to position the femur. This also works the quads, which are critical for every aspect of running health.
You can try this routine, along with a few other key exercises, in the Recover Athletics app. The Recover App helps runners fix aches and pains and prevent injury. A year’s subscription costs less than one trip to physical therapist and we have an unlimited free trial. Give the app a try today!
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