Adductors (hip adductor group)
Adductor longus, adductor brevis, adductor magnus, gracilis
Pronunciation: ad-DUK-tor MAG-nus
For beginners
These inner-thigh muscles pull your leg in toward your body's midline — think of squeezing your knees together, or stopping your leg from sliding out to the side.
Show the advanced explanation
Because the adductor group is large and crosses close to the hip's center of rotation, it also contributes meaningfully to hip extension and stabilization during wide-stance lifts like the sumo deadlift.
Structure & function
- Location
- The group of muscles on the inside of the thigh, running from the pelvis down toward the femur and knee.
- Origin
- Pubic bone (and ischium for adductor magnus).
- Insertion
- Along the shaft of the femur (linea aspera); gracilis continues to the tibia.
- Main action(s)
- Adducts the thigh at the hip (pulls it toward the midline); portions also assist hip flexion or extension depending on fiber orientation.
- Joint(s) crossed
- Hip joint (gracilis also crosses the knee)
- Movement plane
- frontal
- Innervation
- Obturator nerve (with some sciatic nerve contribution to adductor magnus)
- In daily movement
- Bringing the leg back toward the midline, such as crossing one leg in front of the other, and stabilizing the thigh side-to-side while walking.
- In exercise
- Stabilizes the thigh during squats and lunges, and is the prime mover in dedicated adduction exercises (cable/machine hip adduction).
- Commonly confused with
- Often thought of only as 'inner thigh' toning muscles, but they play a real stabilizing role in squats, lunges, and change-of-direction sports movements.
- Common misconceptions
- Groin strains are not always about weak adductors alone — training load, movement variety, and recovery all play a role.
Exercises that use this muscle
As a secondary / stabilizer
- Barbell Back Squat (secondary)
- Walking Lunge (secondary)
⚠ Safety note
Groin pain with a sudden onset (especially during a cutting or sprinting motion) is a classic adductor strain sign and should be assessed before continuing to train through it.
Sources
“The adductor muscles (longus, brevis, magnus) and gracilis adduct the thigh at the hip joint.”
Anatomy and Physiology 2e — OpenStax, Rice University · Ch. 11.6 Appendicular Muscles of the Pelvic Girdle and Lower Limbs
Peer-reviewed textbook · License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Last checked 2026-07-19
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