The hip adduction machine is the abduction machine in reverse: you squeeze your knees together against the pads, training the inner thigh. The adductors are a surprisingly large muscle group that contribute to almost every squat and lunge you do, and this is the only place most gyms let you load them on their own.
How to do it
- Squeeze the knees together and control the way back out.
- Set the starting width to a stretch you can hold, not the machine maximum.
Common mistakes
- Starting from a stretch so wide it hurts before the first rep.
What it trains
- Adductors
- pull the thighs together against the pads — the whole movement
- Glutes
- stabilise the hip so the pull comes from the inner thigh rather than the torso
Variations and alternatives
Common questions
Is the adduction machine worth doing?
If your inner thigh is a weak point or you pull sumo, yes. The adductors are big and they work hard in a wide-stance squat or deadlift, so training them directly is not the wasted effort the machine's reputation suggests. If you are short on time, it is still the first thing to cut.
How wide should I set the starting position?
As wide as you can go and still feel a stretch rather than a strain. Going straight to the widest setting on a cold machine is the one reliable way to tweak a groin on it — open it up a notch at a time over your warm-up sets.
Will this slim down my inner thighs?
No. Training a muscle does not remove fat from the area around it, and no exercise targets fat in one place. The machine builds the adductors, which is a different outcome entirely.
In StackUp. Logged as weight and reps per set, and your heaviest working set decides whether the weight goes up next time. Get the app.
Legs
