Thigh Abductor

Muscles worked

Two muscle groups share the work: the quadriceps across the front of the thigh, which straighten the knee and, just as importantly, control it on the way back down and the hip abductors — gluteus medius and minimus, which drive the thigh away from the midline and keep the pelvis level when you stand on one leg.

Even with a single joint doing the moving, the muscle is not working alone — the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down; the glutes finish hip extension.

Every exercise for:QuadricepsAbductorsHamstringsGlutes

How this movement works

One joint moves, and it moves the load away from the body. With nothing recruited to assist, the target muscle reaches its own limit rather than the limit of the weakest link in a chain — which makes this useful for adding volume after the heavy compound work, not for opening a session.

It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.

What you need

The machine fixes the path, removing the balance demand and letting you train close to failure without a spotter. The cost is the stabilising work a free weight would have made you do.

Every exercise using:Machine

These train the quadriceps and abductors too, using equipment this one does not:

• Weighted Jump Squatbarbell
• All Fours Quad Stretchbody only
• Cable Deadliftscable
• Dumbbell Lungesdumbbell
• Front Squats With Two Kettlebellskettlebell

Difficulty

Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.

Of the 173 quadriceps exercises in this database, 70 are listed at beginner level.