Training guide
The hip abduction machine is the seated machine where you push your knees apart against pads on the outsides of your legs. Set the start width so you aren't stretched, sit back against the pad, push out as far as is comfortable, pause, and come back slowly. Do 2 to 3 sets of 12 to 20, once or twice a week.
It trains the glutes on the side of your hip, the gluteus medius and minimus, as well as floor exercises do. Sitting upright keeps the gluteus medius working hardest; leaning forward shifts more of the work to your other glutes, but no study shows it builds more. What the machine can't do is slim your thighs or change where you store fat. This guide covers the set-up, leaning, the adduction machine, sets and reps, knee and hip pain, and the claims.
The gluteus medius and minimus on the side of your hip, the upper part of the gluteus maximus and, a little, the tensor fasciae latae at the front of the hip. On the machine, the gluteus medius worked as hard as in clamshells and side-lying raises, with less help from the front of the hip than the side-lying raise; an elastic band drew more gluteus medius activity than the machine in another study.
In the one study of leaning on the machine, a preprint that hasn't been peer reviewed, a strong forward lean lowered gluteus medius activity, though the front-of-hip muscle dropped even more. Bending the hip shifts abduction work towards the gluteus maximus. No study compares muscle growth between the positions.
In one 10-week trial of 17 adults, side-hip training with a cable (not the seated machine) grew the upper gluteus maximus about 10% and the gluteus medius and minimus about 4%. In another trial, squats and hip thrusts barely grew the medius and minimus. Squats, hinges and hip thrusts still build most of the glutes.
Across 13 studies of 1,158 people, training one area didn't take more fat off it. After 12 weeks of one-leg training, fat came off the arms and trunk, not the trained leg.
Adding hip strengthening to knee strengthening eased kneecap pain more than knee exercises alone. For tendon pain on the outside of the hip, education plus exercise did better than a steroid injection. With outer hip pain, keep side-hip work to no extra pain over the bony point, as our outer hip pain guide says.
2 to 3 sets of 12 to 20, 60 seconds' rest, the last set 0 to 2 reps short of failure, once or twice a week, as our glute and leg workouts use it. Count it towards your weekly glute sets.
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You sit with your back against a pad, knees bent and feet on footrests, with pads against the outsides of your knees, and push your knees apart (abduction). On many machines the same seat becomes the adduction or inner thigh machine by moving the pads to the insides of your knees, and you squeeze your knees together instead. A pin or lever sets the starting width.
The gluteus medius and gluteus minimus sit on the outer side of the hip and hold your pelvis level when you stand on one leg, as when you walk or climb stairs. The machine works them about as hard as the floor exercises do.
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With your hip bent, as it is when you sit, the gluteus maximus helps with abduction more, and side-hip training grew its upper part in a trial.
A small muscle at the front of the hip that also helps. It worked less on the machine than in side-lying raises, and less as the hip bent further.
Hip shape and how far your knees can comfortably open vary, so set the width and range to suit you. Tendon pain on the outside of the hip is more common in women: 167 of the 204 people in the main trial were women. Pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain can be worse when you move your legs apart.
Steps 1, 3, 4 and 5 follow our hip abduction machine and thigh abductor machine move pages; the weight guess follows our plans' method; the tempo is editorial. Step 6 is optional: no study shows a lean builds more muscle.
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The movement on the figure: Hip abduction machine
14 trained adults (11 men, 3 women) did 3 reps at 60% of their 6-rep maximum reclined, sitting upright and leaning forward. Gluteus medius activity was alike reclined and upright and lower leaning forward (its peak was 42% higher reclined than leaning forward). The front-of-hip muscle dropped steadily as the hip bent, so leaning forward gave the medius the biggest share of the work. It's a preprint that hasn't been peer reviewed, it measured activity rather than growth, and the participants found the angles hard to hold.
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27 men lying on their backs held abduction at hip angles from straight to 80° bent. The gluteus maximus worked harder the more the hip was bent, the front-of-hip muscle less, and the gluteus medius the same. These were static holds, not reps on a machine.
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Sit upright with your back on the pad as your default: it kept the gluteus medius working as hard as anything tested. If a slight forward lean feels better, use it, and keep it the same every set. Nobody has tested which position builds more muscle, so neither is a must.
In 11 men doing ten maximal reps of each, gluteus medius activity was the same on the machine, in clamshells and in side-lying abduction. The front-of-hip muscle worked harder in side-lying abduction, so the machine gave the medius the biggest share of the work.
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In 16 untrained women, abduction against an elastic band drew more gluteus medius activity than the seated machine, while the inner thigh muscles worked alike on the band and the adduction machine. We read this study as an abstract, which doesn't say how the band exercise was done.
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Across 56 studies of muscle activity, the hip hitch, resisted standing abduction, the single-leg bridge, side-lying abduction with the hip turned in, the lateral step-up and resisted side-stepping drew high activity in the gluteus medius. The machine is one good option among several.
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17 young adults trained one leg with cable hip abduction and the other with cable hip extension, about 10 sets a week over 2 sessions, for 10 weeks. Abduction grew the upper gluteus maximus 10%, its middle 4% and lower part 1%, and the gluteus medius and minimus 4%; extension grew the gluteus maximus more overall (9% against 5%), mostly its lower part. It's one small trial, with cables rather than the seated machine, and we read it as an abstract.
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In 34 untrained young adults, 9 weeks of squats or hip thrusts grew the gluteus maximus about equally, but the gluteus medius and minimus showed little to no growth with either.
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A meta-analysis of 13 studies of 1,158 people aged 14 to 71 found no extra fat loss in a trained limb. When 11 young adults trained one leg for 12 weeks, fat fell 10.2% in the arms and 6.9% in the trunk, but not in the trained leg.
When 12 pairs of identical twins were overfed by 1,000 kcal a day for 84 days, the weight they gained ranged from 4.3 to 13.3 kg, and each pair matched closely in where they stored fat.
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Across 14 trials of 673 people, hip and knee strengthening eased pain and improved activity more than knee strengthening alone, and the benefit lasted after treatment. Other reviews agree, though many trials were small. The trials used a range of hip exercises, not specifically this machine.
In 89 people with osteoarthritis on the inner side of the knee, 12 weeks of hip abductor and adductor strengthening improved pain, function and strength but didn't change the load on the knee.
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A review of hip strengthening across trunk and leg conditions, including back pain, rated the certainty of its effects very low to uncertain.
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In 204 people aged 35 to 70 with tendon pain on the outside of the hip, 14 sessions of education plus exercise over 8 weeks succeeded for 51 of 66, against 38 of 65 after a steroid injection and 20 of 68 with wait and see; education plus exercise still led at a year.
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In 7 people with sensor-fitted hip replacements, about 17 months after surgery, leg press, leg curl, leg extension and standing cable exercises loaded the hip no more than walking. The seated abduction machine wasn't tested.
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In 652 semi-professional footballers, an adductor programme built on the Copenhagen exercise cut groin problems by 41%. That's evidence for the Copenhagen plank, not the adduction machine.
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Squats, hinges and hip thrusts build most of the gluteus maximus. The abduction machine adds work for the side glutes, which squats and hip thrusts barely grew in one trial, and for the top of the gluteus maximus, which grew most with side-hip training in another. Our glutes guide puts one side-hip move on each glute day.
In the one study that compared them directly, the machine, clamshells and side-lying raises worked the gluteus medius alike, and a band drew more than the machine in another. The machine is the easiest to load in small steps; bands and floor moves need no equipment.
Our move page. In one study it worked the inner thigh muscles about as hard as an elastic band did; like the abduction machine, it doesn't slim the thighs.
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The movement on the figure: Hip adduction machine
2 to 3 sets of 12 to 20, 60 seconds' rest, the last set 0 to 2 reps short of failure: 3 sets in our glute gym workout and 2 in our lower body, machine leg and glute challenge workouts. A heavier option is our thigh abductor move page's 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12, stopping 2 or 3 reps short.
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Do 2 sets and keep 3 or 4 reps to spare for your first two weeks, as our plans say.
Once or twice a week, counted within your weekly glute sets: our glutes guide suggests 10 to 20 hard glute sets a week, about 5 of them side-hip work in our glute plan. The growth trial used about 10 sets of abduction a week, which is more than most people need.
There are no useful standards for men or women: the numbers depend on the machine's lever and pad position. Choose a weight you can push 12 to 20 times with a slow return and no rocking, and add the smallest step when every set reaches 20.
Use a narrower pin setting so each rep doesn't start at the end of your range.
Come back over 2 to 3 seconds: this is the usual way the machine is misused.
Lighten the weight and move only at your hips.
Pick upright or a slight forward lean and keep it.
Use a smaller range and lighter weight, and follow our outer hip pain guide.
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Side-hip strengthening earns its place alongside knee exercises. The machine is one way to do it; side-lying raises and band work are others. Our runner's knee guide has a full plan.
Start with our outer hip pain guide's staged plan, which begins with gentle holds, and keep side-hip work to no extra pain over the bony point. See a GP if hip pain stops your normal activities, keeps coming back or hasn't improved after 2 weeks of looking after it yourself.
Follow your surgeon's and physiotherapist's timeline. The one load study was about 17 months after surgery and didn't test this machine.
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The hip abduction machine at 2 to 3 sets of 12 to 20 (our glute workouts) or its thigh abductor move page's 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12; the adduction machine at 2 sets of 12 to 20 (our editorial starting point); side-lying leg raises, 12 each side for 3 rounds, and clamshells, 2 sets of 12 to 15 each side (our home and beginner workouts); band walks, 10 steps each way (our glute gym workout); standing band abduction, 1 to 2 sets of 12 to 15 each side (our glute challenge workout B); the side plank with a leg lift, 2 sets of 8 to 10 each side, once side planks are steady; for outer hip pain, the supine and standing holds at their move pages' doses.
3D demoHip abduction machineBeginner · Strength machine
3D demoThigh abductor machineBeginner · Strength machine
3D demoHip adduction machineBeginner · Strength machine
3D demoSide-lying leg raiseBeginner · No equipment
3D demoClamshellBeginner · No equipment
3D demoLateral band walkBeginner · A band
3D demoStanding band hip abductionBeginner · A band + An anchor point
3D demoSide plank with leg liftAdvanced · No equipment
3D demoSupine isometric hip abduction (belt press)Beginner · A band
3D demoStanding wall-press hip abductionBeginner · A wallHip thrusts, 3 sets of 6 to 10 (our glute gym workout); goblet squats, 3 sets of 8 to 12, and dumbbell Romanian deadlifts, 3 sets of 8 to 10 (our strength workout for rowers); the Copenhagen plank, 1 set of 3 to 15 each side starting with the short lever, and the lying ball squeeze, 5 holds of 5 to 10 seconds, for the inner thighs; the two stretches for 30 seconds or so if they feel good.
3D demoBarbell hip thrustIntermediate · A barbell + A bench or box
3D demoDumbbell goblet squatIntermediate · A dumbbell
3D demoDumbbell Romanian deadliftIntermediate · A dumbbell
3D demoCopenhagen plankAdvanced · A bench or box
3D demoLying adductor ball squeezeBeginner · Other / check instructions
3D demoReclined figure four (eye of the needle, Sucirandhrasana)Beginner · No equipment
3D demoHalf-kneeling hip flexor stretchBeginner · No equipmentStart with gentle holds and a narrow range, and build up as our outer hip pain guide sets out.
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If you're used to the machine, lighter weights are usually fine; tell the instructor you're pregnant. Pelvic girdle pain can be worse moving your legs apart, so skip it if it hurts, and call your midwife or GP if it's hard to move around or painful on stairs.
The abduction and adduction machines aren't pelvic floor training. For stress incontinence, pelvic floor muscle training cured 56% of women against 6% with no treatment in a Cochrane review; our pelvic floor guide shows how.
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Breathe out through every effort and keep the weights moderate, as our breathing guide says. If your blood pressure is 140/90 or higher and not yet controlled, check with your GP first.
The glute gym workout uses the machine for 3 sets; the machine leg, lower body and glute challenge workouts for 2; the home glute workout uses side-lying raises and clamshells instead.
A 50-minute gym glute workout: hip thrusts, deep squats, Bulgarian split squats, back extensions and hip abduction, with sets, reps and rest.
50 minIntermediate11 movesA band, A barbellA 45-minute leg day on machines only: the leg press, then leg extensions and seated leg curls for the muscles it misses, hip abduction and calf presses.
45 minBeginner10 movesCardio machine, Strength machineA gym lower body workout for legs and glutes: trap bar deadlifts, hip thrusts, reverse lunges, leg curls, hip abduction, calf raises and core.
50 minIntermediate13 movesOther / check instructions, A barbellSession A of the 30-day glute challenge: a bridge-to-hip-thrust ladder, a split squat ladder and side-hip work, at home or in the gym.
20 minBeginner16 movesA wall, A bandA 25-minute glute workout with bodyweight and a mini band: bridges, clamshells, band walks, kickbacks and lunges.
25 minBeginner9 movesA wall, A bandEach of these plans uses a workout with the hip abduction machine.
An 8-week glute workout plan: two glute days and two upper-body days a week, with hip thrusts, squats, hinges and side-hip work, plus a home option.
4 training days50 minIntermediate3 days a weekA free 30-day glute challenge for home or the gym: three 20-minute sessions a week with bridges, split squats, hinges and side-hip work, and rest days.
3 training days20 minBeginner4 days a weekA 4-day upper/lower split: two upper body and two lower body gym days, each muscle trained twice a week, with sets, reps and progression.
4 training days50 minIntermediate6 days a weekA 6-day push/pull/legs plan for experienced lifters: two push, two pull and two leg days, with sets, reps, rest and lighter weeks.
6 training days55 minAdvancedIf you get chest pain or pressure, feel faint or dizzy, are unusually breathless, or your heart races or beats irregularly during exercise, as our plans advise. The American Heart Association says these need immediate medical evaluation before you train again.
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For chest pain that feels tight or like squeezing, or spreads to your arms, neck or jaw; a headache that starts suddenly and is extremely painful, especially while straining; someone who faints while exercising; palpitations that don't go away, or come with chest pain, breathlessness or feeling faint; or severe difficulty breathing. Don't drive yourself to A&E.
Call 999 or go to A&E for severe hip pain after a fall or injury, or if you can't walk or put weight on the leg. Ask for an urgent GP appointment or call NHS 111 for severe hip pain that started suddenly without an injury, or a hip that's swollen and hot.
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Get help from NHS 111 if it's very painful or getting worse, the swelling or bruising is large or growing, you can't put weight on it, or it isn't getting better with self-care.
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See a GP if you think you have a hernia. Get help from NHS 111 if you have a hernia and pain in or around it, a bloated tummy, sickness, constipation, a high temperature or sudden confusion. Call 999 or go to A&E only for a femoral hernia with very bad tummy pain, sickness, being unable to fart or poo, a high temperature or sudden confusion. After an inguinal hernia repair, avoid heavy lifting for at least 4 to 6 weeks.
See a GP after any faint, and for dizziness that won't go away or keeps coming back.
Training one area didn't take fat off it across 13 studies, and one-leg training took fat off the arms and trunk instead. ACE (the American Council on Exercise) says the same: sitting in this machine won't reduce the size of your thighs.
No exercise takes fat off one place, and where you store fat is strongly influenced by your genes.
Exercise can't move fat to or from one place, and the side glutes grew only about 4% in 10 weeks in the one trial. The shape of the side of your hips isn't something a machine sets.
Leaning forward shifted the share of work towards the glutes but lowered gluteus medius activity, in a preprint; leaning back raised the front-of-hip muscle's share. No study compares growth.
ACE's trainers prefer standing exercises such as band walks and step-ups. But the machine worked the gluteus medius as well as floor exercises, and side-hip training grew the side glutes, which squats and hip thrusts barely did.
The muscle studies included men and women, the side-hip glutes steady everyone's pelvis on one leg, and women and men build muscle at similar rates relative to where they start.
The gluteus medius and minimus on the side of your hip, the upper part of the gluteus maximus and the tensor fasciae latae at the front of the hip. On the machine, the gluteus medius worked as hard as in clamshells and side-lying raises.
Sit upright as your default: in the one study of leaning on the machine, a preprint, upright kept the gluteus medius working hardest. A slight forward lean is fine if it feels better and shifts a little more work to your other glutes. No study shows either builds more muscle, so keep the same position each set.
Two or three sets of 12 to 20, resting about 60 seconds, with the last set ending 0 to 2 reps short of failure, once or twice a week. Count them within your weekly glute sets.
One you can push 12 to 20 times with a slow return and no rocking. The numbers differ between machines, so there are no useful standards for men or women.
A little. In one 10-week trial using cable abduction, the upper gluteus maximus grew about 10% and the gluteus medius and minimus about 4%. Hip thrusts, squats and hinges build most of the glutes.
No. Training one area doesn't take fat off it, and where your body stores fat is strongly influenced by your genes. It builds strength on the side of your hips, which is worth having for its own sake.
Not quickly or by much: the side glutes grew about 4% in 10 weeks of hard training in one trial. The fat over your hips doesn't change with this exercise.
Abduction pushes your knees apart and works the side of your hips; adduction squeezes them together and works your inner thighs. Neither slims the thighs, but both are useful strength work.
Side-hip strengthening added to knee exercises eased kneecap pain more than knee exercises alone in 14 trials. The machine is one way to do it; side-lying raises and band work are others.
Pain on the outside of the hip bone is often the gluteal tendons. Use a narrower start, a lighter weight and a smaller range, aim for no extra pain over the bony point, and see our outer hip pain guide. See a GP if it hasn't improved after 2 weeks.
If you're used to it, often yes, with lighter weights; tell the instructor you're pregnant. Pelvic girdle pain can be worse moving your legs apart, so skip it if it hurts and talk to your midwife.
Side-lying leg raises, clamshells, band walks and standing band abduction work the same muscles. In one study, an elastic band drew more gluteus medius activity than the machine.
Exercise education, not a personal prescription, and clinical review of these guides is pending. Check with a GP before starting hard training if you have a heart condition, chest pain, dizziness or breathlessness when active, and stop for sharp or increasing pain. Health disclaimer.
