Training guide
The hip adduction machine, also called the inner thigh machine, is the seated machine where you squeeze your knees together against pads on the insides of your legs. Its partner, the hip abduction machine, pushes them apart. Set the start width to a comfortable stretch, sit upright, squeeze in, and let your legs open slowly. Do 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15, once or twice a week: our editorial starting point, as no study gives a dose.
It works the adductors, the inner-thigh muscles that steady your hips and legs in sport and wide stances, roughly as hard as a resistance band in one small study. What it can't do is slim your inner thighs or train your pelvic floor, and nobody has tested it for preventing groin strains: that evidence belongs to the Copenhagen plank.
This guide covers the set-up step by step on the 3D figure, what the machine works, groin injuries, the thigh fat and pelvic floor claims, pregnancy, and options without a machine.
Sit upright with your back against the pad and the pads against the insides of your knees, squeeze your knees together, then let them open slowly. Adduction draws your legs in; the abduction machine pushes them out. The research set-up started with the legs about 45 degrees apart; set yours to a comfortable stretch, not your widest (editorial).
Source 1
In 16 untrained women, adductor longus activity on the machine rose with effort to 82% of maximum. Against an elastic band, the difference just missed statistical significance, so call them roughly similar. The biggest adductor, the adductor magnus, works more as a hip straightener than an adductor.
Weaker adductors went with more groin strains in male athletes, and a Copenhagen adductor programme cut groin problems by 41% in 652 male footballers. No trial has tested the machine for groin injuries.
Ball squeezes and the Copenhagen plank reach high adductor activity, and full squats grew the inner thighs 6.2% against 2.7% for half squats. The machine's advantage is that it's easy to load in small steps.
It won't slim your inner thighs: across 13 studies of 1,158 people, training one area didn't take more fat off it. It isn't pelvic floor training. And it isn't a women's machine: most adductor research is in male athletes.
2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15, 60 to 90 seconds' rest, once or twice a week: our editorial starting point, as in our Copenhagen plank guide, because no study or professional body gives a dose. Pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain is often worse moving your legs apart, so skip the machine if it hurts and tell your midwife.
Source 11
You sit with your back against a pad, hips and knees bent and feet on footrests, pads against the insides of your knees, and squeeze your knees together against the weight, then let them open under control. On many machines the same seat becomes the abduction (outer hip) machine by moving the pads to the outsides of your knees, as our abduction machine guide explains. A pin or lever sets the start width.
People call it the inner thigh machine, the adductor machine, the groin machine or the thigh machine. They all mean this one.
The adductor longus, brevis and magnus, the gracilis and the pectineus, on the inside of your thigh. They draw your legs together and help steady your hips. Our adductors page covers each one.
The biggest adductor mainly straightens the hip: in 15 young adults, its capacity for hip extension was more than twice that for adduction, and its leverage for extension grows as the hip bends. That's why squats, deadlifts and the leg press grow it.
How far your knees comfortably open varies, so the start width is personal. Men were stronger than women in adduction relative to body weight in a group of athletes, as our Copenhagen plank guide reports, but the muscles and the method are the same. Pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain is often worse moving your legs apart.
Source 11
The machine's numbers come from EMG (electromyography: electrodes measuring how hard a muscle works over a few reps), which isn't a validated predictor of what a muscle builds over months.
Source 16
On the machine: one muscle activity study we could read, in 16 untrained women, and a study of 40 male footballers whose machine values we couldn't read. The groin evidence: mostly male footballers and ice hockey players.
From our move page and the research set-up (seated upright, hands on the handles). The weight guess follows our plans' method; the start width and the 2 to 3 seconds' return are editorial, as in our abduction machine guide.
Loading the 3D figure…
The movement on the figure: Hip adduction machine
Sit upright with your back on the pad and your hips bent, as in the research set-up (hips bent about 80 degrees), and hold the handles.
Source 1
At a comfortable stretch, not the widest your legs will go. The research set-up started with the legs about 45 degrees apart. Starting at your end range puts the groin under load where it's weakest, so our advice is editorial: start narrower.
Source 1
Let your legs open over 2 to 3 seconds, without the stack slamming or pulling you wider than you set (editorial).
Nothing has tested a lean on the adduction machine, so sit upright (editorial). Our abduction machine guide covers leaning on the other machine.
Some gyms have a single-leg adduction machine or a cable version; the set-up rules are the same. There's no demo of the single-leg machine.
In 16 untrained women on a seated machine, adductor longus activity rose with effort: 46, 54, 63 and 82% of maximum. Compared with an elastic band, the difference just missed statistical significance (p = 0.0738, against the usual cut-off of 0.05), so the two look roughly similar, from one small study.
Source 1
Across adductor exercises in 40 male footballers, activity ranged from 14% to 108% of maximum, with the Copenhagen and band adduction among the high-intensity ones. A ball squeezed between the knees drew 118% of maximal adductor longus activity in 21 players.
In 24 students, side-lying adduction and ball squeezes drew more adductor longus activity than side lunges, rotational squats and sumo squats. No machine was tested.
Source 17
In a muscle-force model of 15 adults, the long-lever Copenhagen loaded every adductor most, and squats and step-ups loaded the hamstring-like part of the adductor magnus most. No machine was tested.
Source 13
Squeezing with the hips bent to 45 degrees drew the most adductor activity, and long-lever squeezes gave more force.
The Copenhagen exercise raised eccentric (lowering) adduction strength 35.7% in 8 weeks in 24 young footballers, 8.9% more than the FIFA 11+ warm-up alone, and 24 to 25% in professionals; a band programme raised it 30%. We found no strength trial of the machine.
Full squats grew the adductors 6.2% against 2.7% for half squats, back squats grew them more than hip thrusts, and the leg press grew the adductor magnus 6.2%.
In 11 women over 6 weeks, not every squat programme grew the hip extensors, a reminder that squats alone aren't guaranteed adductor work.
Source 25
In 21 novices, machine programmes that didn't load the adductors let the adductor magnus shrink a little while other muscles grew.
Source 26
Copenhagen training thickened the adductor longus about 18% in 45 men, gone after 4 weeks off, but added nothing in 12 under-17 players.
We found no training study of the seated machine for strength, size, groin injury, thigh fat or the pelvic floor. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) exercise library has only a standing cable adduction.
Source 29
In one professional ice hockey team, players whose adduction strength was under 80% of their abduction strength were 17 times more likely to strain an adductor, and a review linked weaker adductors with groin injury. Mostly men.
Pooled evidence in female athletes is very low certainty. In one group of 37 female footballers, those who went on to have groin problems had weaker adductors before the season.
In 652 semi-professional male footballers, the Adductor Strengthening Programme, built on the Copenhagen exercise, cut groin problems from 21.3% to 13.5% of players. One good cluster trial, with self-reported groin problems. That's evidence for the Copenhagen plank, not the adduction machine.
Source 5
An earlier exercise programme made no significant difference in 977 football players, and pooled across trials the effect wasn't significant (risk ratio 0.81).
No trial has tested the machine for groin injuries. Strong adductors are linked with fewer strains, so the machine is a reasonable way to build them alongside the Copenhagen plank; it just isn't proven. Professional teams in practice used 2 sets of 7 to 10 Copenhagen reps a side, twice a week, in pre-season.
In 68 athletes with long-standing adductor-related groin pain, active strengthening returned far more to sport than passive treatment, 23 against 4. Our groin strain and groin pain guides own treatment.
Source 35
Tenderness of the adductors plus pain when you squeeze your legs together against resistance, by a consensus definition. If the machine reproduces groin pain, stop and get it assessed rather than pushing through. Our Copenhagen plank and groin strain guides have the plans.
Source 36
2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15, 60 to 90 seconds' rest, most sets 2 or 3 reps short of failure and the last 0 to 2, once or twice a week. That's our editorial starting point, the dose our Copenhagen plank, sumo squat and sumo deadlift guides give; no study or professional body gives a dose for the machine.
2 sets with 3 or 4 reps to spare, as our plans say. People misjudge the reps they have left by about one.
Source 37
A weight you think you could squeeze about 15 times, with a slow return and no rocking. Stack numbers differ between machines, so compare yourself only with yourself; there are no useful standards for men or women.
Reach 15 on every set, then take the smallest stack step. Adding reps and adding load both worked as progression in a trial.
Source 38
60 to 90 seconds, as our plans give for isolation moves.
Source 39
For comparison, not as starting points: a band programme used 3 sets at a 15-rep maximum twice a week for 2 weeks, then 3 sets of 10 and 3 sets of 8 three times a week, over 8 weeks; the Copenhagen programme ran three levels three times a week through 6 to 8 weeks of pre-season, then once a week; a Danish trial built from 2 sets of 6 to 3 sets of 15 a side, twice a week; professional teams used 2 sets of 7 to 10 a side twice a week in pre-season.
Squats, leg presses and lunges train the adductors too, so the machine adds to them rather than replacing them.
A few minutes of easy cycling, some hip circles, then a light set, as the NHS and our plans advise.
Source 40
Use a narrower pin setting, at a comfortable stretch.
Open over 2 to 3 seconds, and lighten the weight if you can't.
Sit upright with your back on the pad, and move only at your hips.
Stop: pain when you squeeze against resistance is how adductor-related groin pain shows itself.
Source 36
Bring your knees together first, then step off.
Easiest first. The lying ball squeeze, 6 holds of 5 to 10 seconds (our inner thigh workout); the side-lying inner thigh lift, 10 to 12 each side (its move page's suggested starting point); cable adduction, 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 12 each side (our Copenhagen plank guide's editorial starting point); standing band adduction, 3 sets of 10 to 12 each side (our groin strain guide's editorial starting point); the Copenhagen plank, short lever first, 1 set each side of 3 to 5 slow reps, building to 12 to 15, 2 or 3 times a week (our Copenhagen plank guide, from the trials' progression). The ball squeeze, cable, band and Copenhagen move pages give no dose. Learning order (editorial): squeezes or side-lying lifts, then the machine or band, then the short-lever Copenhagen, then the long lever.
3D demoLying adductor ball squeezeBeginner · Other / check instructions
3D demoSide-lying inner thigh lift (Pilates side kick series)Beginner · No equipment
3D demoCable hip adductionBeginner · A cable machine
3D demoStanding band hip adductionBeginner · A band + An anchor point
3D demoCopenhagen plankAdvanced · A bench or boxOur move page's steps and cues: move from the hip and keep your pelvis level; stand closer to the post to make it easier. The cable version is the same movement with an ankle cuff on a low pulley.
Loading the 3D figure…
The movement on the figure: Standing band hip adduction
The hip abduction machine, the opposite movement, 2 to 3 sets of 12 to 20 (our abduction machine guide and glute and lower body workouts); plié dumbbell (sumo) squats, 8 to 12, stopping 2 or 3 reps short (our inner thigh workout); goblet squats, 3 sets of 8 to 12 (our goblet squat guide and full-body workouts); those three move pages give no dose. Cossack squats, 6 slow shifts per side, holding the last one; the 90/90 switch, 10 slow switches, pausing at the ends; frog rocks, 12 slow rocks; the side-lying groin stretch, 20 to 30 seconds, 2 to 4 times each side (all their move pages' doses).
3D demoHip abduction machineBeginner · Strength machine
3D demoPlié dumbbell squat (sumo squat)Intermediate · A dumbbell + A kettlebell
3D demoDumbbell goblet squatIntermediate · A dumbbell
3D demoCossack squatIntermediate · No equipment
3D demo90/90 switchIntermediate · No equipment
3D demoFrog rockIntermediate · No equipment
3D demoSide-lying groin stretchBeginner · No equipmentOur groin strain guide keeps pain at 3 out of 10 or less at first. After that, up to about 5 out of 10 that settles within an hour is acceptable; sharp pain mid-rep, or pain the next morning, is not. Leave the Copenhagen plank out during acute groin pain, as its move page says.
If you already use the machine and it's comfortable, the NHS says strength training at a gym is fine if you're used to it; tell the instructor you're pregnant, and check with your midwife if you're new to weights. Pelvic girdle pain is often worse moving your legs apart, for example getting out of a car: keep active but avoid what makes it worse, and call your midwife or GP if it's hard to move around or it hurts to turn over in bed. No health-service source mentions the machine, so skip it if it hurts (editorial).
The NHS advises avoiding heavy lifting to start with. Build back gradually; our postpartum guide covers it.
Source 45
Get advice before hard or straining work, and see the warning signs below; our hernia guide covers exercise.
Follow your surgical team's limits on how far your legs may move apart or together, and when.
The machine isn't pelvic floor training: see the myths below, and our pelvic floor guide for what is.
The adduction machine has been used to test strength and power in 37 people aged about 69, and 8 weeks of standing cable adduction and abduction power work improved side-to-side balance recovery in 18 older people. In one study, hip abductor strength, not adductor strength, separated people who fell from those who didn't.
Our adductor workout is the gym session built around the machine: dumbbell sumo squats, the machine, cable adduction, the abduction machine and short-lever Copenhagen planks. The inner thigh workout is the home version, with no machine. The hamstring and groin injury prevention session has the Copenhagen programme's three levels for football. The sumo deadlift and lower body gym workouts have room for the machine, 2 sets of 10 to 15 (our suggestion).
A 35-minute gym adductor workout: dumbbell sumo squats, the hip adduction machine, cable adduction and Copenhagen planks, with sets, reps and groin advice.
35 minBeginner10 movesCardio machine, A wallA 25-minute inner thigh workout at home: sumo squats with a dumbbell or kettlebell, Cossack squats, ball squeezes and Copenhagen planks, with bridges and hip mobility.
25 minIntermediate10 movesA dumbbell, A kettlebellThe Nordic hamstring and Copenhagen adduction programmes from the football trials: a 10-week build, three adductor levels, then once a week in season.
15 minIntermediate6 movesA wall, An anchor pointA 40-minute sumo deadlift session: open your hips, learn the wide stance with a dumbbell, then sumo deadlifts in sets of 5, a wide-stance hinge and a carry.
40 minIntermediate11 movesA dumbbell, A kettlebellA 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 barbellBoth plans use our lower body gym workout, where the adduction machine can join the abduction machine (our suggestion).
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 minIntermediate4 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 minIntermediateIf 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.
Source 49
For chest pain that comes on suddenly and doesn't go away, feels tight or like squeezing, spreads to your arms, neck, jaw, stomach or back, or comes with sweating, feeling sick, light-headedness or breathlessness; arm pain that comes on suddenly with pressure, heaviness or squeezing across your chest; severe difficulty breathing, or a chest that feels tight or heavy; someone who faints while exercising; palpitations that don't go away, or come with chest pain, shortness of breath or feeling faint; or a headache that starts suddenly and is extremely painful, especially while lifting or straining. The NHS says a bleed on the brain may be more likely when lifting something heavy. Don't drive yourself to A&E.
Ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111 for a headache that's triggered or made worse by coughing, sneezing, bending down or exercising.
Source 57
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 get help from NHS 111 for severe hip pain that started suddenly without an injury, or a hip that's swollen and hot. See a GP if hip pain hasn't improved after 2 weeks of looking after it yourself.
Source 59
A sudden sharp pain in the groin or inner thigh during a set: stop. Get help from NHS 111 if it's very painful or getting worse, badly swollen or bruised, or you can't put weight on it or walk more than a few steps. A pop high on the inner thigh with a large bruise, a dent, or weakness squeezing your legs together needs assessing within days, as it can be a complete tendon tear (our inner thigh pain guide).
Source 60
See a GP if you think you have a hernia, a bulge or lump that may get bigger when you strain and smaller when you lie down. Get help from NHS 111 if you have a hernia and pain in or around it, a bloated tummy, you feel or are sick, you're vomiting blood or your vomit looks like coffee grounds, you're constipated, you have a high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery, or you've suddenly become confused. Call 999 or go to A&E for a femoral hernia (a small lump at the top of your thigh, in your groin) with very bad tummy pain, sickness, being unable to fart or poo, a high temperature or sudden confusion.
The NHS lists lifting heavy weights among the causes of a femoral hernia. After an inguinal hernia repair, avoid heavy lifting or strenuous activity for at least 4 to 6 weeks.
With groin pain, see a GP. Our groin pain in men guide has the urgent signs.
Source 64
Call 999 or go to A&E: loss of feeling or numbness around the genitals or bottom, new trouble peeing or controlling your bladder or bowels, changes in genital sensation during sex or problems with erections or orgasm, or pain, tingling, weakness or numbness in both legs. These are signs of cauda equina syndrome, which needs treating in hospital urgently. Don't drive yourself.
Source 65
See a GP if pain spreading down a leg hasn't improved after a few weeks of home treatment, is getting worse or stops your normal activities. Sciatica on both sides, or weakness or numbness in both legs that's severe or getting worse, is a 999 call or a trip to A&E.
Source 66
Very sore, swollen, tight muscles and dark urine after an unusually hard or high-rep session need medical help the same day: it could be rhabdomyolysis, as our elbow pain from pull-ups guide explains. Normal soreness peaks a day or two after a new exercise and fades.
Speak to your GP first if you haven't exercised for some time or have medical conditions or concerns, as the NHS advises. Get advice before hard or straining work if your blood pressure is uncontrolled (140/90 or higher at a clinic, or 135/85 at home), or you have heart disease or chest pain when you're active, a pacemaker or defibrillator, diabetic eye disease, glaucoma, a hernia, recent eye or tummy surgery, or you're pregnant, as our breathing guide lists.
With controlled high blood pressure, the American Heart Association considers low- to moderate-intensity strength training with proper breathing safe: breathe out as you lift.
Across 13 studies of 1,158 people, training one area didn't take more fat off it; one-leg training took fat off the arms and trunk instead, and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans of 104 adults agreed. ACE says "spending the afternoon sitting in this machine will not reduce the size of your thighs". Where you store fat is strongly influenced by your genes. Two small belly-fat studies claim a local effect; nothing has shown it for the thighs. Our thigh fat guide covers what does change fat.
A band worked them roughly as hard in one small study; ball squeezes and the Copenhagen reached high activity; full squats, back squats and the leg press grew them; and equipment type didn't consistently change results across the reviews the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) pooled.
No trial has tested the machine. The 41% drop in groin problems came from the Copenhagen exercise in male footballers, and earlier mixed programmes didn't clearly help. Strong adductors are linked with fewer strains, so the machine is a reasonable way to build them; it just isn't proven.
Squeezing your thighs switches the pelvic floor on a little, but adding adduction didn't increase pelvic floor force in 20 women, reduced the pelvic floor's lift in 19 others, and added no pelvic floor strength in a trial in 47 women with bladder leaks. Pelvic floor training means training the pelvic floor itself; our pelvic floor guide shows how.
Almost all the adductor and groin evidence is in male footballers and ice hockey players. The muscles steady everyone's hips and legs.
Its target is the inner thigh. The adductor magnus does help straighten the hip, which is why squats and the leg press grow it; the side glutes are the abduction machine's job.
Source 2
No study supports it; the research set-up started about 45 degrees apart. A forced wide start puts the groin at the end of its range under load (our editorial advice).
Source 1
ACE's trainers prefer standing exercises, but the machine worked the adductors roughly as hard as a band in one small study, and it's easy to load in small steps. It's one good option among several.
Set the pads to the insides of your knees and the start width to a comfortable stretch, sit upright with your back on the pad and hold the handles. Squeeze your knees together, hold a moment, then let them open slowly over 2 to 3 seconds.
Your adductors, the inner-thigh muscles that draw your legs together. In a study on the machine, their activity rose with the weight, to about 82% of maximum near full effort.
Adduction squeezes your legs in and works your inner thighs; abduction pushes them out and works the side of your hips. Many gyms use one seat for both, with the pads moved. Our abduction machine guide covers the other one.
The hip adduction machine, also called the adductor, groin or inner thigh machine. Its partner, the hip abduction (outer thigh) machine, often shares the seat.
At a comfortable stretch, not the widest your legs will go. The research set-up started with the legs about 45 degrees apart, and starting at your end range puts the groin under load where it's weakest; that advice is ours, not a study's.
2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15, 60 to 90 seconds' rest, once or twice a week. No study or professional body gives a dose for this machine, so this is our starting point.
One you can squeeze 10 to 15 times with a slow return and no rocking; start with a guess of about 15 reps. Stack numbers differ between machines, so compare yourself only with yourself.
No. Training one area doesn't take the fat off it, across 13 studies of 1,158 people, and where you store fat is strongly influenced by your genes. It builds inner-thigh strength, which is worth having for its own sake; our thigh fat guide covers fat loss.
It hasn't been tested. Weaker adductors are linked with more groin strains, and a programme built on the Copenhagen exercise cut groin problems by 41% in male footballers, so building adductor strength makes sense; for field sports, the Copenhagen has the evidence.
Not usefully. Squeezing your thighs switches the pelvic floor on a little, but adding adduction didn't make pelvic floor contractions stronger in studies. Pelvic floor exercises are the way to train it.
If you already use it and it's comfortable, the NHS says strength training at a gym is fine if you're used to it; tell the instructor you're pregnant. Pelvic girdle pain is often worse moving your legs apart, so skip it if it hurts and talk to your midwife.
No. A band worked them roughly as hard in one small study, ball squeezes and the Copenhagen plank work them hard, and deep squats and the leg press grow them. The machine is just easy to load.
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.
