Yoga Glossary · Muscles
Adductors (inner thighs)
The inner-thigh muscles that draw the legs toward each other and steady the pelvis.
The adductors are a group of five muscles along the inner thigh — adductor longus, brevis and magnus, gracilis and pectineus — running from the front and underside of the pelvis to the inner thigh bone. They adduct the hip (drawing the leg toward the midline), assist hip flexion, and help stabilize the pelvis in standing.
In practice the adductors are the squeeze: hugging the thighs toward each other in Chair, drawing the legs together in handstand work, and stabilizing wide stances so the knees track safely. They lengthen in wide-legged poses — Wide-Leg Forward Fold, Triangle and Goddess-style stances — where their flexibility sets how wide and how deep the pose can go.
In practice
- A block squeezed between the thighs in Bridge or Chair is adductor strength work.
- In wide stances, weak adductors let the knees cave inward — hug the legs toward the midline instead.
- The deep inner-thigh stretch in Wide-Leg Forward Fold is this group lengthening.
Poses that engage it
- Chair Pose
- Warrior II
- Eagle Pose
- Standing Forward Fold
- Wide-Leg Forward Fold
- Locust Pose
- Bow Pose
- Camel Pose
- Bridge Pose
- Prayer Twist
- Boat Pose
- Crow Pose
Poses that lengthen it
- Warrior II
- Reverse Warrior
- Extended Side Angle
- Triangle Pose
- Tree Pose
- Wide-Leg Forward Fold
- Reclined Bound Angle
- Happy Baby
- Easy Pose
Related terms
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The Yoga Glossary is an educational study reference. Definitions are standard yoga and anatomy knowledge in plain language; nothing here is medical advice.