What are men who use the hip abductor machine hoping to achieve?
I doubt it’s fat loss in the legs because none of the men I’ve ever seen on this apparatus had saddlebags or chunky outer thighs.
Another name for the seated hip abductor machine is the “outer thigh” machine, and most women I’ve seen on this equipment had excess fat in their legs.
But there’s that small percentage who don’t, and like the men, they are using the hip abductor machine for some other reason.
Will the hip abductor equipment waste a man’s time?
Depending on a man’s reason, the hip abductor machine is a waste of time.
• If he’s trying to build big muscles, forget it.
• If he’s trying to burn more calories, forget it.
What if he wants to get his abductor muscles ready for inline skating which he hasn’t done for months?
Well, this makes sense, because the muscles used in inline skating, especially up hills, are the same (abductors) that this machine isolates.
However, if he’s moving his thighs out to only partial motion because he has the peg at the bottom of the weight stack, this won’t domuch to prep his legs for inline skating.
He’d have to use a lighter weight to allow full range of motion and do many repetitions; this protocol more closely simulates inline skating (rep after rep after rep of hip abduction).
I’m not a skier, but I’ve heard that tiresome sets on this equipment help with skiing.
I’m not going to assume that most of the men who use the hip abductor machine are inline skaters or skiers.
I’ll assume they believe it’s an exercise to well-round out their leg-muscle building regimen — hit the abductors last after slamming the quads, hams and glutes.
But when you see photos of male physique athletes, you don’t see developed hip abductors; you really can’t “see” these muscles like you can the quads, hams, glutes and calves.
So why bother working them?
As for a supplemental and meaningful calorie burn, don’t bother. If you want an extra calorie burn, jump on a treadmill and do three rounds of 15-second sprints, or toss in some finisher squats followed by squat jumps or burpees at the end of your heavy squat routine.
I take it that men who use the hip abductor machine, in general, are trying to build muscle, because in nearly every single case, the pin is at or near the bottom of the stack.
It’s so heavy that they can’t complete the range of motion, usually going only half-way.
Now maybe if they trained to utilize a maximum range of motion (as far as their legs can move apart) in combination with heavy resistance, this may trigger visible hypertrophy in the abductor region.
But again, the typical scenario is that a man is using heavy resistance with shallow range of motion.
Hip abductor muscles are not major force production muscles; we don’t use them to rise up from a deep squat to pick a heavy box off the ground or sprint up a hill or down the street.
They’re small muscles that do have a job, but major force production is not one of them.
Men (and women) can develop the body they want and the desired body fat percentage without using the hip abductor equipment.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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