Isn’t it amazing so many women love the inner thigh (adductor) machine, yet are still blind to the failure of this machine to trim big thighs?
We can assume that women don’t use the inner thigh machine to improve their sports performance on the court or in the field.
Why Women Are Drawn to the Inner Thigh (Adductor) Machine
There are many makes and models of this equipment, and nearly every make and model, if not 100 percent of them, has an illustration of “muscles worked” tacked onto the equipment.
The muscles worked are the hip adductors. The illustration clearly shows these in color, usually red.
The adductor muscles are located in the inner thigh area. When women with hefty inner thighs see this diagram, they conclude that working out on this machine will trim the fat off this area.
Freepik.com
They believe that movement at the site of unwanted fat will burn that fat into thin air.
But this will not happen. Never. Never never.
Why the Inner Thigh Machine Won’t Trim the Legs
The hip adductors are relatively small and naturally weak muscles. If you were to sprint across a parking lot, your hip adductors wouldn’t be doing much.
If you were trapped under rubble and had to use your feet to push a slab of rubble away from you, your hip adductors wouldn’t be a key player.
Sure, they allow you to adduct your hips (joint movement that brings limbs towards the midline of the body).
But this is not a strong production of force, and hence, won’t dramatically raise your body’s energy needs to incite major fat-burning.
But women love the inner thigh machine for yet another reason: It’s an easy exercise. You just sit there and flap your legs in and out. How easy is THAT?
Have you ever seen anyone work up a sweat on this equipment or have to breathe heavily?
Have you ever seen anyone look tired while using it or after completing a set?
It’s such an easy movement, and so many women continue to believe that this easy, sweatless action that you can do while singing opera will burn the fat out of their inner thighs.
All because of that diagram.
If you see a woman with killer legs using this machine, don’t ever assume they got their killer gams from the adduction motion.
Chances are pretty high that a woman with great legs who’s on the inner thigh machine wants to TONE their inner thighs.
Toning is not the same as burning fat. A woman can have skinny thighs and still feel that they are flabby and loose or “shaky.”
If her adductor muscles are flabby and loose, then using the inner thigh equipment will help firm up this area—but it will NOT shrink fat thighs.
You can have the firmest adductor muscles in the world and STILL have excess fat in this area.
Three leg exercises will produce stellar results when done intensely: squat, deadlift, leg press.
These movements recruit major force production muscles (quads, hams, glutes) that when worked intensely, will dramatically raise your body’s energy needs for post-workout recovery.
Deadlift. Pick the bar up, keeping with your shoulders above your hips at all times once you begin lifting, and keeping your lower back arched, and stand erect. Freepik.com
Shutterstock/Burnt Red Hen
Squat. A spotter isn’t necessary, but can help with beginners to this total leg exercise. Freepik.com, prostooleh
This energy will be taken from your fat depots, and that’s how your inner thighs will trim down — assuming you’re not eating so much that the recovery energy is being taken 100 percent from excess calories.
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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