Adductor Stretches

by Lavon Watson, LMP, Life Changes Massage in Redmond, WA

Adductor stretches for the adductor muscles, primarily located on the inside of the thigh, can help prevent "groin pulls" in athletic events such as football or baseball and help alleviate lower back pain.

The adductor muscles include the adductor longus, adductor brevis, adductor magnus, pectineus, and gracillis. These muscles are responsible for what is referred to as adduction (or bringing the legs together). I won't get into the specific attachment point for each of them; however, most of them originate from the bottom of the pelvis (pubic bone) and attach at various points along the inner aspect of the upper leg bone (femur).

Because most of these muscles originate from the pubic bone at the bottom of the pelvis, they can contribute to low back pain. Stretching them may be part of a solution to back pain even if they do not feel tight as you move through your day. Also, avoiding a groin pull if you are involved in athletics is important, because this injury can be slow to heal and keep you out of action for a while.

Adductor Stretches

As with all stretches the first priority is to do no harm. Injuring yourself doing a stretch defeats the purpose. Stretching the adductors, in my opinion, is can easily lend itself to problems. One concern is putting undue pressure on your knees with the more specific martial arts style stretch while the other stretch, the seated stretch (also called the butterfly stretch), can negatively affect the lower back for some people.

As with all stretches don't force it and try and take slow full breaths while relaxing into the stretch. Pay close attention with these stretches as to how your low back and knees respond to the stretch and stop if there's any pain.

Martial Arts Stretch

I personally like this stretch, but as you can see it has a lot of potential for causing knee problems from all the knee flexion on the bent-knee side and the lateral load on the knee on the straight-legged side. One advantage of this stretch is that by simply changing the position of your foot you can affect various aspects of the adductors (see pictures).

One modified version that may help alleviate issues regarding your knees is to have a small stool or low table in front of you to place your hands on for stability and control. This support also comes in handy to get down into this stretch and to get back out of it.

Seated Wall Stretch

This adductor stretch is a modified version of the seated floor stretch also called a butterfly stretch. I never cared for this stretch because of the position of your back, which for me causes low back problems, but it doesn't affect everyone that way.