ab/adductors excercises

The_Minister

Right, I'm pretty much a complete newbie to fitness, but a friend told me that I should excercise my ab/adductors.

Google tells me that is my inner thigh.

Another friend tells me that only women need to excercise that muscle and there is no point - he said it only recommended due to a silly sex myth, but the first friend never mentioned this (I don't see what difference it could make tbh).

So basically:
1. Are they worth excercising?
2. How do you excercise them? I have weights, and I have access to a giant ball.

Hanley

The_Minister wrote: »

Right, I'm pretty much a complete newbie to fitness, but a friend told me that I should excercise my ab/adductors.

Google tells me that is my inner thigh.

Another friend tells me that only women need to excercise that muscle and there is no point - he said it only recommended due to a silly sex myth, but the first friend never mentioned this (I don't see what difference it could make tbh).

So basically:
1. Are they worth excercising?
2. How do you excercise them? I have weights, and I have access to a giant ball.

Option C - both friends are wrong. Did they give a reason?

I say they're wrong because your adductor complex is largely hidden under your quads and covered in fat, so there's no visual benefit. Their function is closing the leg/internally rotating it (think point your knees towards each other with your feet facing straight ahead). That's typically something you want to avoid as external rotation helps prevent knee/hip/ankle/back pain, which brings me onto the abductors.

I'm never sure what specific must people are talking about on this one, so I'll assume glutes/ass as a general grouping. They're responsible for external rotation as mentioned above and are thus pretty crucial.

So yes, training abductors is good, adductors is largely pointless.

And training abduction from a health/injury prevention standpoint is different to what your friends were probably thinking.

It's late, I'm tired and I'm on my phone. Hopefully someone can tie all this together for me, if not I'll explain tomorrow.U

Doug Cartel

I've been wondering for a while now if I should be doing more to work my adductors and abductors as I often do things like this



and this



Which probably puts them under more strain than most sporting activities.

Currently I just concentrate on dropping low with good form on my squats and doing split squats, but would there be anything else that would help?

ScissorPaperRock

Doug Cartel wrote: »

I've been wondering for a while now if I should be doing more to work my adductors and abductors as I often do things like this

Currently I just concentrate on dropping low with good form on my squats and doing split squats, but would there be anything else that would help?

I've been wondering the same since I've recently begun practicing side kicks in jujutsu training and find that raising my leg to the side puts a lot of pressure on the inside and outside of my upper leg area. Sometimes it's quite painful, but I think that relates to form too.

Hanley

Barry's a better guy to ask on this, but I'd say you're better off worrying about movements than muscles. Like if you can stabilize your knee and hip and maintain that structural integrity while doing single leg work, I don't think targeted adductor work would help.

99% of people could probably benefit from better glute/external rotation strength, but I think the case is there that it should be part of a warm up/mobilization if you're just going to specifically target a muscle, becaue most single leg variants would use it in an integrated manner too.

Be interested to see The Admiral's view.

EDIT: and I know this is the case with BJj So assume judo's similar, and I know you probably know this, but the additional strength gains thru isolation exercises for those muscle groups would have no tangible carryover to ****ing someone across the room.

Doug Cartel

Just to clarify my problem isn't range of motion (though there is room for improvement) The thing is that I end up carrying the weight of two people while I have my legs stretched out in a crazy position and I want to minimize my chances of that leading to some kind of injury.

The_Minister

Thanks for the advice - think I'll wait until I'm fit in the main ways before I start cleaning up the crevasses

Barry.Oglesby

Hanley wrote: »

Barry's a better guy to ask on this, but I'd say you're better off worrying about movements than muscles. Like if you can stabilize your knee and hip and maintain that structural integrity while doing single leg work, I don't think targeted adductor work would help.

99% of people could probably benefit from better glute/external rotation strength, but I think the case is there that it should be part of a warm up/mobilization if you're just going to specifically target a muscle, becaue most single leg variants would use it in an integrated manner too.

Be interested to see The Admiral's view.

EDIT: and I know this is the case with BJj So assume judo's similar, and I know you probably know this, but the additional strength gains thru isolation exercises for those muscle groups would have no tangible carryover to ****ing someone across the room.

Only saw a link to this on my twitter today. My ears should have been burning.

This is all pretty coincidental. I came across a copy of The Science of Martial Arts training by Charles Staley in a box of books the other week. It's from 1999 and probably the first S&C book I ever bought. Direct aductor/abductor work was something I always thought was a little old hat (though we used to do a tonne of it back in the day) and sure enough it forms a substantial part of the book. Something I'm tricking around with at the moment is the notion of including more isometric work for BJJ and oddly enough, I was thinking about adductor strength in particular. As always I'm my own laboratory so I've been doing some stuff and I've done some tests in the last fortnight and now I'm doing some more direct ad/abductor work as I think it has carryover to BJJ. I'll let you know!

Hanley

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

Only saw a link to this on my twitter today. My ears should have been burning.

This is all pretty coincidental. I came across a copy of The Science of Martial Arts training by Charles Staley in a box of books the other week. It's from 1999 and probably the first S&C book I ever bought. Direct aductor/abductor work was something I always thought was a little old hat (though we used to do a tonne of it back in the day) and sure enough it forms a substantial part of the book. Something I'm tricking around with at the moment is the notion of including more isometric work for BJJ and oddly enough, I was thinking about adductor strength in particular. As always I'm my own laboratory so I've been doing some stuff and I've done some tests in the last fortnight and now I'm doing some more direct ad/abductor work as I think it has carryover to BJJ. I'll let you know!

Interesting. Are you doing it more from a stabilisation or dynamic standpoint? Presumably the former if you're talking isos?

Barry.Oglesby

Hanley wrote: »

Interesting. Are you doing it more from a stabilisation or dynamic standpoint? Presumably the former if you're talking isos?

I'm thinking a little from column A, a little from column B. I was thinking of the unusual positions your limbs get in and how a little extra isometric strength around the hips might have a carryover effect. Particularly bottom guard. I'm also thinking about grip stuff and holds a lot more too.

I short, isometrics are the way forward and you'l never see me move in more than a 1 inch range of motion when strength training again.

Hanley

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

I'm thinking a little from column A, a little from column B. I was thinking of the unusual positions your limbs get in and how a little extra isometric strength around the hips might have a carryover effect. Particularly bottom guard. I'm also thinking about grip stuff and holds a lot more too.

I short, isometrics are the way forward and you'l never see me move in more than a 1 inch range of motion when strength training again.

Don't forget "grip strength > technique"

Barry.Oglesby

Hanley wrote: »

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

I'm thinking a little from column A, a little from column B. I was thinking of the unusual positions your limbs get in and how a little extra isometric strength around the hips might have a carryover effect. Particularly bottom guard. I'm also thinking about grip stuff and holds a lot more too.

I short, isometrics are the way forward and you'l never see me move in more than a 1 inch range of motion when strength training again.

Don't forget "grip strength > technique"

I don't understand. I think it's the combination of quotes and math symbol. What are you trying to say?