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How to Foam Roll Your Adductor Muscles (Inner Thigh)

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Tight adductors are a common problem for both athletes and inactive person. They are often the forgotten muscles, as people rarely perform maintenance stretching or massage to improve flexibility in this area.

The following page will show you how to use the foam roller to improve the length and elasticity of these muscles and how it will aid in your performance.

Anatomy of the Adductor Muscles

The adductors are a group of 5 muscles throughout the inner thigh. They all originate from the front of the pelvis and attach to various parts of the thigh bone (femur) and shin bone (tibia) and their main function are to adduct (bring in towards the midline of the body) the upper leg.

The adductor muscle group comprises:

Adductor Brevis
Adductor Longus
Adductor Magnus – involved in extending the hip
Gracilis
Pectineus

Why Foam Roll Your Adductor Muscles?

Overworking or injury can cause the adductor muscles to become tight. This tightness will affect how well you stabilise the pelvis when you walk and can lead to overcompensation of the surrounding muscle.

The tightness is due to adhesions in the muscles, which can be broken down by massage. Self Myofascial Release otherwise known as foam rolling can help to break up these adhesions, which can improve the quality of your movement and decrease muscle tension.

This will combat knee injuries as tight adductor muscles can force the femur/hip to internally rotate.

What Does the Science Say About Foam Rolling?

Foam rollers are a great (and cheap) way to look after your body at home before and after exercise. Many studies have been perform to assess the authentication of foam rolling and their benefits to athletes. The below two studies show how foam rolling can improve your athletic output, by keeping the body healthy and reducing recovery time allowing you to train more frequently.

Foam Rolling Improves Range of Motion

A 2015 study by Škarabot et al looked into the difference between foam rolling and static stretching. Finding showed that when foam rolling and static stretching were performed together, participants saw a increase range of motion of 9.1%. This was substantial more than static stretching alone which only saw an increase of 6.2%.

Foam Rolling Helps Muscles Recover and Reduces Pain (Doms)

Have your muscles ever ached for days after playing or training? If yes, then you’ve experiences Delayed Onset Muscle Syndrome (DOMS) and you need to foam roll. Macdonald et al. found that foam rolling can reduce muscle soreness as well as increase range of motion. This study also show how foam rolling can benefit an athelets performance, with improve muscle activation and vertical jump results. So the science proves that foam rolling can improve performance, reduce soreness and increase range of motion.

How to Foam Roll Adductors

The following videos show the beginner and advance techniques for foam rolling your adductor muscles.

Foam Rolling Adductors (Beginner)

Credit: Howcast

Foam Rolling Adductors (Beginner)

Credit: Howcast

How to Foam Roll Adductors

Lay on your front with your forearms and other right leg supporting your body. Place your left leg across the foam roller, so it sits just above your knee on the inner thigh.
Engage your core muscles and slowly roll down the foam roller at a rate of 1 inch per second.
When you reach a tender spot, stop and hold for 30 seconds. Make sure you breathe to get oxygen to the muscle.
Keep the muscle relax and try to melt into the foam roller.
Continue this for the entire length of the inner thigh area until your reach the groin.

Advanced Method: Use a higher density foam roller to increase the pressure

Make sure you: