leg anatomy question

[gYmgIrL]

hi!

so I'm trying to learn about legs so that i understand training a bit more, you know, train smart and all that (hey that should be EF's motto!)

anywho

abductors and adductors - why do I care about them? As far as I can tell by looking at competitors, they have quads and hamstrings, what do these other things do (i pondered to myself)

whilst pondering, I found this

Changing Shape: Muscles

it makes it look like they're part of the hamstring right, so surely you'd need to care about them to get your hams bigger?

but wait! you can see them from the front too!

http://www.laboratorium.dist.unige.i...l_anterior.png

so, more confused, i checked out this listo thingy

Human muscle chart - anatomy chart - body muscle chart

this says that hammies and quads are completely separate from those side musley string things.

so I'm back to thinking... why do I care? I can understand the inside ones on accounta strength and that line you get when you do the splits looks quite cool, though it makes it a pretty rarely visible muscle.

is it one of those things that you need to work so that it can stabilize more heavy weight on the quads and hams (which really should be called tris when you think about it, your tris should be called 'monocep' or something :P) or is it something more important than stabiliziness? is it for your knees?

this guy seems to think its just for ladies to look good while using?

Eusterby: Why use hip abductor and adductor muscle gym machines?

i cant find any 'why to train these muscles' on the usual info sites so i thought i would put my query down here.

Lots of wub

Geeg

[sucher67]

It sounds like you know the anatomy, you just want to know what to do with it!

You definitely want those stabilisers to be strong. They affect hip stability, but if you are reasonably active (walking, running, etc.), they will probably stay strong enough to do their jobs without any special targeting. (These muscles allow you to balance on one leg without falling to either side, and pull the leg in and out ever so slightly for stability in walking/running). Your hamstrings have more to do with knee stability, but the more stable the whole package is, the less direct stress you put on joints. So, stability is good!

Beyond strength, bodybuilders do try to define those muscles. But, I don't think figure competitors try to draw attention to it much-- their goal is to enhance the shape of the whole leg. The goal now is to have a smooth, tapered look without too much muscle separation. I am not sure what kind of look you want. I would be interested to read what 6-pack Girl and ItalianAngel have to say about it, since they know much more than I do.

This is Valerie Waugaman.

She clearly has trained her adductors. You can see she has an "S" shape to the inside of her thigh.

And this is Juliana Malacarne.



You can really see the definition in her abductors, and in her older pictures her adductors are really trained to give the "S' shape to the inner thigh.

As far as using machines targeting those muscles, it depends on how those muscles respond for you. I am sure some people get good growth just by doing movements that force those muscles to stabilise. Others may have to really hammer them.

[tooncesthecat]

Good advicesucher. GG, you are wise to learn the anatomy as well as the different movements these muscles provide.Key point...muscles are separated and named for our convenience. In reality, they rarely work alone but rather in groups. In other words, even when you are doing hamstring curls, an "isolation" movement, other muscles work to make this happen like the soleus and glutes.

Doing squate, really deep ones with good form will hit every muscle in the legs to some degree = it's the best leg developer. You want great legs? DO squats AND do the abductor and adductor machines too. They all create resistance in different planes which make the legs have to adapt and grow to meet these challenges. Good adductor muscles (as pointed out above) are important in creating good inner leg sweep.

SO get your basic muscles down but remember they ALWAYS work in groups!

[6-Pak Girl]

AWESOME info from the guys. I agree with everything they said. I actually don't use the machines for adds and abds very often. Squats work em. leg curls work em. And cable kick backs (and side kicks) work em too. God I wish I had legs like Valerie (Juliana's are too big for my frame) )