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10-Minute Inner Thigh Workout (5 Best Inner Thigh Exercises)

By: Lindsey Bomgren, CPT | April 30, 2024

The best inner thigh workout to strengthen and tone at home! This quick thigh workout is designed to target the adductors (or inner thighs), which help support the pelvic floor and assist in lateral movements. These are the five best inner thigh exercises you can do at home.

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If you’ve done my workouts, you know I’m a huge advocate of training in all planes of motion. We often train in forward-back movements, which can neglect the small, but important muscles in the inner thighs.

Enter today’s workout: the five best inner thigh exercises, combined in a quick burnout-style thigh workout.

This inner thigh workout has been highly requested in my DMs and inbox. Whether you use it as a quick workout on its own, or add it on to another leg workout as an inner thigh burnout. These five thigh exercises are a sure way to make you sore.

This is a naturally low impact workout that is ALL strength training, focused on the muscles in your inner thighs.

The muscles in your inner thighs are called the hip adductors, and made up of five different muscles (the gracilis, obturator externus, adductor brevis, adductor longus and adductor magnus).

Your adductors assist in side-to-side movements, and are also important for stabilizing your pelvic floor, hips, knees, lower back, and core.

two women performing a lateral lunge to target the inner thighs

10-Minute Inner Thigh Workout

Isolate the thighs with this quick and effective Inner Thigh Workout: the BEST inner thigh exercises for women!

A focused inner thigh workout designed to strengthen the hip adductor muscles and support your body through lateral movements.

Add this thigh burnout to your home workout plan 1-2 times per week to build and maintain strength in the lower body.

Workout Equipment:

Medium Set of Dumbbells and Optional Pilates Ball (or throw pillow).

I recommend between 5-25 lbs depending on your fitness level. We used 10, 15 and 20 lb dumbbells in today’s workout. Option to drop weights at any time and do this workout with just your bodyweight.

You’ll have the option to add an exercise glider for move four, but you can always sub a throw towel (if you work out on hard floors) or paper plate (if you work out on carpet).

Workout Instructions:

Follow along with the guided Inner Thigh Workout on YouTube, led by certified personal trainer, Lindsey Bomgren. 

Your Workout Looks Like This:

  • 5 Inner Thigh Exercises
  • Timed Intervals (40 seconds of work, 20 seconds rest; complete as many repetitions as you can in the timed interval)
  • Repeat All 5 Inner Thigh Exercises x2 Sets

Note: this quick workout doesn’t include a warm-up or cool down. If this is your first movement of the day, warm up with this glute activation series and cool down with this hip mobility routine.

two women performing a heels elevated squat as part of inner thigh workout

Prefer to Watch On YouTube?

youtube icon Inner Thighs

Workout Outline

  1. Heel Elevated Squats
  2. Sumo Squat Heel Lifts
  3. Sumo Squat and Sumo Deadlift
  4. Lateral Lunge with Slider
  5. Wall Sit and Ball Squeeze

5 Inner Thigh Exercises

Heel Elevated Squats

Targets: Legs, quads, glutes, hamstrings, inner thighs (hip abductors), chest and core.

Raising your heels allows you to get deeper range of motion in your squat. Adding a pilates ball between your legs increases inner thigh engagement.

two women performing heels elevated squat as part of inner thigh workout

How To Do Heel Elevated Squats

  1. Stand with your feet hip width apart. Place a pilates ball between your knees. Hold a dumbbell in each hand at your sides. Engage your core.
  2. Inhale as you bend your knees and sit your hips back (as if sitting down in a chair). Aim for 90 degree bends at each knee, focusing on pushing your knees out (not letting them cave in). Keep your torso in an upright position.
  3. Exhale as you press through your heels to stand tall, driving your hips forward to return to standing position. Keep the pilates ball squeezed between your thighs for the entire movement.

Modification: Perform this move with feet flat on the floor if heels raised isn’t comfortable for you. Option to perform the move without the pilates ball between your legs.

Sumo Squat Heel Lifts

Targets: The entire lower body, including the hip adductors, inner thighs, outer thighs, glutes, hamstrings, quads, calves, hip flexors, and core muscles.

two women performing sumo squat heel raises as part of an inner thigh workout

How To Do Sumo Squat Heel Lifts

  1. Start with your feet wider than your hips in a wide squat stance. Knees and toes point forward (or toes just slightly turned out away from your body). Engage your core and hold one dumbbell vertically at your chest (goblet hold), chest lifted.
  2. Bend your knees to lower down into a sumo squat, pushing your knees out towards your pinky toes as you drop your hips parallel to your knees.
  3. Hold at the bottom of your sumo squat. Then, lift your right heel, then your left heel, then both heels.
  4. With both heels raised, pull the inner thighs together to stand tall. Then lower both heels to the ground, returning to starting position.

Sumo Squat and Sumo Deadlift

Targets: The inner thigh muscles as well as the the posterior chain (the back of your body), including glutes, hamstrings and lower back.

two women performing sumo deadlifts to target the inner thighs

How To Do Sumo Squats and Sumo Deadlifts

  1. Stand with feet wider than shoulder width, heels in and toes pointed out (sumo squat stance). Hold one dumbbell in each hand between your legs.
  2. Bend your knees to lower down into a sumo squat, pushing your knees out towards your pinky toes as you drop your hips parallel to your knees.
  3. Pause and hold at the bottom of your sumo squat, then push your hips up, legs straight.
  4. Squeeze your glutes and inner thighs as you pull the dumbbells up your thighs (like you’re doing a deadlift) to stand tall, returning to starting position.

Lateral Lunge with Slider

Targets: Glutes (gluteus medius), quads, hip adductors (inner thigh muscles), outer thighs, hamstrings and core.

This inner thigh exercise focuses on the outer glutes or hip abductors that assist with side-to-side movements, as well as stabilizing your pelvic floor.

two women performing lateral lunges as example of inner thigh exercises

How To Do A Lateral Lunge with Slider

  1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, holding a dumbbell in your left hand. Place your left toes on an exercise glider or towel (if you work out on hard floors) or paper plate (if you work out on carpet).
  2. Slide your left foot out to the side, bending your right knee while leaving your left leg straight. Think of performing a single leg squat with your right leg while your left leg remains straight. Knees and toes are pointing forward. Range of motion will be different for everyone.
  3. Then, pull your inner thighs together to reverse the movement, standing up to return to center.

Modification: If you don’t have a slider, take a large step out to the side, performing a standard lateral lunge.

Wall Sit and Ball Squeeze

Targets:  The outer glutes, inner thigh muscles, hips and the core.

This inner thigh exercise is one of my favorite burnout moves at the end of a workout.

two women performing a wall sit as part of an inner thigh workout

How To Do A Wall Sit and Ball Squeeze

  1. Place your back flat against a wall. Plant your feet firmly on the ground, hip width apart.
  2. Slide your back down the wall until your legs make a 90-degree angle, thighs are parallel to the ground, hips in line with knees. Hold this position with your back firmly connected to the wall. Place a pilates ball between your knees.
  3. With control, squeeze your legs together, compressing the pilates ball. Then release some of the tension. Continue this pattern of squeezing and releasing.

Modification: Place both fists between your thighs rather than a pilates ball.

Inner Thigh Workout FAQs

How Can I Tone My Inner Thighs Fast?

Perform weighted adductor exercises to build muscle tone in the inside of the legs. Strength training is the most effective way to build muscle.

What Exercises Tone The Inner Thigh?

The best inner thigh exercises include sumo squats, lateral lunges and adductor squeezes. These exercises strengthen the hip adductor muscles from multiple angles. You’ll find all three in today’s thigh workout. Barre workouts are also great for toning the inner thighs.

Does Leg Day Burn Fat?

Most of the largest muscles in the body are in the legs. These large muscles require more energy to work — which means they burn relatively more calories. This makes leg workouts an efficient way to burn calories and fat.

How Can I Lose Fat On My Thighs?

Spot training (or spot reduction) is the common fitness myth that you can perform specific exercises to lose weight in specific areas of your body. Burning fat on a specific area of the body is extremely difficult, because the body pulls energy reserves (i.e. fat) from all over. That said, strength training can increase the size of a specific muscle. When paired with a reduction in body fat, that muscle will appear more “toned”.

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Pin for pinterest showing woman performing an inner thigh ball squeeze

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