When most people think about hip stability, their minds jump straight to the glutes. While glute strength is essential, there’s another key player that often gets overlooked: the adductors—the muscles of your inner thigh. These muscles don’t just squeeze your legs together. They stabilize the pelvis, control side-to-side movement of the hips, and integrate with the deep core and pelvic floor.

For postpartum women especially, adductors often go undertrained or under-recruited. This can lead to hip instability, inefficient stride mechanics, or lingering discomfort in the pelvis and core. By building adductor strength, you create a more stable foundation for running, lifting, sport, and even daily movement.

Why Adductors Matter in Pregnancy and Postpartum

1. Pelvic stability during pregnancy
   Pregnancy hormones (like relaxin) increase laxity in the ligaments around your pelvis. This is necessary to make space for birth, but it also means your pelvis has less passive stability. Adductors step in to provide active stability, balancing the pelvis when you move, stand, or shift weight from side to side.
   
2. Hip control under load
   Whether you’re walking with a baby carrier, pushing a stroller, or running, your body constantly moves side to side. Adductors help keep the hips centered and prevent the pelvis from dropping excessively. Without them, you might notice knee cave, hip shift, or a “waddle” that stresses other systems.
   
3. Connection to your core and pelvic floor
   The adductors aren’t isolated. They connect through fascial and muscular lines to the pelvic floor and deep core. When you train them, you’re also improving pressure management, which reduces strain on diastasis recti and helps the pelvic floor coordinate more effectively.
   
4. Impact, sport and running mechanics
   Every step you take while running involves impact. Adductors act as shock absorbers and brakes, controlling how the pelvis and legs respond to ground reaction forces. Weak adductors mean less control, more energy leaks, and higher risk of discomfort in the hips, knees, or pelvic floor.

In short: Adductors are more than just your inner thigh muscles. They are an essential part of the system that keeps you stable, powerful, and resilient—especially postpartum.

How to Strengthen Your Adductors

Building adductor strength isn’t just about isolating the inner thigh with a squeeze ball. To really improve hip stability, these muscles need to be trained in ways that reflect how they work in daily life, running, and sport: stabilizing the pelvis, coordinating with the core, and controlling side-to-side shifts.

The exercises below progress from simple activation drills to integrated, dynamic movements. Together, they build:

Carryover: smoother gait, stronger lifts, and better tolerance to impact and running
Stability: keeping the pelvis level and resisting hip drop
Integration: syncing the adductors with glutes, core, and pelvic floor

1. Slider Lateral Lunge with Pause

How to do it: Start standing with one foot on a slider (or valslide, towel on a smooth surface). Keep your chest tall as you slide one foot out to the side, hinging into the opposite hip. Pause at the bottom, then drive through the working leg to return to standing.

Why it works: The sliding leg forces the adductors of the working leg to lengthen and then contract to pull you back in. The pause at the bottom builds awareness of pelvic position and teaches control of hip shift side to side.

Postpartum benefit: Builds hip control in a supported way while restoring adductor length and strength. This movement also retrains coordination in the frontal plane, which is often overlooked in postpartum rehab.

2. Copenhagen Side Plank

• How to do it: Lie on your side with your top leg supported on a bench or box, bottom leg hanging underneath. Option to bring it up to a 90 degree angle (hip flexion). Lift your hips into a side plank by pressing through the top leg. Hold for time or perform small hip lifts.
• Why it works: This is one of the most direct ways to target adductors. Holding your body weight off the ground challenges the inner thigh to stabilize while also demanding core and shoulder stability.
• Postpartum benefit: Reintegrates adductor strength into the whole system — hips, core, and trunk. Especially valuable once you’ve built some baseline stability, as it teaches the adductors to fire in a loaded, functional position.

3. Single Leg Glute Bridge with Adductor Squeeze

• How to do it: Lie on your back with both feet grounded and a block between your knees. Drive through the ground to lift your hips into a bridge while maintaining gentle pressure on the block. From here, slowly extend one leg out while maintain gentle pressure into the block. Alternate from side to side while keeping your hips steady.
• Why it works: The glutes lift the hips, while the adductor squeeze ties the pelvis together and prevents rotation. This combination creates a co-contraction that improves pelvic stability.
• Postpartum benefit: Excellent for reconnecting the glutes, adductors, and core together. Reinforces pelvic floor engagement and reduces compensations like hip drop during single-leg loading.

4. Standing Banded Adduction

• How to do it: Anchor a band at ankle height. Step out to the side so the band pulls your leg outward. Slowly sweep your banded leg across your body, then control the return. Perform with balance support if needed.
• Why it works: A simple, isolated way to target adductors directly through their primary action. The band adds resistance both concentrically (pulling across) and eccentrically (controlling the return).
• Postpartum benefit: Great early-stage exercise to reawaken the adductors without high load or complexity. Builds awareness and strength in a controlled, accessible setup.

5. Single Leg Squat to Bench (Eccentric)

• How to do it: Hold a light weight out in front for counterbalance or a medicine ball at your chest like shown. Stand on one leg and slowly lower yourself to a bench, keeping the opposite leg extended forward. Use both legs to stand back up if needed.
• Why it works: Controlling the eccentric phase (lowering) forces the adductors to stabilize the femur and pelvis, preventing hip shift or knee collapse. The counterbalance helps you find depth and maintain alignment.
• Postpartum benefit: Builds eccentric strength and pelvic control in a single leg stance — skills that carry directly into gait, stairs, and running. The bench provides safety and support while you rebuild confidence.

6. Copenhagen Side Plank Lift with Banded Row

• How to do it: Set up in a Copenhagen side plank (top leg supported). Add a resistance band in your top hand and perform a row while holding the plank.
• Why it works: The adductors are heavily engaged to hold your hips up, while the banded row adds an upper-body challenge. This integration forces your system to stabilize while coordinating movement through the trunk and arm.
• Postpartum benefit: Replicates the real-life demands of carrying, pulling, or holding weight while maintaining pelvic and hip stability. Teaches your system to manage load from multiple directions.

7. 45° Walking Lunge

• How to do it: Step forward and out at a 45-degree angle, lowering into a lunge. Alternate sides as you walk forward.
• Why it works: By stepping out on a 45° diagonal, the lead leg moves into a combination of hip flexion and abduction. That puts the inner thigh muscles into a more stretched position, so they have to work harder to control and stabilize. The trailing leg also has to stabilize through the adductors to keep your pelvis level as you move across planes, instead of just forward/back.
• Postpartum benefit: This lunge variation has excellent transfer to running, change-of-direction sports, or even postpartum return to impact, because it challenges your adductors while you’re moving, not just in static positions. It’s best used once you already have some adductor base strength (from things like banded adduction, lateral lunges, or Copenhagens).

Final Thoughts

Strong adductors = better hip stability. These muscles don’t just live on the inside of your thigh — they’re a major part of the system that keeps your pelvis supported, your hips moving smoothly, and your core + pelvic floor working in sync.

When your adductors are strong, you’ll notice:

• A smoother, more efficient stride when walking or running
• Less “hip drop” or knee cave during single leg movements
• Better pressure management through your core and pelvic floor
• More confidence in handling impact, sport, or everyday demands like carrying kids and groceries

If you’re postpartum, this is especially important. Pregnancy changes, ligament laxity, and core adaptations can all leave the adductors underused and disconnected. Rebuilding them is the missing link to not only feeling stronger, but also protecting your hips, pelvis, and core long term.

Your glutes may get most of the attention, but your inner thighs are the quiet stabilizers that make everything else possible. By giving them the focus they deserve, you’re not just working a “small” muscle group — you’re building the foundation for resilient movement, smoother running mechanics, and a more stable core.

Ready to take the next step? My postpartum programs are designed to help you rebuild strength, stability, and confidence from the inside out — whether you’re just starting your recovery or returning to running and lifting. Explore my postpartum programs here.