Sensible Fitness Personal Training

Is there an outer thigh muscle?

26 Dec

Here is a quick lesson on human muscle anatomy in relation to the action that particular muscles give the body. Many personal trainers and coaches often refer to training the outer thigh when they are performing hip abduction, which is kicking or lifting your leg out to the side.

The only muscle that could be labeled an “outer thigh” muscle, would be the vastus lateralis, which is a muscle of the quadriceps group, and this does not perform hip abduction. The hip abductors, which include muscles like the gluteus medius, are located on the side of the pelvis, and have no muscle fibers that continue down the lateral side of the thigh.

Because the hip abductors merge with a connective tissue called the iliotibial tract, which does run down the lateral thigh, sometimes you may feel the tension of exercising the hip abductors on outside of your thigh, but you are not toning or shaping the outer thigh with these movements.

So the next time you see a personal trainer in a Cincinnati gym, or TV infomercial talking about training the outer thigh, you will know that they are uneducated on the topic.