Side Lying Hip Adduction
- Primary muscleAdductors
- EquipmentBodyweight
- DifficultyBeginner
- TypeIsolation · Hip isolation
- Secondary muscles
- Glutes, Hamstrings
- Body part
- Upper Legs
- Position
- Side-lying
- Laterality
- Bilateral (both sides together)
- Category
- Strength
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No machine, no cuff, just gravity and a short range: lying on your side, you lift the leg against its own weight until the inner thigh fully contracts. Loading is capped at bodyweight, so treat it as a high-rep movement of 15 to 25 per side or a warm-up drill rather than a strength builder.
How to do the Side Lying Hip Adduction
- Lie on your side with your legs straight and stacked on top of each other.
- Place your bottom arm under your head for support.
- Engage your adductors and lift your top leg as high as possible without rotating your hips or leaning backward.
- Pause for a moment at the top, then slowly lower your leg back down to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions, then switch sides.
Tip: Squeeze the knees together as if crushing something between them and hold for a count.
Muscles worked
Primary
Adductors · Legs
The inner thigh muscles pull the leg toward the midline, and you should feel a deep squeeze on the inside of the thigh at the end of each rep.
Secondary
Common mistakes
- Slamming the pads together — control the return and squeeze at the middle rather than letting the stack bounce.
- Setting the start too wide — start the range where you feel a stretch but no strain, and widen it over weeks as it improves.
- Leaning back on the machine — keep the back against the pad and the hips still, since rocking makes the movement easier and shifts the load.
- Fast side lying reps — on side lying adductions lift slowly and pause at the top to keep the inner thigh working.
Where it fits in a workout
Adduction work goes at the end of a lower body session or in the warm-up before wide stance squats. Superset it with hip abduction on the neighboring machine.
How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.
Variations and alternatives
Similar exercises
Without bodyweight
When to talk to someone
- Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
- Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
- Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.
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More exercises
Sources
- ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
- ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
- ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
- CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)
Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.
Animation and exercise data: ExerciseDB, licensed to SetGrip. General information, not medical or coaching advice.