The women's fitness blog

What are the thigh muscles?

The thigh is that portion of the body between the hips and knee and has the longest and strongest bone in the body. There are four groups of muscles that make up the thigh.

Thigh Muscle Groups are:

• Abductor brevis and longus, and the gracillis;

  these are the outer thigh muscles, these muscles work together to push the legs apart. Abductor muscles enable horseback riding or activities that need you to stand with legs apart

• The hamstrings;

  which are comprised of three groups of muscles. These muscles are located at the back of the thigh and work to make it possible to bend the legs. One of these muscles is the bicep - the thighs have biceps as well.

• Quadriceps femoris or quads;

  these are the muscles at the front of your thighs

• The adductors or inner thigh muscles

  are a group of five muscles that work to pull the legs together.

How to tone your thighs

Toning the thighs takes time and discipline, but the result, no more flabby thighs, will be worth it. There are various machines in the gym that are great to tone your thighs. Some of these are leg presses and leg extension machines and leg curl machine.

Most stretching exercises are also great to tone your thighs, and best of all some can be done without the use of expensive equipment. Some of the most popular are:

• Leg raises: there are a variety of these such as the seated leg raises,

• Stepping

• Lunges

• Inner and outer thigh presses

• Squats

Squatting is the Best Thigh Toning Exercise

Squatting is one of the most effective exercises along with aerobics for toning the things, even the difficult inner thigh muscles. Ten to fifteen repetitions of this simple exercise as part of your routine is great to tone your thighs, especially for females.

To tone your thighs, attach ankle weights, between three and five pounds each; lie on your right side, bend the leg that’s on the floor while stretching out the other leg; lift as far as it can go then slowly lower the foot until your toe touches the floor. Do about fifteen repetitions. Switch to the left side and repeat. Do between two and three sets for each side.

If you spend lots of time sitting you can also follow some simple exercise to tone your thigh. Here is a simple exercise that you can do while sitting:

• Place a bag, stack of magazines or other item in your lap to help provide some resistance; with your feet flat on the floor, slowly raise your heels until they are no longer touching the ground; hold for a few seconds and then lower them.

Thigh Toning Summary

Most importantly, to tone your thighs you need to focus on full body workouts instead of focusing on spot exercises, which only work the thighs. Because the thigh is one area where fat is deposited easily, a weight loss program is also a necessity if you want to both slim the things as well as tone them.