Your outer thigh, or thigh abductor, muscles move your thighs away from the center of your body. They are important not just for achieving lower body mass and definition, but for performance in all sports that involve moving from side to side, including hockey, skiing, football, tennis, dance and horseback riding. Strengthening your abductor muscle may also help prevent groin, hip and knee injuries. Make sure to balance outer with inner thigh exercises as imbalances between the two muscle groups may lead to injuries.

Bodybuilding Principles

To build stronger and better defined outer thigh muscles, you must use enough resistance to challenge the muscles. As you work out, you break down muscle fibers, and your body repairs the damage as you recover by rebuilding the muscles with stronger, bigger fibers. To make this happen, select weights or resistances that allow you to complete no more than 12 repetitions of an exercise with good form. Beginning and intermediate lifters work out on two or three nonconsecutive days each week, doing one set each of three or four leg exercises, working all major muscles groups in pushing and pulling directions. Advanced lifters benefit from more frequent workouts, focusing on different muscles each day, and completing three full sets of each exercise.

Lower Body Compound Exercises

After warming up with 10 to 15 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio, start your lower body workout with compound exercises that use all your leg muscles, such as squats, lunges or leg presses. Sumo squats, in which your legs are spread wider than ordinary squats and feet turned out rather than parallel, use the inner and outer thigh muscles more than squats done in a narrower stance. Similarly, sumo deadlifts will activate inner and outer thigh muscles as well as hamstrings. Side lunges are another compound exercise emphasizing the abductors. If you can do 12 unweighted lunges with good form, hold dumbbells to make the exercise more effective.

Machine Isolation Exercises

Use a seated thigh abductor machine to isolate the outer thigh muscles. You start this exercise by sitting with your legs together with the pads resting on the outside of your thighs, and then separate your thighs against resistance. Choose a weight that allows you to complete the exercise with a full range of motion. Standing multi-hip machines work the outer thighs and use many upper and lower body muscles as stabilizers. To work the outer thighs, start with your feet parallel and the thigh of the working leg against the roller. Holding the rest of your body still, use your working leg to push the roller up and out from your body.

Resistance Bands

Side steps with a resistance band isolate the abductor muscles. Begin with your feet together and a resistance band looped around either your thighs or shins. Step sideways into a squat position, using your working leg, and then stand up, bringing your non-working leg to meet your working leg.

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