Home / Exercises / Cable Hip Adduction
Cable Hip Adduction animation

How to do the Cable Hip Adduction

LegsQuadsCableBeginner

Cable hip adduction builds the often-neglected inner thigh musculature with constant tension that free weights simply cannot replicate, creating stronger, more balanced legs from the ground up. Mastering this movement at the cable stack will pay dividends in your squats, athletic performance, and overall lower body stability.

Add this to my personalized plan →

Muscles worked

Primary
Quadriceps
Secondary
GlutesHamstringsCalves

Step-by-step

  1. Attach the ankle cuff to the low pulley and secure it to your inner ankle of the leg closest to the machine, then stand sideways with feet hip-width apart and hold the cable stack for balance.
  2. Brace your core and keep your standing leg slightly soft at the knee to maintain a stable base throughout the movement.
  3. Drive your cuffed leg across your body in a smooth arc, pulling it past your standing leg as far as your adductors allow without rotating your hips.
  4. Resist the cable on the return, lowering your leg slowly back to the start position under full control rather than letting the weight snap it back.

Common mistakes

  • Rotating the hip to gain extra range of motion, which shifts the load off the adductors onto the hip flexors — keep both hip bones squared forward throughout every rep.
  • Using momentum by swinging the leg across instead of contracting the inner thigh — reduce the weight until you can execute a deliberate, controlled arc with a one-second pause at peak contraction.
  • Standing too close to the cable stack, which creates slack in the cable at the start position and eliminates tension at the most important part of the range — step out far enough that you feel resistance immediately from the bottom.

Pro tip — At the point of peak adduction, hold the contraction for a full two seconds and actively think about squeezing your inner thighs together as if gripping something between them — this brief isometric dramatically increases motor unit recruitment in the adductors and accelerates strength gains over time.

Sets & reps by goal

Build muscle3–4 sets × 10–15 reps
Get stronger3–4 sets × 6–8 reps
Lose fat / tone3 sets × 12–20 reps

Rest: 60–90 sec between sets.

More Legs exercises

Barbell Bench Front SquatBarbell Bench Front SquatBarbell Front Chest SquatBarbell Front Chest SquatBarbell Full SquatBarbell Full SquatBarbell Good MorningBarbell Good MorningBarbell LungeBarbell LungeBarbell One Leg SquatBarbell One Leg Squat
Want this built into a full plan?2fit4u turns moves like this into your personalized weekly program — free to start.
Build my free plan →