Have you ever been on a teeter totter? When one person is larger than the other, it just doesn’t work very well. One side is always sinking to the ground, while the other person is left hanging. It isn’t nearly as fun as being able to balance each other out and sooner or later, one person is going to give in and go home.
That’s kind of what the relationship is like between the Gluteus Medius and the Hip Adductors. The Glute Med is responsible for keeping your thigh knee out away from your midline. Conversely, your adductors’ job is to pull your thigh and knee inwards towards the midline of your body. If one group is stronger or tighter than the other, the knee constantly be pulled one way or the other and something will give, causing an injury. A lack of balance in this teeter totter will eventually cause a problem (usually at the knee).
Most athletes suffer from tight and strong adductors as well as a weak Glute Med. This is a common, but dangerous combination. When this happens, the knee has a tendency to move into a Valgus position (moves inward towards the midline), causing patellafemoral pain and worse yet, and ACL injury.
What’s the best way to solve this issue?
- Stretch the Adductors – This can be done in a variety of ways. At this point, we won’t get caught up in what adductor stretch may be better or worse than another. As long as dynamic mobility and flexibility are being addressed, that’s what is important. Because flexibility training desensitizes the nervous system, stretching will do 2 things to help fix this situation.
- The muscles will be less sensitive to a stretching sensation, thus they will be more likely to go into an elongated position when the Glute Medius in contracting.
- The decreased sensitivity will mean that it won’t be as likely to activate when we don’t want it to turn on. Hypersensitivity in the case of the adductors is usually negative because we need them to know how and when to shut off.
- Strengthen the Gluteus Medius – There are a lot of great techniques out there. A great tool for strengthening the glute med is a loop or miniband. The videos below give a great demonstration as to how to use the Stroops Loops to maximize Glute Med activation.
What happens when this balance is out of sync?
When the Glute Med is weak and inactive, and the adductors are tight and overactive, knee pain and injury is sure to follow. The knee will move into a valgus position, causing patellafemoral knee pain and even worse, an ACL tear. This occurs the when the lower leg internally rotates and the knee moves too far into valgus for the ACL to prevent the tibia from shifting forward. This is the most common mechanism for non-contact ACL tears.
It is unfortunate, but many times a little bit of adductor flexibility and glute med strength is all it takes to get protect your athletes from very serious and debilitating injuries.
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Hey brother. My right adductor is wicked tight all the time and so is my right quadratus lumborum. If I try to use my right hip abductor it tightens the adductor and the QL up even more. What do you think is going on…. my left side abductor doesn’t even feel like it’s working or contracting at all…. but the right one where the pain is does. The pain in my right adductor goes right into my pubis and feels like a golf ball in my rectum at times. Gets fatigued even when driving to the point I want to drive with 2 feet. I am a strength athlete so this is very annoying and ruining the quality of my life. Thanks for your help. Also…. on the right side my quad gets fatigued and my TFL is 2 x the size of the right side. Always tender. I roll and I stretch and things just seem to get worse
Man. Sounds like there’s a lot going on here, so it’s a bit hard to say in this forum. But, as a general rule, when I hear that things always feel tight and rolling and stretching isn’t helping, I usually find that there is a subtle underlying stability issue in the chain that is making the nervous system feel “threatened” and not allowing it to relax. I’m happy to do a consultation with you at some point if you like to dig in deeper.
Hey! Did you find a solution? I’m having the exact same symptoms!
Me too! Any chance one of you have found the root cause or how to fix it?
Same issues, same side nearly 4 years. It negatively affects my right knee to get into bad position (valgus).
I have the exact same symptoms. I’m getting so frustrated. I can’t even stretch my adductors properly, it doesn’t feel tight, it just feels overactive/hypertonic. My right glute med, on the same side, is so weak and no exercise will make it any stronger
I have also had the same problem for years. I found a solution. The side that my tfl, glute medius, and adductor were stronger and tight was because my psoas was long and weak on that sale side. Your body is using the wrong muscle for the job of the psoas. Stregthen your psoas on tight side. Strengthen glute max on opposite side.
Hi Joe,
long shot after 4 years but did you fix this?
I have the same issues 😀
My adductors and glute med/min are somehow both super tight on both sides. When I stretch my adductors it helps for a short time. However, many times during the stretch my glutes cramp like hell and then it just makes everything worse.
Cheers
Axel
Hi mate. I think this is my exact problem. What is the best stretch for the adductor?
There are a lot of strategies to use here. A simple solution is to get on a single knee with your other foot in front of you, just as you would perform a hip flexor stretch. Instead of just moving straight forward with your hips with your foot straight back behind you, rotate your back foot inward so when you move your hips forward, you will feel the stretch on your inner thigh instead of the front of your hip/thigh. I hope that makes sense.
Hi I have the same exact issue as Joe Sullivan mentioned in the comments. What would be the best way to consult you on this ?
You can always scheduled a consultation with me under the consultations tab at the top of my website and then we can dial into what exactly is going on. Thanks.