 Question is from Dressfit. What are some good compound exercises for adductors and abductors? I like this question because- Because you picked it? Yeah. That's right, mainly. That's actually the only reason why I have no idea how to answer this. No, because I think we've talked about this on the show when people have asked us, you know, funny questions like, you know, what's the least effective machine in the entire gym? In fact, I remember way back in the day when we used to hang out with Craig when he was here in California still. I used to razz him about using that machine. And the reason being is- You're with the adductor machine? Yeah. And to me, this is where you can do some cool things with like step-ups to stabilization and doing movements that have got carryover and you get some of the benefits of working the adductors and adductors. So, yeah, those don't target them directly like an isolation exercise like the good girl, bad girl machines. But the benefits that a client gets from a step-up by itself and then teaching them how to pay attention and focus. Because the typical person that doesn't understand mechanics at all and just steps up, it's very natural for people to- their knee to cave in or- and their foot to kind of pronate. So teaching them to have a good base with their feet, to keep their knee open and step up to a balance. You get a lot of good stabilization there. You do. Yeah. The adductors are muscles on the inside of the thighs. They bring the legs together. The adductors are muscles on the outside of the thighs, right? They bring the legs apart. So the machine that Adam's referring to that, you know, that's commonly referred to- Good girl, bad girls. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, no machine or whatever. It's the one that you lay- you sit down, you open and close your legs or whatever. But you can do compound movements where you're using more weight in your- and those tend to be very effective at developing these muscles. One of my favorites for the inner thigh, the adductors, is a good old-fashioned, you know, sumo type exercises. Exercises with a wide stance where you're squatting up and these muscles are really having to stabilize really hard to maintain that position. So like a sumo squat would be a good example. The funny thing too is your intention can change a sumo squat from an adductor to an abductor exercise. So I just love everything in the frontal plane. So if I want to take, you know, side lunges are great for that as well or caustic squats. So, you know, just getting that added piece of functional movement that you're not, you know, normally going to apply in your programming is already a big advantage. So to make that more of a, you know, full body inclusive workout, that would be great. And there's really cool ways to do a standard conventional squat with tools. So, you know, you could, this is where, and I have a video I think I'm doing real soon here for the YouTube channel, like using hip circles. And this is where you see a lot of people using them. So you use the hip circle. And as you're, as you're dropping down this in a great squat, which we all know is a great compound lift, you're pushing and forcing your knees out, you can also do the opposite of that by putting like a basketball between your legs and squeezing the basketball as you go into a squat. So those are two ways that you can use a tool to accomplish targeting an area that you want to put emphasis on. Which is also a great, you know, way like a teachable way to help somebody with compensation. So like, yeah, so that would be a good way to address issues where you notice, you know, your knees come out too excessively in a squat, you know, you place a basketball there, you have them like focus intentionally on squeezing in a squat. Yes, I'm glad you said that because when you're working on compensations, I've actually seen this more too many times. That's why I want to clarify a compensation when you're trying to work on a compensation, you want to strengthen the opposing movement, okay, not prevent the movement from happening. There's a difference there. Like I would have, I've seen this way too many times, a trainer will put, you know, a medicine ball or something between someone's knees when they do a squat to squeeze it. And then I would ask them, why are you doing that? Oh, they're knees cave in. Yeah, that's the worst idea. Knees cave in, so it prevents the knees from caving in. I'm like, all you're doing is making them squeeze their legs. Enforcing the problem. Yeah. So when that person, if the knees cave in, you put something around the legs that they push out, something in between the legs is if their knees go out when they squat. And really, this is what you really want to pay attention to when it comes to the adductors and abductors. They're small muscles like really isolating them or developing isn't really a big deal unless you see an imbalance in your movement, which case, here's where the imbalances come from with the adductors and abductors. Avoidance of lateral exercise. Really, this is what it boils down to. Are you doing exercises that make you step out to the side or walk to the side? I love the sled for this. You attach the sled around your waist, walk sideways by crossing your legs over like a karaoke. And you're going to get great. You can either make it work the abductors of the leg that's pushing out or the adductor of the leg that's pulling you forward as you walk across. In my opinion, that is one of the best things you could possibly do for those two muscles. Sideways walking with different variations. It's also great. This is where we talked about pre exhausting these areas. So yes, there's compound movements that you can do that help target or put emphasis on these two muscles. But a lot of times what I would do is going back to Justin's point is if I have a client with their knees are caving in, then I'm going to do lateral two blocks first, and then I'm going to squat. And when I'm squatting, I'm queuing. Don't let your knees cave in, push your knees out at the bottom of the squat. And they're going to be better engaged with that muscle because I just had them do an isolation exercise with it first. So understanding why you're doing it, I think a lot of people try and target these muscles because they think it's going to make their thighs look shapely or they're like, Oh, I want to I want to work on my inner thighs, you know, because I don't like my inner thighs. And so they think like doing a machine like this or doing exercises like this is going to really benefit that. And that's where I'm not a fan of those machines. There's other movements that you can incorporate those muscles. Here's one if you are going to do machine I like men and you've heard me talk about this on the show is single leg press I'll never do a leg press with both feet just to me it's for me it's a waste of time it's not that beneficial in my opinion for for both legs to be planted on there it's already you're already very stable anyways and throwing one leg out there does force you to really engage both of these muscles to keep the knee from stable because that's what they're responsible for they're going to keep that knee stable and so you got to think about that. So as you drop down on the sled, you're trying to keep that knee in line with a toe and I'll tell you what the inner and outer thighs will be sore shit when you do a single leg press.