The inner thigh
The adductors fill the inner side of the thigh. The pectineus, the adductor longus, the adductor brevis and the large adductor magnus run from the pubis and ischium to the back of the femur. The long, thin gracilis runs on to the tibia.
Deep muscles of the inner thigh, the adductor brevis and the adductor magnus with the obturator externus above them, Gray's Anatomy, 1918, figure 433Wikimedia Commons, Henry Vandyke Carter, Public domain (Gray433.png)
They pull the thigh toward the midline, press the knees together and steady the pelvis in walking. Riders use them to grip the horse. A sudden stretch, as in a sliding tackle, can tear them, the groin strain of footballers. Most of them are supplied by the obturator nerve.
The sartorius crosses over them, from the front of the hip bone down across the thigh to the inner side of the tibia. It is the longest muscle in the body. It helps bring the leg into the cross-legged seat of a tailor, and its name comes from sartor, Latin for tailor.
Muscles of the hip and thigh from the front and from behind, among them the quadriceps, the sartorius, the adductors and the hamstrings, OpenStax Anatomy and PhysiologyWikimedia Commons, OpenStax, CC BY 4.0 (1122 Gluteal Muscles that Move the Femur.jpg)
Sources
- Susan Standring (ed.), Gray's Anatomy, 42nd ed. (2020), chapter on the pelvic girdle, gluteal region and thigh.
Prev: The hamstringsNext: The calf