This 11-Minute Inner Thigh Workout Is Pilates Muscle-Toning Magic

The inner thighs are not an easy muscle group to target and train—mine jiggle wildly to and fro, as if they’ve never been used before, despite daily sweat sessions. Fortunately, Brian Spencer of East River Pilates has designed an inner thigh workout specifically geared towards strengthening that hard-to-reach area for the latest episode of Good Moves.

“Today, we are getting into those inner thighs, [which are] such great muscles for our pelvic stability, our knee tracking, and for helping us get into our obliques and lower abdominals,” he says. All of the above help to reduce the risk of aches, pains, and injury, so the benefits of strengthening your thighs go well beyond aesthetics, or even performance; strong inner thighs will help your mobility and general physical well-being in the long term.

For the workout, Spencer utilizes a Pilates ball, but if you don’t have one, he says you can use a pillow, a cushion, or no prop at all. (Don’t worry, you’ll still feel the burn!)

In just 11 minutes, Spencer manages to fit in leg lifts, leg circles, ball squeezes from a kneeling position, butterfly squeezes from a crunch position, and more. And as you’ll soon realize while following along, it doesn’t actually take that much to make the inner thighs “come alive,” as Spencer says, if you know what you’re doing.

Luckily, he does. If you’re tired of inner thighs that aren’t as strong as you’d like them to be despite your best efforts, press play on the video above to strengthen them, stat.

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