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Most people know the gym is the place to be to build muscle all over your body. But what are some gym machines specifically for bigger thigh muscles?
There are equipment options to work out your thighs at home but the machines on this list can definitely offer you certain unique advantages to help you grow bigger thigh muscles faster.
Even though your injury risk is generally smaller when using these machines compared to using free weights, like any exercise, there is always some risk of injury. Implement a good technique to keep your injury risk low. When in doubt talk to an expert.
1. Cable machine
The cable machine is a type of gym machine where a steel frame holds weights and pulleys. Thanks to the cable going through these pulleys and attached to these weights you can do many types of strength training exercises for a wide variety of muscles.
One example of a cable thigh exercise is a standing leg abduction. For this exercise and many other thigh cable exercises you benefit from having an ankle strap attachment. Once you have that put the cable pulley low to the ground and stand right next to it with one side toward it.
Put the ankle strap on the foot farthest away from the cable machine. Next, shift your weight so that the leg with the ankle strap hovers in the air. Move the leg in the air sideways away from the cable machine as far as comfortable.
Lastly return to the previous position in a controlled motion and repeat the same number of repetitions with your other leg. This standing leg abduction exercise targets your outer thighs.
One of the benefits of the cable machine is that you can use it to train front, back, inner, and outer thighs.
2. Hamstring curl machine
A hamstring curl machine is simply a machine made for the exercise with the same name. It is basically a chair or pad on which you lie down where you start with stretched legs and push against adjustable resistance to fold your legs at the knees.
You can find both seated and lying versions of the hamstring curl machine.
There is only one main exercise this hamstring gym machine is built for and as the name implies the hamstring curl helps you train your hamstrings which are your back thigh muscles. This machine can be very helpful because it is difficult to isolate your hamstrings with other machines and exercises.
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3. Inner/outer thigh machine
The next gym machine is one that allows you to do hip adductions and abductions. These are movements from your upper leg toward the center and out to the sides. By doing these motions with extra resistance you can train your inner and outer thighs and even your butt muscles more.
To do hip adductions, this engages your inner thighs, the machine pads with resistance have to be on the inside of your legs. Adjust the machine settings, select the right weight, and sit down in the seat. Push your thighs slowly towards each other as far as you can. After that return them back into starting position in a controlled motion.
4. Leg extension machine
The opposite of the hamstring curl machine is the leg extension machine. This is a chair where you start with folded legs and push against resistance to extend your legs.
Similar to the hamstring curl machine, the leg extension machine is made for a single purpose. This purpose is to strengthen your quadriceps muscles which are your front thigh muscles.
Keep in mind many leg exercises already target your quadriceps a lot. If you already have more compound leg exercise like lunges, squats, and step-ups in your workout program you may not need to do leg extensions on top of that.
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5. Leg press machine
The leg press is a gym machine where you push away weights from your body with your legs. This can be both sideways but more often upward while sitting in a low seat. You can describe the leg press as a squat in machine form.
This machine looks like a seat with a pad with weight to put your feet against. To do a leg press simply adjust the machine to your personal size, select your desired weight, take a seat, and put your feet on the pad at about shoulder width.
You then push the weights away until your legs are slightly less than stretched and then slowly return the weights to starting position.
The leg press mainly works leg muscles like quadriceps (front thighs), hamstrings (back thighs), and glutes.
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