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Seated butterfly (inner thighs)

How to do the Seated butterfly (inner thighs) correctly: it targets the Adductors of the hip, the hold is 45 s, and the steps below keep it on the muscle instead of the joint.

This is mobility information, not physiotherapy and not a diagnosis. Pain is the border: a stretch that hurts at the attachment, sharpens, or sends pins and needles down the limb is loading a nerve or a tendon, not a muscle — stop and, for anything that persists or radiates, see a clinician. After an injury or surgery, stretching follows the treating clinician's protocol, not this page.

How to do it

1. Sit on the floor, soles of the feet together, knees falling outward.
2. Sit tall on the sit bones — the spine lengthens, the chest lifts.
3. Hold the feet, and let the knees fall toward the floor under their own weight; the hands guide, they do not push.
4. Hinge gently forward from the hips if the inner thighs allow it, and breathe for 45 seconds.

Why this stretch exists

The adductors stabilise every sideways step and every change of direction, and they shorten in anyone who sits with legs crossed or simply never opens the hips. Tight adductors limit the hip rotation that the deep glute stretches are trying to restore, which is why the butterfly sits in the hip routine as the complement to the pigeon and the figure-four. The floor version is the honest one: the sit bones anchor the pelvis so the stretch lands in the inner thigh instead of the lower back.

Keep the spine long rather than folding the chest to the floor — the fold is a bonus, the tall sit is the stretch. Groin injuries and hip replacements make adductor stretching a clinician's protocol first, because the adductors anchor the hip joint itself.

Hold and frequency figures: the standard stretching and range-of-motion literature — 15–60 second holds, two to four rounds per muscle (about 60 seconds total), two to three sessions a week for measurable gains, static holds after activity or as their own session, dynamic movement before. The injury-prevention position: the systematic reviews — stretching does not prevent injury or soreness; it buys range of motion and comfort. Checked 2026-09-06.

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