The great news is there are some excellent exercises for inner thighs, but you need to know, it’s not going to be easy if you want to lose fat in this area. It will take a lot of work to get them how you want, including some changes to your diet.

When leg day arrives in my training schedule it’s the only training day I’d have to admit I don’t look forward to. The legs are probably the most exhausting part of the body to train and it’s one of the hardest places to shift unwanted fat from.

Don’t let the hard work put you off,  especially if this part of your body has been troublesome for some time.

I know my girlfriend used to hate her inner thigh wobbles when she was running and I know many people have trouble with their inner thighs touching when they are walking, so just think how great you will feel once you start to see the results of your efforts pay off.

Diet & Exercise

Whilst there are numerous exercises for inner thighs it’s pretty much pointless doing any of them if you have a poor diet. Overeating, high fat and high carbs, are the main reasons for the extra layer of fat on your thighs.

Sadly it’s not possible to spot target a specific area of your body for fat loss but what we can do is target our overall fat % by changing the type of foods we eat and how much of it.

A healthy diet coupled with resistance training on a regular basis will help you shift that unwanted fat faster, why? Short bursts of resistance training (dumbbell exercises in our case) will raise your resting metabolism.

To burn the extra calories, you will need to be swapping out that fat for muscle. Muscles burn far more calories than fat.

A prolonged raised metabolism after high-intensity training is called the afterburn or EPOC effect where for up to 36 hours your body will burn 10 extra calories per hour and yes sitting watching tv you’ll be burning extra calories because of the training you have done earlier in the day.

You can not expect results straight away, it will take time for your body to start to replace the fat with muscle, and don’t be surprised for the first few months if your legs appear slightly larger, this is just the muscles growing marginally bigger underneath the layers of fat.

Stick to the diet and resistance training and the fat should soon start to disappear leaving you with lean muscle underneath.

 Toning?

I’m sure many of you like to use the word toned or desire a toned body,  all toning is, is another word for losing fat, basically, if you want a toned look you’re going to need to lose fat.

Building muscle underneath the fat is great but if you want the so-called toned look to your inner thighs or anywhere else on your body you will have to lose some of that fat to reveal the muscle.

If you want your physique to look better you will want to lose just the fat without losing any muscle, so no crazy crash dieting. The best way to do this is to challenge your muscles through resistance exercises (weight lifting is king for this) paired with a caloric deficit diet, one high in protein, healthy fats and watch your carb intake.

Lift Weights – lower calories intake (calories deficit) – high protein diet – cardio = Awesome inner thighs

All the exercises below can be done with or without weights. I recommend for the first week to practise all of the exercises with either a low weight or none at all.

The main reason for this is to get your body used to each exercise and most importantly teach yourself the correct form for each exercise. Form is very important if you want the most from your workout. So follow the exercise instructions and videos to make sure you are performing each exercise correctly.

So once you’re happy with your form, you can now slowly start to add weight as you feel comfortable doing so. Adjustable dumbbells are great to use for all of the following exercises and are a versatile option, allowing you to increase the weight as your strength improves.

And don’t forget to warm up first, a good warm-up will increase the heartbeat and raise the blood pressure at a slow steady pace,  opposed to a sharp increase, resulting from jumping straight into exercise, that can be dangerous.

What’s best? Dynamic stretching is an excellent way to get warmed up, this approach uses stretches that are dynamic, meaning you are moving as you are stretching. It will improve your range of motion helping you feel more limber.

All the exercises in this workout will help by strengthening your upper and inner thigh muscles, take the sumo squat: this is a great exercise because not only does it work the glutes quadriceps, hamstrings, hip flexors and calves like the regular squat, the sumo squat also places a lot of emphasis on the inner thigh adductors, which move your legs in toward your body, and glutes.

The Exercises

Sumo Squat

  1. Grab a dumbbell and hold at the base with both hands, and stand up straight.
  2. Make sure toes are pointing outwards and legs are nearly twice shoulder width apart…remember to keep arms stationary throughout the movement.
  3. Now slowly bend the knees and lower your legs until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
  4. Press up through the heel of the foot back to starting position and repeat for the desired amount of repetitions.

Dumbbell Lunges

  1. Stand with your body upright holding two dumbbells, one either side of your body.
  2. Hang arms at your sides. Palms should face the thighs. Feet should be a little less than shoulder width apart.
  3. Take a large step forward around two feet in length, with the foot being left stationary behind lower your upper body down, while keeping the torso upright and maintaining balance. It’s important not to allow your knee to go forward beyond your toes. The rear leg is bent at the knee and balanced on the toes.
  4. Pushing up using mainly the heel of the foot go back to starting position.

Dumbbell Squat

  1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, stand up straight palms facing towards the body.
  2. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, with toes slightly pointing outwards, keeping your back straight, chest and torso upright and facing straight ahead as you push your hips backwards and bend your knees, don’t be tempted to tip forward at the hips, this could cause some lower back unwanted stress.
  3. The front of the knees should make an imaginary straight line with the toes, that is perpendicular to the front.
  4. Allow your arms to hang straight down in line with your knees as you perform the exercise.
  5. Start to raise your torso as you press through your heels and return to the starting position.
  6. Repeat for the desired amount of repetitions.

If you don’t already own a set of adjustable dumbbells then you might be interested in checking out our detailed review of the best adjustable dumbbells of 2023 here

Less serious weightlifters can check out our review of the Cap Barbell adjustable dumbbells here An excellent set of budget dumbbells for beginners and fitness enthusiasts.