Adductor Brevis

legsAdductor brevis

The adductor brevis is a short triangular muscle of the inner thigh, lying behind the adductor longus. It pulls the leg inward and assists hip flexion.

Adductor Brevis highlighted on an anatomical figure, from the front.
Where it sits, from the front.

Adductor brevis lies behind the adductor longus and in front of the adductor magnus, sandwiched between them. It arises from the pubic bone and runs a short distance down and outward to the upper part of the back of the thigh bone.

It adducts the thigh and assists hip flexion, in the same manner as adductor longus but over a shorter distance and from a slightly deeper position. Nothing about it is functionally distinctive.

Its main anatomical significance is as a landmark: the two branches of the obturator nerve pass in front of and behind it, which is how the nerve's divisions are described. The muscle is often identified in dissection by that relationship rather than by its own features.

It cannot be palpated separately, being covered by adductor longus and pectineus.

Training notes

Everything that trains the other adductors trains it: wide-stance squatting, sumo pulling, lateral movement and adduction work.

It has no distinguishing action that any exercise could target, and no reason to be trained separately.

It contributes to the volume of the upper inner thigh rather than to any visible feature.

Anatomy

Origin
  • Body and inferior ramus of the pubis
Insertion
  • Upper third of the linea aspera, and the line running to it from the lesser trochanter
Actions
  • Adducts the thigh
  • Assists flexion of the hip
Innervation
Obturator nerve (L2–L4)

Exercises

Antagonists

Synergists