Gracilis

M. gracilis: Ursprung, Ansatz, Innervation, arterielle Versorgung, Dehnung, Kräftigung.

Ok so maybe you won't be able to understand what is being said, but the graphics are cool.

Gracilis

...sounds like something you might say when someone sneezes....except that here we are talking about a muscle. Yup a long thin muscle that starts on the pubic bone and ends on the inside of the knee at the tibia. Not much mystery here. It has but one job...hip adduction. What's adduction you say?? The action of bringing a limb towards the midline. Pretty simple adduct to midline, abduct away from midline. Pull your knees together and you are adducting your hips.

To spare you all the writing you can watch the video to the right where Becky will only somewhat awkwardly, but anatomically accurately, discuss the anatomy and function of the gracilis muscle. Good job Becky. As she mentions, because this muscle does cross two joints (the hip and the knee) it will perform actions on both joints.

This muscle doesn't get a whole lot of attention in the fitness and body building world because pure adduction is not much a necessary movement, but as we will learn next week in the adductor series, stabilization of the hips and knees is important for squats and deadlifts and such.

For now, I wouldn't add any lifts specifically for the gracilis unless you are particularly weak in the hip adductor realm as evidenced by very shaky knees when squatting or you especially need hip adduction to keep from falling off your horse. Stretching all these adductors is however, no joke as I would suggest putting on yoga pants before you split your jeans trying the frog stretch below.