Thigh Muscles

What are your thigh muscles?

Your thighs contain some of the largest muscles in your body. These muscles are located on the front, back and inside of your thighs. You use them to bend, flex and rotate your lower body. Your thigh muscles also bear most of your body’s weight. They keep your hips and legs aligned and assist with balance.

Your thigh muscles have many important jobs. But they’re also very prone to injury, especially in athletes. Running, jumping and changing directions can put a lot of strain on the muscles of your thighs. Fortunately, there are many ways to keep your thigh muscles safe and healthy.

What is the purpose of your thigh muscles?

Each of the muscles and muscle groups in your thigh has a different job:

• Hamstrings. Let you extend (tilt) your hip to move your leg behind your body, like when you walk and put one leg behind you. They also let you flex (bend) your knee, like when you squat.
• Adductors. These allow you to bring your thighs toward each other (adduction). They also help you stay balanced, keep your legs and hips in alignment, and allow rotation through your hips and legs.
• Quadriceps. These let you flex your hip (for example, squatting or sitting) or extend your knee (standing or reaching your leg straight in front of you to take a step).
• Pectineus. This enables you to flex and rotate your thigh at your hip joint. It also helps stabilize your pelvis.
• Sartorius. This helps you flex and rotate your thigh from your hip joint. You use it when you cross your legs to rest one ankle on the opposite leg or sit cross-legged.
• Iliopsoas. These enable you to flex and rotate your thigh at your hip joint. Unlike other muscles at the front of your thigh, they don’t help extend your leg at your knee joint.

Where are your thigh muscles located?

You have many different thigh muscles. They’re located in the front, back and inside of your thigh. They stretch from your hip down to your knee. Tendons attach them to bones in your pelvis, hip and knee.

The thigh muscles can be divided into three main groups, depending on their location. These groups are posterior, medial and anterior.

Posterior thigh muscles

Posterior thigh muscles run down the back of your thigh, from your hip to just below your knee. These include your hamstrings, which are your semitendinosus, semimembranosus and biceps femoris.

Medial thigh muscles

Medial thigh muscles are on the inside of your thigh, starting at your pelvis and extending to your thigh bone (femur). These include your adductors, which are your adductor longus, adductor magnus adductor, gracilis and obturator externus.

Anterior thigh muscles

Anterior thigh muscles are at the front of your thigh, starting at your pelvis and femur and extending down to your kneecap (patella) and shin bone (tibia). They include:

• Quadriceps. Your quads include five muscles: vastus lateralis, tensor of the vastus intermedius, vastus intermedius, vastus medialis and rectus femoris.
• Pectineus. This is a flat muscle that extends from the front of your pelvis to the top of your femur.
• Sartorius. This is a long, thin muscle — the longest in your body. It starts by your hip and wraps across the front of your thigh, then downward toward your knee.
• Iliopsoas. The iliopsoas consists of two separate muscles, your psoas major and iliacus. They stretch across your thigh from your pelvis to your knee.

What are your thigh muscles made of?

Your thigh muscles are skeletal muscles. They attach to bone with tendons, and they help move parts of your skeleton.

They’re made of bundles of muscle fibers containing blood vessels and nerve fibers. All of the components are held together with connective tissue.

What conditions can affect your thigh muscles?

Conditions that can affect your thigh muscles include:

• Contusions. Thigh contusions can occur if you receive a direct blow to your thigh (quadriceps and hamstrings). Bruises or hematomas (when blood pools under your skin) may develop.
• Muscle strains. This type of injury occurs when a muscle is stretched beyond its limits and the muscle fibers pull apart. Strains are common in your hamstrings and quads.
• Tears. These occur when a muscle partially or completely tears away from your tendon or bone. Examples include hamstring tears and quad tendon ruptures.
• Cuts (lacerations). You can damage your upper leg muscles if an injury or accident breaks the skin of your thigh (laceration), creating an open wound.

What are the symptoms of thigh muscle conditions?

Symptoms of thigh muscle conditions include:

• Bruising or skin discoloration
• Burning or stinging sensation
• Cramping
• Muscle weakness
• Popping or snapping sound or feeling
• Sudden and severe leg pain
• Swelling
• Tenderness
• Trouble bearing weight on your leg

What are the risk factors for thigh muscle injuries?

Thigh muscle injuries are common in athletes due to the movements they make with their bodies. These injuries frequently affect football, soccer and basketball players.

You’re also at risk for thigh muscle injuries if you:

• Are immobile for long periods of time
• Don’t warm up before and cool down after physical activity
• Have muscle fatigue or tightness
• Have a chronic health condition that can weaken your tendons, like kidney failure or lupus
• Take fluoroquinolones (a type of antibiotic)
• Use corticosteroids

How can I keep my thigh muscles safe and healthy?

You can take steps to keep your thigh muscles safer and healthier, especially during physical activity:

• Avoid sports that involve changing direction quickly or tackling.
• Don’t “play through the pain.” If something hurts, stop and rest.
• Eat foods that are high in protein.
• Get physical activity often. The stronger your muscles are, the less likely they are to become injured.
• Maintain a healthy weight that’s right for you to reduce pressure on your muscles.
• Stay hydrated by drinking lots of water.
• Warm up before you perform physical activity, increase intensity gradually and then stretch afterward.
• Wear shoes that fit well and all appropriate safety equipment for any sports you play.

When should I call a healthcare provider about thigh muscle problems?

Damage to a thigh muscle can increase the chances that you’ll injure yourself even more. Talk to a healthcare provider if you have:

• An inability to bend or extend your hip or knee
• Loss of feeling or persistent weakness in your thigh or hip
• Pain that doesn’t go away or gets worse when you bend or extend your hip or knee
• Popping or snapping noise in your leg
• Repeated injuries
• Swelling or bruising
• Trouble putting weight on your leg