Strong adductor muscles are good for skiing and mountain biking

Recently I did a little downhill mountain biking for the very first time.  It was a 1-day workshop for women at Massanutten in northern VA, which added lift-served mountain biking a few years ago.  Turns out that in a bike park, you spend pretty much the entire time on the bike going downhill while standing on the pedals.  What little uphill there is does not require sitting on the seat, which is kept low so that it's out of the way.  Learned a lot from the two instructors that worked with the group of ten women, which included a few novices.

The muscle that didn't appreciate the extra work was the adductor muscle that goes to just above my  knee that is missing an ACL.  When I did the knee rehab, working on adductors and abductors went together with hamstring exercises.  Those muscles are also important for downhill skiing.  While my MCL was healing after the knee injury, it was obvious whether or not it was too soon for these exercises because there would be pain.  I would wait another week before trying again.  In my case, it took about three months for complete healing.

Adductor exercises are easy to do at home.  Take a look at the videos for an introduction.  When I was doing formal physical therapy, I learned how to do all of them at some point.

Using a soft ball to strengthen adductors

Two knee exercises using a resistance band

Eccentric exercise for adductors

Inner thigh exercises to strengthen adductor and groin muscles