My students and I have found several contradicting texts where the hip adductor group is said to medially rotate the hip and some texts say the opposite. We are so very confused. Is it possible that the proximal fibers/muscles medially rotate and the dist

The question of medial vs lateral rotation actions in the medial thigh compartment is a long-standing issue that doesn't seem to want to go away, even though it really was resolved many years ago. The answer is tied very closely to the age of the individual and the accompanying maturation of the femoral head and neck. In children (age definition vague), the femur is quite vertical relative to the pelvis due to the femoral neck being quite short and vertical when immature. Because of this architecture, the adductors (adductor brevis, longus, and magnus) do appear to have active roles in lateral rotation. However, in adults, the femoral neck is relatively long and obliquely angled to the femoral shaft, producing an off-set femur to pelvis positioning and very different vector lines for the muscles at the hip. EMG studies in adults during the 1960's clearly demonstrated the adductors are active during medial rotation but not during lateral rotation of the hip. Thus, the rotation argument should have been resolved in favor of medial rotation in adults, but it somehow keeps reappearing. A very good reference for experimental-based (EMG) studies on the actions of human muscles is: Muscles Alive, by John Basmajian, published by Lippincott, Wilkins and Wilkins. It's an older text, and likely out of print, but still a valuable reference for functional muscle biology written by one of the forerunners in the field of muscle testing. It would be well worth obtaining a copy (if you can find one).

Lawrence Wineski
Moorehouse School of Medicine