# Sartorius Muscle: Can it be isolated?



## OceanDude (Jun 28, 2003)

Hello all, first post here.

I have searched wide and far and have not been able to find any good exercise that will isolate the Sartorius muscle. Is is possible to isolate this muscle? Any ideas how to hit it well at all?


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## Mudge (Jun 28, 2003)

http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/Sartorius.html

Looks like a "hip adbuctor" would work well.


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## Fit Freak (Jun 28, 2003)

I agree with Mudge...that's about as close to an isolation movement you'll find


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## firestorm (Jun 29, 2003)

I believe that muscle crosses the front of the thigh around to the inner thigh just below the teardrop muscle(vastus medialis.  Hard to isolate such a muscle.  I believe it will best be served with squats, Extensions (tows pointed out), and the above mentioned excercises mentioned by Mudge and FF.


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## P-funk (Jun 29, 2003)

The sartorius is a difficult muscle to isolate but it can be done (or at least you can get close to it as posible).  To isolate a muscle we first need to find out what kind of things it does.  

The sartorius is a long mucsle, the longest in the body as a matter of fact.  It crosses the hip and stretshes down and attaches medially below the knee.  It's functions are knee flexion, hip flexion, hip abduction and hip external rotaion.  So now it is simple to find a way to isolate this muscle.

As stated before an abducion exercises will work however I don;t ever want to see some one in the gym sitting on those damn abduction machines, they are worthless.  Why??  Because they don;t work what they say they are working.  Becasue you are in a seated position you are putting yourself in hip flexion.   In hip flexion your hip flexors and abductors are slacking and inactive, this is why so many people with desk jobs complain about lower back pain, becuase their hip flexors are always tight from sitting all day.   If your hip flexors are slacking then they are not going to be effective (like they would be if you were standing).  So what is being worked with this excercise??  Your piriformis, a small muscle, sometimes know as the wallet muscle becuase it lies right by your back pocket were your wallet goes.  Your piriformis is an external rotator of the hip.  Why is it bad to work this muscle??  Becuase the piriformis lies right next to the siatic nerve if you build that muscle it may start to push against the nerve and in time can result in siatica (don;t know if that was spelled right), some of you may have experienced a feeling of numbeness down your leg form sitting for extended periods of time with your wallet in you back picket becuase your wallet is pushig your piriformis up against the siatic nerve (hence the name the wallet muscle).

So if you want to isolate the sartorius try going to the cable machine and putting the straps around your ankles and do hip abduction standing up, that way the sartorius is more active.  Also, because the sartorius is an external rotator you can perform hip extension standing up with the cable straps on your ankles and instead of going straigh back, although this wont isolate the sartorius completely it will be effextive, turn your foot outwards slightly which will cause some hip external rotaion (which the sartorius does).

hope that helps, sorry for the long winded response, it is a difficult muscle.


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## OceanDude (Jun 29, 2003)

P-Funk (and others),
Outstanding support/info ??? thanks for the ideas. This info on the piriformis and possible adverse interaction with the sciatica vis-à-vis the rear wallet is excellent; and a likely explanation why I previously had inexplicable hip/leg pains. With the economy being what it is, and my wallet substantially thinner than it was a few years ago, it is now more comforting to know that some good has come out of Fed???s failed monetary policy . Now if we could just get Fed Chairman Greenspan to get off his butt and into the gym with the Surgeon General Richard Carmona & get the country healthy we just might be able to get our economy in gear on the single issue of fitness alone. Just imagine the residuals the economy would generate if we could reduce our hemorrhaging of health care federal tax costs and medicare taxes (and improving worker productivity/availability) with some kind of government tax incentive to get healthy???

Sorry to wax philosophical but I couldn???t resist the fat/thin wallet analogy???

Cheers!


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## Snake_Eyes (Jun 29, 2003)

I think the exercise is called "squats."


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