Adductor Magnus - Fulcrums

Client: side-lying with hip of upper leg flexed and thigh resting on a pillow; lower leg almost straight.

Therapist: alongside facing back of client

This stroke involves two passes up the inner thigh.  The first is done with the loose fist, specifically with the row of knuckles at the end of the first phalanges.  The work will be from just above the adductor tubercle on the medial epicondyle of the femur to an inch or so inferior to the pelvis. 

Draping - if you are using a sheet for draping for temperature and/or to respect this particular client’s boundaries, take the bottom edge of the drape and tuck the front end of it under the upper thigh (between it and the pillow) and tuck the back end between the pelvis and the table surface.  Pull the drape snug so that the client feels a clear boundary below the pelvis.
If the client is wearing shorts or underwear, I recommend draping still, both to underscore good boundaries and to keep client comfortably warm.

Center yourself, gently taking out the looseness just above the adductor tubercle, take up the slack and effleurage with increasing depth as you go up “valley” between adductor magnus and the hamstrings.  You may want first to palpate for the medial hamstrings to be clear that you will be working immediately anteriorly of the hamstrings.  Proceed up the inner thigh to an inch or so below the pelvis. Make sure that you respect the boundaries of the client.  For the second pass again begin just above the tubercle, using your right hand if you are working on the left inner thigh.  This is an introductory fulcrum and should be done with lightness and clarity - it is not “deep.”

Next, with the surface of the middle phalange of the index finger (supported by your thumb) melt into the valley between the hamstrings and adductor magnus (this becomes more palpable the higher you go). 
You will make several separate fulcrums, disengaging each time and beginning the next a little higher up.  For each fulcrum, take out the looseness, then take up the slack and then work in a gentle curve into the direction(s) that seem more fruitful.  You may work directly into the valley as if to deepen it.  You may work posteriorly and/or anteriorly, to widen it.  Or you may spend extra melting into particularly tense places in the medial hamstrings or adductor magnus.

Purposes:

a)  help establish freer tissue and freer movement between the adductors and hamstrings

b)  facilitate energy flow through the meridians of the inner thigh 

c)  facilitate grounding and a feeling of nourishment and support from the inner thighs

d) enliven the person up to the pelvic floor (help create feelings of safety and a healthy ease around the 1st chakra)