4 Standing Exercises That Firm Outer Thighs Faster Than Leg Presses After 60

By Alexa Mellardo

August 7, 2026

Your outer thighs play a crucial role in daily movement, but they often don’t receive the attention they deserve in workouts. The outer thighs help stabilize the hips, support the knees, and keep the pelvis level so you can walk, run, and climb stairs with ease. Building outer thigh strength can also reduce your risk of injury.

That said, firming and strengthening your outer thighs can be a challenging process—but we’re here to help. We spoke with Domenic Angelino, MS, MPH, CSCS, CPT, Chief Exercise Scientist at FitCraft, who shares four standing exercises to add to your workout routine to achieve real results.

Standing Hip Abductions

6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

“You generally want to keep your torso rigid and straight while lifting one leg up laterally. This lets you directly train your hip abductor muscles, like your gluteus medius and tensor fascia latae,” Angelino explains. “This exercise is great because you can perform it with just your bodyweight, with cables, or with resistance bands. Plus, you can perform it standing next to a wall for extra safety and stability.”

1. Begin by standing tall with your feet hip-width apart and hands on your hips.
2. Activate your core and shift your weight onto your left leg.
3. Keep your right leg straight and toes pointed forward as you lift it out to the side as high as you’re comfortably able to.
4. Hold at the top for a moment before lowering for 3 seconds.
5. Repeat on the other side.

Lateral Lunges

Lateral lunges activate the vastus lateralis (the outer-side part of the front thigh) and the gluteus medius.

“This exercise is particularly helpful for training the outer thighs because it allows you to work in a very deep range of motion, essentially going as far as your mobility allows you to lunge down, and doing so with weight,” Angelino says. “When you press off the ground with your foot to stand back up, you’ll be engaging outer thigh muscles that work at your knee joint, and outer butt muscles that work at your hip joint.”

1. Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart.
2. Take a big step out to the side with your left foot, press your hips back, and lower into a lateral lunge.
3. Press through your left heel to rise back up.
4. Repeat on the other side.

Side Step-Ups

This exercise engages similar hip abductor muscles as the lateral lunge.

“It is also highly effective at improving iliotibial band strength. It’s another part of your outer thigh that is responsible for stabilization. It can’t be trained directly in a meaningful way in the same way that other muscles can, but it improves when it is forced to stabilize your legs during certain types of movements. Laterally stepping up and off of a box or raised platform will increase its activation and role in stabilization, compared to other exercises,” Angelino adds.

1. Begin standing sideways next to a sturdy step or plyometric box.
2. Place the foot closest to the step firmly on top of the surface.
3. Activate your core and maintain a tall chest.
4. Press through the heel of the foot on the step to lift your body up until both legs are straight.
5. Use control to lower.
6. Repeat on the other side.

Sumo Squats

The sumo squat trains many muscles outside the outer hip, helping you produce greater force with each rep and utilize more weight.

“Using more weight means you’ll be able to provide a stronger stimulus to your muscles and improve faster,” Angelino says. “The sumo squat’s wide stance, with your feet very far apart, is what makes it better at targeting the outer thigh muscles than a normal squat.”

1. Stand tall with your feet outside shoulder-width, toes slightly pointing outward.
2. Extend your arms ahead of you, place your hands on your hips, or hold a dumbbell or kettlebell with both hands.
3. Bend at the knees and hips to lower into a squat.
4. Descend until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
5. Press through your heels to return to standing.