Legs · Bodyweight
Bodyweight Kneeling Butterfly with Towels
How to do the bodyweight kneeling butterfly with towels, the muscles it works, and the mistakes to avoid. Pulled straight from the Kovo app's exercise library.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Logged as
- Weighted reps
- Movement
- Flexion
- Mechanic
- Isolation
How to do it
Kneel tall and place a towel under each knee on a smooth floor. Keeping your torso upright and core braced, slide both knees out wide like a butterfly, then squeeze your inner thighs to pull the towels back together under control.
- 1A stretch and then a strong contraction through your inner thighs
- 2Your core staying braced to keep the torso tall
- 3Even, controlled sliding on both sides
Common mistakes
- Sliding out so far you lose control or strain the groin
- Letting your hips collapse or your back round
- Yanking the towels back with momentum instead of the adductors
Muscles worked
The bodyweight kneeling butterfly with towels mainly works the adductors, with the lower abs, upper abs, obliques, glutes, and hip flexors assisting.
- AdductorsPrimary
- Lower AbsSupport
- Upper AbsSupport
- ObliquesSupport
- GlutesSupport
- Hip FlexorsSupport
- Lower BackMinor
- QuadsMinor
- HamstringsMinor
Kovo programs the bodyweight kneeling butterfly with towels for you and tracks it every session.
We build your whole program, drop the right lifts into each workout, and adjust your weights as you get stronger. Free on iOS and Android.
More hips & adductors exercises
- How to do the butterfly stretch
- How to do the external rotation
- How to do the cable hip adduction
- How to do the internal rotation
- How to do the cobra pose
- How to do the core scrunch
Last reviewed June 2026.