Ab Wheel Rollout
Trains the Abs.
- Equipment
- An ab wheel
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Kneel on a mat holding the wheel by both handles, shoulders directly above it and arms straight.
- Tuck your pelvis slightly so the lower back is flat, and brace your stomach hard.
- Push your shoulder blades forward around your ribs so the upper back rounds a little. Hold that shape.
- Roll the wheel forward, letting the body extend, with hips and shoulders travelling together in one line.
- Go only as far as the flat back holds. The moment the lower back starts to arch, that is your range for today.
- Pull back by bracing harder and drawing the hips back, keeping the shoulder blades forward the whole way.
Common mistakes
- Letting the shoulder blades pinch together at full stretch. Holding them forward around the ribcage is the serratus anterior working, and it is what keeps the far end of the roll off the shoulder joint.
- Rolling out until the lower back arches. The abdominal wall is working to prevent that arch, so the arch is the movement failing rather than the movement continuing.
- Coming back by lifting the hips first. Hips and shoulders travel together in both directions; folding at the hip is a way of shortening the return without shortening the roll.
- Starting from standing. The wheel is a narrow, rolling base with nothing to stop it, and the kneeling version is the same movement over a range that can actually be held.