Never Do Ab Wheel Rollouts Like This!

Ab wheel rollouts are one of the most commonly performed ab exercises in the gym. Given their ease of setup, they are actually a great exercise for home workouts too since you can do them on the floor with very little space and one inexpensive ab wheel. The problem is, the ab rollout is also one of the most abused and misperformed exercises which can quickly ruin your lower back if you don’t fix how you’re doing them. In this video, I’m going to show you how to perform an ab wheel rollout safely so you can train your abs without wrecking your back.

The problem with the ab wheel rollout starts with the position of your lower back during the setup of the exercise. The two things you want to avoid is letting your hips drop down into a straight line with your back and getting the hands out too far from the body. Either one of these will shift too much of the focus onto the lats and turn the into the prime mover of the exercise. This is not bad if you are looking for a great bodyweight back exercise but this is certainly not our goal when performing the ab wheel rollout.

The back should be pulled out of the natural anterior pelvic tilt that occurs during the setup for this exercise. While you will be flexing the spine from above, a key function of the abdominal muscles, you will likely only be flattening the lumbar spine and pulling into a more of a posterior tilt from the excessive anterior tilt. This will have an effect of actually putting the back into a safer position to perform the exercise.

From here, you want to consciously make sure that you hold the abs in a contracted position as you initiate the rollout. Only go out as far as your ab strength can support you. If you are a beginner, you may only be able to go out a foot or two. That is ok, as long as your lower back is not caving in at any point because your have surpassed the strength of your abs then you can still get great benefits from the exercise. If you are stronger, you can go out further and even hold the end position for awhile to increase the challenge.

The next part is where most of us will ruin the exercise, even if it has been performed properly up to this point. Instead of initiating the return of the ab wheel to the top using the hips you have to contract the abs first and be sure to move your entire torso in one piece. Your hips and the wheel should come up together, without allowing the hips to travel backwards. In fact, you can check that you are doing this right by placing a bench behind your hips and making sure not to make contact with it with your butt as you pull back to the top.

The most important element of this move is that you are getting both benefits of the abs if you want to get the most from it. The anti-extension and spinal flexion components of the abs are both going to be tested if you perform this right. Both are needed in order to build the ab strength necessary not only to get great results from the ab wheel rollout but to keep it a safe exercise choice as well.

[fullbrigades]

Sometimes I feel that Jeff's sole mission is to show that I do every exercise wrong!!!! I am so thankful to him!

[justaman]

i swear jeff has dismantled every exercise i've ever done, and showed me how to correctly to them. Love this channel

[OO_Benz]

I hope we all reach our fitness goals one day! Keep grinding everybody!

[sarvindshekar]

I am training for over 10 year and 5 of those years are with general floor trainers. Since i have couple of injuries in my spine, i never felt that the trainers ever understood what i needed.. And i was always looking for solutions and thanks to you, i get world class training and your videos are so informative and useful to me especially because i am limited to certain kind of workouts and you still add variety to what i can do with my limitations.. Thanks Jeff

[hunnya]

i did this at the gym today, the floor tastes like rubber

[joelhjert]

Jeff is hands down the best in the business!

[ShellsterNYC]

Thank you. My ab roller has been collecting dust for the last 2 years. After watching this video, I'm ready to try using it again. ☺

[Lauren-zujf]

This was a great help! The slight rounding immediately took pressure off my lumbar and I felt the ab burn! Thank you thank 🙂

[Re.T]

This is a serious one. I hurt myself pretty bad doing these to the point were I couldn't walk for a while.

[travisjustin]

This is the ONLY fitness channel I watch currently and will continue to do so. Jeff is the best!

[blakejones]

I stopped doing these a long time ago bc it just didn’t feel normal. I always felt like I was doing something wrong. But now after watching this I’ve got a good exercise to add into my ab workout. Thank you, I found this super super helpful

[gurjit_kaur-]

First when I ordered it I opened it up and started doing the exercise, then I felt the pain in my lower back then I saw your video this really helped me thank you so much 👍

[peterkirkpatrick]

Thank you I am an old guy that has had two back surgeries and these exercises have cut down on the pain.

[Supbrozki]

The ab wheel is a strange exercise imo. I can do alot of reps without my abs getting fatigued at all, but I still get insanely sore the day after.

[marcuswetterstrom]

Ive started going to the gym cause of you, thank you very much. Im on my first week right now and i got a long way to go.

[CheeseNHL]

Right before i was about to do ab rollers at the gym. Jeff, you are the oracle

[ever]

Again, a video that makes my workouts better. Thank you very much

[s.porter]

back using the roller after many years (midlife want abs back/post military life) you nailed it, I play your vid before the start of reps. to guide and reinforce, thank you for the video

[jadedaces]

I just bought this ab-roller only three years after this video was published on YouTube! You’re a wizard, Jeff! On top of that, my back grew a personal trainer after I started doing these as you instructed, and he’s pretty cool to hang out with, too! Your videos are pure magic!
Seriously, though- thanks for the tip.

[dearwhitepeople]

I have been using my 4 plated, level3, armored vest while doing my ab roller. Great results!