Ab wheel rollouts are a common choice for those looking to work their (anterior) core muscles. The main objective of the exercise of course is to make you hate life resist too much extension of the lower back.
In short: It can be considered a (mostly) anti-extension exercise.
Today I wanted to quickly share two different variations:
- One entry level (that pretty much anyone can perform, and serves as a nice starting point for most).
- One John Wick level (that pretty much only world class assassins can pull off).
Let’s go!
But First
I’d be remiss not to at least go into some detail on proper set-up and technique of a standard ab wheel rollout. There’s no since in re-inventing the wheel (👈 ha, I love puns) here, because I actually posted about this on my IG feed not too long ago:
View this post on Instagram
I hope that helps.
That said, performing a rollout on the floor can still be a rather aggressive choice for many people to start off with. Most lack the requisite strength/stability to get remotely close to the floor which can be deflating. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather try my best to demonstrate as much success as possible to a new client rather than make him/her feel like something is too challenging or out of reach.
Or, worse case: Painful.
To that point, I came up with the following regression that I feel works really well:
Incline Rollout
These are a great entry point for people just starting out with rollouts as the inclination helps to keep them from “falling” into their lower back excessively.
For those of you looking for something a bit more challenging I offer this:
Anchored Rollouts
Giving credit where it’s due: I originally got this one from strength coach Mike Volkmar and upon seeing it for the first time was like 1) this is awesome and 2) I’m an asshat for never thinking of this myself.
As he points out, anchoring the ankles against the band activates the hamstrings, turning off the hip flexors.
As a result, climate change is resolved!
YAY. WE DID IT EVERYONE. Congrats.
(In all seriousness, give these two variations a try and let me know what you think).
