Ab Wheel Rollouts

A while ago in the spills you mentioned something about rollouts being good for ab development, but that almost no one knows how to do them correctly. I was wondering if you could go in to detail about the correct/technique form for ab wheel rollouts?

[quote]briansays wrote:
A while ago in the spills you mentioned something about rollouts being good for ab development, but that almost no one knows how to do them correctly. I was wondering if you could go in to detail about the correct/technique form for ab wheel rollouts?[/quote]

The two most common errors I see are:

  1. letting the lower back cave in (basically allowing the hips to drop down)

  2. Using mostly arms and lats to pull yourself back up instead of abs

One thing I read, think it was Bret Contreras, was to squeeze your glutes and abs super hard when doing ab wheel rollouts. This causes the lower back to flatten, and maybe even a slight rounding, and makes the exercise way harder and less stressful on the back (esp if some cannot maintain a good & strong lower back position).

Using said technique took my 3 sets of 20 on my knees to 2-3 sets of about 8 reps. And man do you feel it the next day. So long as you continue to do as CT has said, don’t use the arms etc, then I feel this is an excellent way to perform the exercise. Doing it from a standing position is insane. You just have to keep squeezing and squeezing.

[quote]health4ni wrote:
One thing I read, think it was Bret Contreras, was to squeeze your glutes and abs super hard when doing ab wheel rollouts. This causes the lower back to flatten, and maybe even a slight rounding, and makes the exercise way harder and less stressful on the back (esp if some cannot maintain a good & strong lower back position).

Using said technique took my 3 sets of 20 on my knees to 2-3 sets of about 8 reps. And man do you feel it the next day. So long as you continue to do as CT has said, don’t use the arms etc, then I feel this is an excellent way to perform the exercise. Doing it from a standing position is insane. You just have to keep squeezing and squeezing.[/quote]

Brett is correct, especially regarding the glutes… if you squeeze them hard it will basically lock your hips into place.

Very cool, Brett described the technique I use myself. Occasionally I’ll feel my traps being used at the very bottom of the movement if I’ve gone down too far … but I can definitely “feel” it several days later (I did abs last Saturday and they are still sore!)