Ab Rollouts: How to Perform Them Well and Two Variations: 1 Entry Level, 1 John Wick Level – Tony Gentilcore

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 trainees).
• One John Wick level (that pretty much only world class assassins can pull off).

Let’s go!

But First (the kinda boring stuff)

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 need to go about re-inventing the wheel (👈 ha, I love puns) here or provide a dissertation. It’s an ab rollout not nuclear physics.

That said, in terms of general set-up and execution I do find most people set up the wrong way. More often than not I find many people set up with an aggressive arch in their lower back, and as they descend/extend toward the floor, the lower back arches even more.

Ouch. My eyes are bleeding.

This is not ideal for two main reasons:

1️⃣ This position places the abdominals in an already stretched position to begin with; which basically defeats the purpose of the exercise.

2️⃣ The lower back is then like “tha fuck!?”
👆
The goal is to feel the exercise in abs, not the lower back.

My preference is to start people with a slightly flexed lower back to begin with. Think: “belt buckle toward your chin.” 👈 this puts your pelvis in more posterior tilt. This way, as they lower closer to the floor, their lower back ends up in a more “neutral” position rather than overly extended (arched).

Starting point.

End point: “Neutral” spine position.,

I hope that helps.

Two Variations

All 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).