What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX..COM.
Today, we're going to cover one of the best ab exercises, and I'm going to show you the
progression whether you're starting out as a rank beginner
or whether you're truly advanced, on how to master this exercise.
We're talking about the Ab Rollout.
Now, the Ab Rollout is an advanced version of a Plank.
Why do we say that?
Because a Plank requires core stability.
Don't forget, guys, we know that the abs will flex the spine.
That's the job of the abdominals, but they don't do it that much in function.
Most of all, in function, the Abs Roll is to stabilize the spine, to prevent back extension,
to prevent rotation if we don't want it,
or to cause rotation when working together with the obliques.
So, the Ab Rollout is a great way to do this especially for an anti-extension exercise.
It is a great core strengthener, but if you try to do a version of it that you're not
ready for yet, you're going to wind up hurting yourself.
So I put together this perfect progression.
I'm going to take you through step-by-step what that is and show you how to do each one.
Ok, so what I have here is our cheat sheet.
Ok.
Right here.
This is all you need to know when it comes to the Ab Rollouts and how you need to proceed
through them
to make sure you're building up your core strength without pushing yourself too hard,
too fast and having causing injury.
We've got our Ab Rollout Progression.
It starts with mastering the Plank.
Remember, guys, I talked about this being an advanced version of a Plank.
The main difference is, yeah, you're going to end up in the same place as you are a Plank,
but it's the fact that you're dynamically getting there.
You're moving to get from here to here.
You're not just simply out there.
Second big thing is, when you start to talk about Ab Wheel Rollouts,
you're point of contact with the ground is much less than when you have 2 full surface
areas of your forearms.
So you have to balance a lot more.
You have a lot less of, again, surface area to help you do that, and all the force is
then transferred more to your upper body and your core
because there's less of that force being able to be supported by those wide forearms of
yours, ok, especially compared to the wheel itself.
So, master the Plank.
Make sure you can do that first and foremost.
Secondly, you're going to get into the first exercise here, the Physioball Stir.
So right here, I'm in a plank, pretty much, right, and I've got some movement, some movement
that's going to cause a challenge to my core and stability.
And here, you're just trying to draw the circles, very small circles to begin with, larger circles
as you get stronger.
You obviously want to work counterclockwise and clockwise.
Next, you move on to what we call our Physioball Alphabets.
Now, instead of making a predictable motion like a circle, you've got to start drawing
some letters.
And obviously the letters have a lot of different quick angle changes to go from the bottom
of an A to the top of an A and around the C and up through the E, right.
We've got a lot of different perturbations here and we've got to make sure that we can
handle them all, but again, very small movements, not really rolling out fully just yet.
Until the next one, and that's our Physioball Rollout.
So, if you're going to start doing the Rollout, you've got to start higher off the ground.
The more you go down towards the ground, the more of your angle is against the force of
gravity, the angle of your body's against the force of gravity, the more work you're
going to have to do .
So, if you can stay up on a Physioball, it's going to be a little bit easier.
Note.
All 3 of these are done on the knees to start, ok.
Next, we move on to our wheel.
Now, the Ab Wheel is still one of the greatest pieces of equipment ever.
I've done complete workouts that you can use with this thing beyond just the core, but
you can see that.
Actually, I'll link the video over here if you haven't seen that already.
But the Ab Wheel, now we start doing a Wheel Rollout.
And again, this is on our knees.
And the point of all these is to make sure that you keep that low back stable.
It's an anti-extension movement.
You're not allowing your body to break into extension, ok.
So, you do your Ab Wheel Rollout.
We make it a little bit harder by adding directions, so again, multi-directional.
Now we're going to go with a 3 Way Ab Wheel Rollout.
You take it all the way to the center.
You take it out to the right.
And then you take it out to the left.
Again, being able to dynamically change directions and stabilize that makes it a lot harder of
an exercise for your core.
But, if you're progressing, that's exactly what we're looking for.
Finally, we have a Weighted Barbell Rollout.
This is a very cool version.
We're introducing the force of friction now.
So, when you roll the wheel out, you're getting the same amount of stress as you would if
you were doing a normal ab wheel.
But now as you try to pull back, this has 315 pounds on this bar that I now have to
overcome that momentum going out, and then pull it back again.
The force of friction on the ground, the amount of weight, and try to pull it back eccentrically.
Again, I'm not worried about flexing the spine at this point, I'm just trying to generate
enough force to change the direction of the bar and
keep myself in that anti-extended position in my low back to execute this.
So, much harder exercise.
Then if you really want to follow this cheat sheet, you've got to go back to 2, 3, and
4, The Physioball Stirs, Alphabet, and Rollouts, but this time you're going to do them up on
your toes.
So, we've just added another level of complexity because that surface area, again, is decreased
by pulling those knees up off the floor.
Finally, the Mack Daddy of them all, The Standing Up Rollout.
And again, unless you have a super strong core, then I wouldn't attempt this exercise.
But if you've made it all the way through here, then you're ready to give it a go.
You stand up.
You bend forward at the waist.
As soon as that Ab Wheel hits the ground, you try to roll your body out,
and you never allow your body to break that stable core positioning, ok.
So even at its longest position, way out in front of me here, I've got to try to lock
it in.
And then, most of all, you're going to find the challenge trying to overcome and pull
yourself back to standing from this extended position.
Right, it's our weakest position.
You've got to be able to be able to generate core strength from there and get yourself
back.
So, there you have it guys.
Hopefully that's helpful to you.
We're breaking down the great ab exercise, the AB Wheel Rollout,
and allowing you to start jumping in and taking part in that exercise regardless of where
your ab strength is at the moment.
And that's what we do here , guys.
Remember, my job as a coach is to make sure that I take people where they're at now, and
bring them to the next level, wherever that may be.
If you're a starting beginner, I've got to get you to that next level of beginner.
And if you're extremely advanced, an All Pro, Elite Athlete, I've got to still be able to
challenge you too.
And that's the whole goal of what our ATHLEANX Program is, and that's what we do each and
every day, each and every week of our program.
If you haven't already, guys, head to ATHLEANX.COM right now and grab our 90-Day Training Program.
In the meantime, if you found this video helpful about this progression, and you're going to
start using it yourself,
make sure you leave a thumb's up below and a comment of whatever else you'd like to see
and by all means, you guys know, I'll be bringing it to you.