Tip: The Most Butchered Ab Exercise & How to Fix It Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip The Most Butchered Ab Exercise & How to Fix It People do this exercise wrong Don' t join them Try this variation and turn on your abs instantly by Scott Hansen June 26, 2020September 20, 2022 Tags Training While everyone and their mom has an ab wheel lying around, rollouts are actually an advanced exercise. But if you have the shoulder mobility for it and you've mastered plank variations already, then ab wheel rollouts might be the most comprehensive exercise you can do to strengthen your midsection. When done correctly, they'll strengthen your entire anterior core musculature as well as your lower back, lats, and even your shoulder complex. This is crucial if you want a big squat and deadlift since your core is designed to create stiffness to efficiently transfer force from your lower body to your upper body, and vice versa, as well as resist movement at the spine. But the key word is "correctly." Rollouts often get butchered. The usual mistakes? Either initiating the concentric portion of the exercise by pulling the hips back or hyperextending at the bottom. Both take tension off the intended musculature. This variation removes those potential issues to keep continuous tension on the abdominals. Ab Wheel Rollout with Hamstring Activation If standard rollouts don't place the tension on the abs, try these instead: Place a medicine ball between your lower legs and glutes. Start with your hands on the ab wheel, directly under your shoulders. Keep a straight line between your ears, hips, and knees. This is your start and end position for each rep. Squeeze your heels toward your glutes – crush the ball – and brace your abs. By flexing the knee, your hamstrings will pull your pelvis into a posterior tilt as the ab-brace pulls your ribs down. Keeping your pelvis and ribs in this stacked alignment, think about "reaching" over your head as you roll out. Once you get out as far as you can without losing your stacked position, reverse the motion by pushing your hands straight down into the floor, as if you were doing a straight-arm pulldown. Only return to the starting position outlined above. Repeat for 2-4 sets of 5-10 reps. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training Tip Challenge Yourself With a Changeup Baseball pitchers use a changeup to shock and confuse the batter. Apply the strategy to your training and make the basics even more brutal. Here's how. Tips, Training Martin Rooney July 25 Training Boost Your Deadlift 40 Pounds in 6 Weeks Progressive movement training: here's how to make it work for you. Deadlift, Powerlifting & Strength, Training Chad Waterbury August 26 Training 11 Principles of Bodybuilding Training - Part 1 How often to train, how many sets, how many reps, whether to include power sets in your BB training, and more. Bodybuilding, Training Clay Hyght, DC October 3 Training Calories Burned During Exercise The New Science The number of calories burned during workouts is less than you think. But is that bad news? Check out this brand new science. Fat Loss Training TC Luoma October 19