Ab Wheel

ecl265

I wanted to step up my workout routine a little, so I ordered an ab wheel. I started using it 4 days ago. I followed a video tutorial I found for beginners and felt a little burn in my abs while using it, but most of the pain was in my wrist and arms. I was questioning whether I was using it properly and a little disappointed. But when I woke up the next day, my while midsection felt like it was on fire. Ironically, my wrists & arms didn't hurt at all. It hurt SO much in my abs though. I'm not just talking achy surface muscles either- it hurts DEEP in my abs. The muscles in my abs are swollen and there's a lot of water retention in the area still. It still hurts (not as badly) four days later to use my abs. Laughing, deep breathing, and exercising are all challenges. I haven't used the ab wheel since because it hurts too much. I have been doing my usual cardio & other exercises (push ups, sit ups, planking, etc) just at a lower intensity than usual. I've been working out for years & consider myself to be in pretty decent shape already, so my questions are:

1. is it normal to have this much muscular pain after using an ab wheel for the first time?
2. should I be worried that I'm having so much muscle pain four days later?
3. is this pain indicative that the ab wheel is serving its purpose?

Thanks!

Packerjohn

Here is an article about progressions to the ab wheel. Done right it's a difficult movement:

https://www.t-nation.com/training/anterior-core-training

lorrpb

Maybe take it a little slower.

riffraff2112

ab wheel is killer if you havent worked abs much. Actually any tough ab workout will leave you sore for awhile. For me, abs seem to need more time to heal than other muscle groups...but that could be me

filovirus76

That's the problem with the ab wheel, no progression using the same piece of equipment. Sure you can do obliques, but that's probably considered a different move altogether. The only way to progress is to increase reps up to infinity.

jonthemusse

Huh? Getting to one unsubbed abwheel IS the progression to everyone below a hardened athlete. Then there are vests. And ingots of iron that go into those vests. The progression stops when the wheel breaks under the weight.

jemhh

Yeah, I got an ab wheel sometime around Christmas and pretty much smoked my abs doing two sets of 5-6 modified reps the first day. I was very sore. After the first few times, I had no soreness.

Packerjohn

filovirus76 wrote: »

That's the problem with the ab wheel, no progression using the same piece of equipment. Sure you can do obliques, but that's probably considered a different move altogether. The only way to progress is to increase reps up to infinity.

Try it like this, knees up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL_h9SPJDmg

He actually starts doing them around 0:45.