Help using ab roller!

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pickle2323
pickle2323 Posts: 6 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi folks,

I really need to do some abdominal exercises and I am finding many of them very hard. 2 years ago I had spinal surgery that fused most of my lower spine. As such I find doing sit ups etc very challenging. So.. I thought I'd try and ab roller. It was cheap and looked like it could (almost!) be fun.. However, when I Google beginner exercises.. I can't do 1... I can move the rolled about half a meter and that's it. Is this likely to be doing me much good like this? I think I just lack the upper body strength to do this!

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  • Hendrix7
    Hendrix7 Posts: 1,903 Member
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    http://www.beastskills.com/ab-wheel-rollout/

    much harder than it looks isn't it!

    The key is not letting your lower back arch, see the article above (really good website for all bodyweight exercises), takes a while to learn what this feels like.
  • sculli123
    sculli123 Posts: 1,221 Member
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    I just do 'em on my knees.
  • pickle2323
    pickle2323 Posts: 6 Member
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    I, er, WAS on my knees...!
  • carlyjaner
    carlyjaner Posts: 36 Member
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    I Have the exact same problem when doing this,

    I just tried to do as much as I can and build myself up, this started with me only going about half way down then back up again and kept trying until I could go the whole way down and then more than one.

    I've been doing this for about a week and a bit and can only manage about 5 successfully.

    Just keep at it and you'll get there :)
  • pickle2323
    pickle2323 Posts: 6 Member
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    Thanks! Its nice to know someone else got there!
  • yogicarl
    yogicarl Posts: 1,260 Member
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    - one of the problems with the roller is it tends ot roll away too smoothly until you can build the necessary strength to control it on the way out.

    - you could try a couple of paper plates on carpet and the extra bit of friction on the way out will enable you to "roll" out a bit further because you will have a bit more support. Then go back to the roller once your strength is up.
  • murphy612
    murphy612 Posts: 734 Member
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    I love ab wheels, they are fun and really work well! But man it's difficult! :-) There are a lot of other ab exercises you can do to work up to using the ab wheel, like Planking. I'd worry if your core isn't strong enough for the wheel you could end up hurting your back.
  • Ashes_To_Beast
    Ashes_To_Beast Posts: 378 Member
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    I love ab wheels, they are fun and really work well! But man it's difficult! :-) There are a lot of other ab exercises you can do to work up to using the ab wheel, like Planking. I'd worry if your core isn't strong enough for the wheel you could end up hurting your back.

    ^^^ This

    I would recommend always doing a few minutes of planks before you start with your Ab-Wheel exercises..

    A helpful trick I learned is to set yourself up close to a wall, have the wheel touch the wall at your extension so it stops you from going further. Then when your comfortable with that distance back up just a bit and keep practising that way.. I'm trying the standing exercises now and that's how I'm able to see some progress, I think it will be a while before I can complete it though.

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