How To Make The Ab Roller More Interesting

Last week we talked about how to make ab wheel rollouts suck less, but maybe that’s not your style. Maybe you want to see how much worse this exercise can get. Or at least have something to aspire to.

So here are a few moves you can do to shake things up. Remember, keep correct form in mind, and do them against a wall if you have trouble keeping the end of the motion under control.

• Elevate your feet, either on a bench or on something unstable like a ball or bosu. Start small, please, since the fall-on-your-face risk is high here.

• Do rollouts standing instead of kneeling. Only do these if you’re great at the kneeling kind.

• Tie a band to one side. (This will be easier if you’re rolling out on a barbell instead of the little plastic wheel.) Tie it to a rack or other sturdy object so that it’s trying to pull the bar sideways. Now you have to resist that pull while doing the exercise, kind of like a pallof press.

Maybe you’re not ready for any of these, and that’s ok! Regular rollouts are still great, and so are those planks we talked about the first week. Play around and let us know what your favourite variation turns out to be.