Very short and simple reasons why the Ab Wheel or the Ab Roller can be a good tool for working out. What is an ab wheel? It is an exercise equipment which looks like small wheel with two handles. What are some examples of an exercise with an ab wheel? There is only one main exercise you can do with an ab wheel, and that is to kneel on the floor, put hands on the handles and roll the wheel out. As the wheel rolls away from your body, the arms extend outwards followed by the shoulders the chest and the entire abs, core and back region. When doing the exercise you will feel a lot of tension going on in the entire upper body as all the muscles there work (like crazy) to keep you from falling on your face. The following move is to pull the ab wheel back towards your knee while still keeping the arms and back straight. That’s it!
Watch how it’s done in video. Notice how the lady rounds her back like a cat. Remember this is posture is a MUST!

Why You Should Start Using the Ab Wheel

1. The exercise with the ab roller strengthens a whole bunch of muscles. Unlike doing crunches (which can cause the belly to pop out), ab rolling works back front and shoulders.
2. Ab rolling builds your shoulders upper arm strength. If you are a jogger and don’t have much strength on the arms, ab rolling is one exercise to build many upper body muscles.
3. Ab rolling can give you rock hard abs (and back). This depends on how often and how much effort you put into the exercise.
4. You can increase the intensity of the exercise by simply rolling out further, or more slowly, or doing more reps.
5. Ab rolling improves balance on the plank position.
6. Exercising the abs this way improves your core strength, so that you can lift weights at any age without worrying about back injury. The exercise alone strengthens all muscles that support the back when lifting.
7. It is a cheap piece of equipment.  MostAb Wheels are under 20 bucks.  There are others more fancy than can cost more but in the case of the ab wheel, cheap is ok.
8. Ab rollers are small enough to take anywhere, and fits in most suitcases.
9. Even though there is one basic ab rolling exercise, there are also many innovative ways to use the equipment.

Interesting ways to Use the Ab Wheel

You can rest on your knees or rest on your toes. Certainly rolling from kneeling position is easier (and hard enough).  More advanced move is one where you roll out from the standing position and end up in a plank position on the toes. Ab Wheels like this one featured above has foot straps that allow you do make this movement which is called the pike. This is a good exercise to strengthen the core further. If you have a simple ab wheel, you can do a pike either with a gym ball or a suspension trainer.

More Ab Wheel Exercise Variations:

Want more fun with the ab wheel, here are some ideas to really work the core!

Cardio or Functional Training with the Ab Wheel? Hold on to the wheels on a stretch of road and push the body forward, propelling with the legs. You can also walk walk with the hands like this:  With this model of the Power Wheel, you can also do then hand walk exercise as above.