My friend Peter just told me about how he did ab roller exercises daily. He spent at least 30 minutes nearly every day with his equipment, but after 3-4 months he hardly saw any results. He even had lower back and neck pain. After talking with him, I realized that he did only simple crunches with this tool and the way he did was also bad.
I think, he is not the only who uses an ab roller inefficiently and improperly. Most of the people by this tool thinking that it is a magic wand which make them six pack abs without doing anything. It is great equipment to train abdominal muscles if we do different types of workouts with it. If you only do crunches, it will train the upper core muscles mainly.
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In addition, it is important to use your roller correctly to avoid back and neck pain. The roller helps to control the movements and hold your head, but you should also look after how you do the exercises. It is crucial to keep the position of your shoulders and neck. You should hold your spine straight. Do warm up before and stretching after the training. I also recommend putting a fitness mat on the floor since it is more comfortable.[/column][/row]
I also use my ab wheel for my core abdominal routine, but it is not the only way I train my midsection. I believe to have a flat stomach wide variety of exercises are needed with and without tools.
One more thing, you must not forget. If you want to have beautiful stomach doing ab exercises is not enough, you should burn belly fat as well by eating correctly. You need to look after your daily calorie intake.
Below you can watch the best ab roller workout I found for women and men. It is not the news video, but it contains all the best exercises to train your upper and lower rectus abdominus, obliques. This workout routine helps to build muscles which will look better and at the same time support losing belly fat.
The first part is made for beginners, so if you find it too easy you can increase the number of repetitions and make the whole session longer. If you get used to the beginner exercises, go on to the advanced training session.
[label style=”success”]TIP[/label]We suggest using this roller as it has more features than the others, and you can use it even for body weight exercises.
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Ab Roller Workouts
Various Crunches
Crunches are the best for training the upper part of the abdominal, but there are some variations for a roller. For example, if you catch it higher it trains upper parts better if you take it lower it has an effect on lower abs and obliques, as well. Combination with hip raising even train your hamstrings and legs. You can control the difficulty by placing your arm on the roller in different ways.
[row][column size=”1/2″]Side Crunches
This is one of my favorite for training my obliques, which are my weakest points. The cross arm method is really efficient, I always feel burning pain on my sides, which means it is efficient. This exercise only work is your control your body and do the motion appropriately.[/column][column size=”1/2″]
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Leg Raises
I’ve told many times that leg raises are my favorite workouts. They are always included in my training plan. As you see, you can combine crunches and leg raises which is a really complex way to train the entire abs. If you are on a higher level always use this combination, it is a real killer.
Conclusion
If you do not have time, money or energy to go to a gym for abdominal workouts, an ab roller is a great and cheap tool. If you follow the video above and do this routine at least 3 times a week and have a good diet, you will see great changes.
FAQ
How long does it take to get abs using the ab roller?
Various ab roller exercises help to tone your abs, but they do not help too much with getting rid of the fat that may cover your stomach. So, just by using a roller you will not have visible abdominal muscles. You need to do other ab exercises, cardio and control your calorie intake.
Does the ab wheel help lose weight?
Not too much! If you want to lose weight you need to do cardio and follow a healthy diet.