Ab wheel wearing out shoulders

[crackerjack]

I wish I could do the ab wheel at *all.* It makes my lower back scream pretty quickly, even doing them from the knees. I just can't decide if it's worth "working through" that.

Interesting. One of the reasons I like doing the ab wheel is that it makes my lower back feel good. My lower back often feels tight and the ab wheel seems to help stretch it out.

[Kincain]

if it aggravates you don't do them, there are enough other exercises you can do, planks for instance.

[Dastardly]

I wish I could do the ab wheel at *all.* It makes my lower back scream pretty quickly, even doing them from the knees. I just can't decide if it's worth "working through" that.

I get the feeling you are doing them wrong. You need to create a 'hollow' in the stomach and maintain it STRONGLY. If you feel you are losing this hollow and putting strain on your spine at any point. You have to stop.

Doing rollouts with only half ROM is still a very effective exercise if you maintain the hollow.

[D.W.]

Seems like i have to work on it again. My abdominals seem to be weak as fuck.

Is there a good routine/progression for them? I've seen the stuff Ross Enemait does with a ramp, but that's impossible in my gym.

[PressesPeople]

DW, what I started off doing is going from the knees. If that's too hard, you can widen your knee stance. When you want to progress to standing, just using a split-stance and narrow your feet each session until you're doing full standing rollouts.

[Corrie]

I wish I could do the ab wheel at *all.* It makes my lower back scream pretty quickly, even doing them from the knees. I just can't decide if it's worth "working through" that.

I think I aggrivated my lower spine doing them as well. I let my abs relax too much and allowed my spine to go into extension. Now whenever I just extend my lower back I get a pinching pain in my spine.

I think the key is to squeeze the abs as hard as possible and as soon as you feel that you're losing the tight back you need to stop and reset form. I'm hoping to get back to them soon.

[HONEYBADGER]

Hey, I just built my own ab wheel and upon using it, I noticed that (besides the obvious ab workout) it sort of wears out my shoulders. I'm not sure if this is enough to affect my recovery for my bench/OHP, but it has me a tad worried. Has anyone else had this experience? Am I simply doing them wrong, or is this to be expected? And if anyone else had a similar experience, did it end up affecting your press and bench?

Youre likely flaring your elbows if youre feeling the shoulders that intensely. Turn your elbows down and keep them there. Keeping them flared here is kind of like flaring them on the bench press, it puts a lot of strain on the ac joint/ pec tendons.