A strong core isn’t just about achieving a “six-pack” or “abs of steel” to flaunt at the beach. It’s about building a functional foundation that supports nearly every movement, whether you’re lifting, running, walking, sitting with good posture or even helping prevent back injury.
Yes, a toned core benefits your entire body, improves your quality of life, and enhances your overall fitness. And one of the most effective exercises for strengthening your core is the ab rolling exercise.
How to Perform the Ab Rolling Exercise with a Yoga Ball
:: Begin by kneeling on the floor in the “tabletop” position. Your hips should be aligned directly over your knees and your hands directly under the shoulders, aligning with the chest.
:: To start the exercise, place your feet one-by-one on top of the exercise ball until you are in a plank position.
:: Engage your core muscles (pull your belly button to your spine). Avoid arching your lower back or letting your pelvis tilt forward.
:: Slowly roll the yoga ball forward by bending your knees and bringing them to your chest.
:: Using your core muscles, return to the starting plank position by extending your legs in a controlled motion. Focus on using your abdominal muscles to initiate the movement rather than relying on momentum.
:: Perform four sets of 10 repetitions each, depending on your fitness level. Rest briefly between sets and always prioritize form over speed.
Sculpt Your Abs AND Boost Your Overall Fitness!
The ab rolling exercise is an advanced exercise that focuses on toning and strengthening the entire core. It targets your abdominal muscles, as well as engaging your obliques, lower back, hips, pelvis, and other muscles that support spine stability. Here’s are some of the incredible strength-boosting benefits of this exercise:
(The Obvious) Core Strength and Stability:
The primary benefit of the ab rolling exercise is its ability to strengthen all layers of your core, including the rectus abdominis (your “six-pack” muscles), obliques, and the transverse abdominis (the deep stabilizing muscles). Engaging these muscles helps you build a stable, functional core that supports virtually all physical activities.
(The Not-So-Obvious) Improved Posture:
By strengthening your core, ab rolling improves your posture. A stable, strong core helps keep your spine properly aligned, reducing strain on your lower back. This can be particularly helpful for anyone with poor posture or people who spend long hours sitting.
(The All-Around Wow) Functional Fitness:
The rolling motion in this exercise mimics real-life movements like bending, twisting, and lifting. Strengthening your core through ab rolling helps improve your ability to perform everyday activities with ease, while also reducing the risk of injury.
(The Competitive Edge) Better Athletic Performance:
A strong core is crucial for nearly every sport, from running to weightlifting to kickboxing to cycling. Ab rolling can enhance your athletic performance by improving stability, coordination, and power, making it easier to move quickly and generate explosive force.
(The Age-Buster) Increased Flexibility:
Ab rolling challenges both your eccentric (lengthening) and concentric (shortening) muscle fibers. This can improve flexibility, particularly in the lower back and hips, areas that are often tight due to prolonged sitting or poor posture, which is especially prevalent as we age.
Who Can Benefit from Ab Rolling?
Athletes: Sports like basketball, gymnastics, and martial arts require explosive core strength and stability. Ab rollouts are an excellent way for athletes to enhance their core power and overall performance. A strong core also reduces the risk of injury, particularly in athletes who perform high-intensity or dynamic movements. This could mean better performance and fewer injuries as you age.
People Recovering from Surgery: Whether you’ve had abdominal, spinal, or pelvic surgery, strengthening your core is vital for regaining stability and support. The Ab Rolling exercise can be great for rebuilding core strength. But as with most exercises, use proper form and progress gradually as you gain strength and proficiency.
Postpartum Women: Pregnancy and childbirth can weaken the core muscles, leading to issues like diastasis recti (separation of the abdominal muscles) and pelvic floor dysfunction. Ab Rolling workouts, when done correctly, can help restore core strength and stability, assisting in the recovery of diastasis recti and improving pelvic floor function.
People with Chronic Lower Back Pain: Core weakness is a common contributor to lower back pain. The Ab Rolling exercise targets the deep stabilizing muscles of the core, helping to improve posture and reduce back pain over time.
Long-Term Health Benefits
In addition to the immediate benefits of strengthening your core, regularly practicing the ab rolling exercise can also lead to long-term health benefits like improved overall balance and coordination, which is especially important as we age, helping to prevent falls and enhance mobility.
Best of all, strength training exercises like this can help increase metabolic rate. Remember, the ab rolling exercise doesn’t just target the abs — it engages multiple muscle groups across the core (rectus abdominis, obliques, transverse abdominis, and lower back), as well as the arms, shoulders, and chest. This full-body engagement requires more energy and effort, which leads to a higher calorie burn compared to exercises that isolate a smaller muscle group.
That’s why you need to work this ab-toning exercise into your weekly core-training workouts.
Other Core Exercises To Pair With Ab Rolling
Russian Twists: This dynamic workout engages the obliques, helping to build rotational strength that complements the anti-rotational work done in ab rollouts.
Dead Bugs: This activates the deep stabilizers of the core, similar to ab rolling. Great for the pelvic floor and back as well.
Mountain Climbers: These boost both cardiovascular fitness and core strength.
Glute Bridge: This is excellent for improving hip mobility and alleviating lower back pain by activating the muscles that support the spine.
You AB-SOLUTELY Must Try This…
Looking for a challenge that builds functional strength, improves posture, and prevents injuries? The Ab Rolling exercise is a smart way to check all those boxes, while helping build you that brag-worthy six-pack!