A Trainer on the 1 Trendy Piece of Fitness Equipment She’d Never Use

TODAY’s Never Have I Ever series offers guidance about procedures and practices our trusted health experts would never participate in. Discover why they should be avoided and which healthy practices you should turn to instead.

Maybe you saw it tucked away in the corner of your gym, or perhaps it caught your eye when an impressively toned influencer used it on social media.

The allure of this particular piece of fitness equipment isn’t new — but it also hasn’t gone away. In an age when people are rightly focused on building core strength, a tool that claims to work multiple muscles at once is certainly tempting.

But certified personal trainer and TODAY fitness contributor Stephanie Mansour is staying far away from this one, she says.

Never Have I Ever: Used an Ab Wheel

An ab wheel, sometimes called an ab roller, is a small, relatively inexpensive and deceptively simple piece of fitness equipment.

To use one, you’ll hold on to either side of a wheel, get into a plank position, and hold that position while you roll the wheel back and forth in front of you.

“It’s a positive in that it is meant to help you engage all of your ab muscles,” Mansour tells TODAY.com, including the rectus abdominus, internal and external obliques, as well as the deeper transverse abdominus muscles.

If that sounds challenging, it is, Mansour says. And that’s why she’ll never use one.

An ab wheel might be an appropriate challenge for someone who already has a “super, super strong core,” Mansour says, on top of expert balance and muscle control.

“If you’re an experienced exerciser, you could probably do this the right way,” she explains. “But for someone just starting out, or even someone like me who is experienced, this isn’t my first choice for how to work my abs.”

The problem is that many people who try to use ab wheels aren’t advanced enough in their fitness journey to use them correctly. And, as Mansour found out firsthand, using them incorrectly can put you at risk for injury.

Over a decade ago, Manosur tried using an ab wheel. “And I threw my back out trying to use this thing,” she says.

“You can easily do it incorrectly because you’re only using your hands to hold on to a very small surface area,” Mansour explains. “It’s very easy to go too far, to go too fast and to be kind of jerky with it,” she says.

If you don’t have the strength, control and balance to keep yourself up, you could find yourself in a tricky situation with your arms outstretched and no way to pull them back. “There’s really no checks and balances,” she adds.

What to Do Instead

For people who are interested in using an ab wheel but aren’t advanced enough, Mansour recommends working on other core exercises first — including those that engage multiple muscles at once, like the roller.

Start by working on core exercises that challenge you to hold yourself up with fewer points of contact on the ground, like holding a plank with one arm or one leg outstretched, Mansour suggests.

You could also work on shoulder taps in a high plank position, which similarly “mimic what you’ll be doing with the ab roller,” she says. Try alternating side planks as well, which challenge your balance and engage the obliques.

Consider using sliders under your hands or feet to add some additional balance work to your core moves.

If you are really intent on using an ab roller, Mansour suggests starting by just rolling it out and back an inch at a time to get used to the movements and to gauge your strength. She also recommends starting out on your knees in a modified plank rather than in a fully outstretched plank.

“If you’re really curious, don’t let me scare you,” she says. “But just know that you’ve got to be cautious as you’re starting off.”

Personally, though, with so many other effective ways to work your core, Mansour isn’t looking to get back to the ab wheel anytime soon.