Stability Ball Roll Out
The Stability Ball Roll Out is an effective anti-extension core exercise that strengthens the abdominals by challenging your ability to maintain a neutral spine while extending your lever length. This movement targets the deep core muscles, shoulders, and lats, offering a functional progression from standard planks.
Iridium classifies this as an intense anti-extension movement and checks your 7-day history to ensure your anterior deltoids are recovered enough to stabilize the rollout before assigning it. Since adding load is difficult, the system tracks your RPE and repetition performance relative to body weight to verify progressive overload.
Form Cues
- Kneel and place your forearms or hands on the ball with a neutral spine
- Brace your core tightly as if preparing for a punch
- Squeeze your glutes to keep your hips aligned with your shoulders
- Roll the ball forward only as far as you can control without arching
- Pull back to the start using your abs and lats
- Don't let your lower back sag or hyperextend at the bottom
- Don't leave your hips behind while only moving your arms
- Don't shrug your shoulders up toward your ears
- Don't use momentum to jerk your body back to the starting position
Common Mistakes
- Hyperextending the lower back (swayback)
- Hinging at the hips instead of moving the whole body
- Rolling out further than strength allows
- Relaxing the core tension at the bottom of the rep
Muscles Worked
This exercise is a premier 'anti-extension' movement, forcing the rectus abdominis and deep transverse abdominis to work overtime to prevent your spine from arching. While the core is the primary engine, your anterior deltoids and lats play a crucial role in stabilizing the shoulder joint as the lever arm lengthens.
Primary
Secondary
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