Best Exercise in Ever: Ball Rollout with Band Resistance

Last weekend I was teaching Complete Shoulder & Hip with Tony Gentilcore in Kitchener, Ontario (Check HERE to see a list of all other upcoming workshops and appearances), and in one section Tony started showing a progression on how to get people to do chin ups if they’ve never done them before.

In one part he discussed using a stability ball rollout to develop pulling strength through the shoulders while also getting lots of core activation, and I liked the concepts and carry over to doing a chin up. I also figured that an easy way to ramp up the intensity of the movement would be to add band resistance, as shown here:

Some coaching cues for this one:

• Most people won’t need to go from the toes on this one, especially if they’re using their positioning to generate tension properly. Get into a mild posterior tilt with your hips and squeeze your abs and glutes hard. Then keep this position locked in while you push slack into the band, and then pull the ball and band back towards you.
• Breathe in while stretching into the movement, and exhale hard while contracting.
• Think about using your elbows on the ball and pulling it back towards you to simulate a rowing motion. Keep the abs and hips locked down to make it less likely that you’ll use your hips and low back to start the movement.

This is an incredibly sneaky exercise that is way harder to do well than you would think. If you’re doing it and it feels like nothing, try to get more of a posterior tilt from your hips and squeeze your glutes harder.

Also, since yesterday was apparently International Puppy Day, here’s a picture of our dogs and their butts in front of the fireplace.

Enjoy!!