Barbell Rollout from Bench

🎯 Abdominals🏋️ BarbellIntermediateCompoundGlutes (2°)Hamstrings (2°)Lats (2°)Shoulders (2°)

How to do the barbell rollout from bench

  1. Place a loaded barbell on the ground, near the end of a bench. Kneel with both legs on the bench, and take a medium to narrow grip on the barbell. This will be your starting position.
  2. To begin, extend through the hips to slowly roll the bar forward. As you roll out, flex the shoulder to roll the bar above your head. Ensure that your arms remain extended throughout the movement.
  3. When the bar has been moved as far forward as possible, return to the starting position.

Muscles worked

The prime movers are the rectus abdominis and the obliques, which flex the trunk forward and resist it being pulled into extension or twisted out of line.

Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the glutes finish hip extension; the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down; the lats keep the upper arm drawn in toward the torso.

The shoulders take a share of the work as well.

Every exercise for:AbdominalsGlutesHamstringsLatsShoulders

How this movement works

The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.

It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.

What you need

A barbell locks both hands to one bar, so neither side can drift and the load climbs in plate-sized steps. That makes it the simplest way to add weight and the least forgiving thing to bail out of.

Every exercise using:Barbell

These train the abdominals too, using equipment this one does not:

Difficulty

Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.

Of the 97 abdominals exercises in this database, 17 are listed at intermediate level.

Related exercises

Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →

ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.