The Best Ab Wheel Reviews & A Detailed Buying Guide
Our Top Pick for 2019: Perfect Fitness Ab Carver Pro
Read our full review.
It’s time to tone those arms, shoulders, back, chest, and abs! All you need is a gym membership, a trainer, tons of equipment, and… wait. How do you do it without breaking the bank on a personal trainer? Work out in the comfort of your own home with an ab wheel, of course. This genius piece of exercise equipment is a small, simple concept that yields powerful results. Simply grip the handles, keep your back straight, roll the ball forward while seated on your knees to stretch your torso, then roll back, completing the cycle of elongating and shortening the abs to tone and tighten. You can add a workout for your obliques by carving the wheel to the left and right as you roll out to really sculpt away those love handles. Abdominal rollouts depend on your whole body to do all of the work – your back is straight and strong, your arms are tight and powerful, and your thighs and hips steady your torso. It’s a full-body workout with one simple tool, the ab wheel. All ab wheels are not created equal, however! We have gone through all of the options on the market and narrowed it down to the best of the best for you.
#1. Perfect Fitness Ab Carver Pro
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*Price typically updated every 24 hours. Current price may be different.
The Perfect Fitness Ab Carver Pro comes from the company that brought us BodyRev and the Perfect Pushup. It is the elite ab wheel for the home fitness enthusiast. Weighing in at a sturdy 5.2 pounds, it is rugged enough for even large men to use. Listed at $39.99, it is the most expensive of the ab wheels on our list, but still a very affordable piece of home exercise equipment, and you definitely do get what you pay for when it comes to additions to your home gym. Assembly of the Ab Carver Pro is very quick and incredibly easy. Just pull the large wheel out of the box, pop in the two self-locking ergonomic steel handles, and you’re ready to go. Designed by an innovative US Navy Seal platoon leader, the Ab Carver Pro maximizes the user’s ability to easily isolate and elongate those core abdominal muscles to tighten, tone, and strengthen with basic to complex rollout exercises while reducing risk of injury. You’ll feel the amazing workout all over your body and see results of stronger shoulders, back, chest, triceps, biceps, and even forearms and wrists. Users report feeling the workout in muscles they “didn’t even know they had” after the very first workout! The Ab Carver Pro includes a comfortable custom designed knee pad and a downloadable 21-day complete workout program to get you started off on the path to a sculpted upper body and a 30 day satisfaction guarantee.
You’re looking for a slow, steady, targeted stretch with any ab wheel workout, and the Pro does not disappoint. The ultra wide wheel is more of a large ball with a flattened center to help with balance and stability, but its slope from the center on either side of the wheel allows you to really sculpt those obliques by carving left and right in your stretch while maintaining stable balance. Simply start out in your forward stretching motion and then lean to the left to create an arc that works the left side of your abdominal muscles. Pull it back in to your starting position and slide out, leaning to the right to work the other side. Feeling the burn? It only takes a few reps to feel the Ab Carver Pro working. The stable design of this particular wheel allows an intense oblique workout to really tighten, tone, and sculpt that six pack with minimal strain to the shoulders and wrists!
The generous rubber tread on the wheel provides excellent traction to keep the wheel from slipping, providing a smooth rolling action on any floor surface – carpet to hardwood. Tread and traction are very important if you don’t want to end up flat on your nose. An ab wheel with good traction gives you more control over your workout, allowing you to adjust the length and speed of your slide as you become more familiar with the exercise and stronger through your core. Inside of the wheel of the Pro is where all of the magic happens. A patented carbon steel resistance spring, which Perfect Fitness calls the Kinetic Engine, makes your workout more effective and easier at the same time. Not a motorized engine at all, but a simple machine, the steel spring coils to provide resistance on the slide out, and uncoils to assist on your return. If you need a little more resistance, simply roll the ball with your hands a few times before starting your forward slide. The Kinetic Engine inside the Pro gives a steady, controlled motion for a more comfortable workout, resulting in a longer stretch for better, faster results.
Isn’t it amazing when a designer thinks of everything? The unique, angled ergonomic handles on the Ab Carver Pro are actually designed to move the impact of the exercise from your shoulders to your upper arms, providing an added benefit of working your biceps and triceps and reducing fatigue on your shoulders. Let’s face it – when you are engaging in a workout that places the entire weight of your upper body on your arms, you really want your large arm muscles taking that strain and not your weaker shoulder joints. Yes, you still get an amazing shoulder workout, but you’re less likely to damage that joint and experience shoulder fatigue when your biceps and triceps are taking the impact. The Pro designers know different people have different grips, so they created two variations for your thumb position – on top or underneath the handles. The positioning does not effect your workout; you simply choose the grip that is most comfortable for you. Either way, the slight curvature at the end of the handles prevents your hands from rubbing against the floor, and the textured grip is extremely comfortable.
Users have seen results in abs and arms in as little as two weeks with the Ab Carver Pro and report it being the perfect tool to get your body swimsuit ready! The Ab Carver Pro by Perfect Fitness really is the best of the best – they have truly thought of everything with this model.You simply cannot go wrong by choosing the Pro.
#2. Valeo Dual Ab Wheel
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*Price typically updated every 24 hours. Current price may be different.
Valeo’s Dual Ab Wheel is perfect for beginners and, listed at $19.99, is about half the cost of our Gold Pick. This sturdy option has two rugged wheels and a strong steel rod that runs through the center of the wheels for stability and durability. Although you will remove 5 pieces from the box, assembly is fairly easy – just slide the steel bar through the two wheels and then slide on the hand grips. It only takes a minute, and it can be disassembled for travel or storage. Valeo includes a fitness guide to get you started on the right track to perfect abs, and there are tons of videos available on YouTube for beginner and advanced ab wheel users.
Valeo is no stranger to gym safety – the company invented the Original Belt for safety in weight lifting in 1988 and has continued to introduce durable gym and safety equipment year after year. The Dual Ab Wheel has a great rugged gym equipment appearance, with heavy-duty red plastic wheels and rubberized traction to prevent skidding and slipping. Having two wheels improves the stability and durability, spreading your body weight over the mechanics of the equipment and easing the feeling of shaking or wobbling with single wheel technology. The easy grip handles have smooth finger grooves underneath to keep your hands in the correct position, and a deep textured grip on top to keep your hands from sliding. The research has been done on this ab wheel by a company whose bottom line is safety.
The Dual Ab is best for straight plank-type exercise for beginners. More advanced users with stronger cores will be able to manipulate the exercise to include sliding out to the left and right to work the obliques, but beginners may have a difficult time with stability in this modified position.
The use of gloves or grip tape has been suggested by some users for better comfort on the handles, but the wheel is sturdy and strong for users up to 200 pounds. It works well on all flooring types (carpet, hard wood, linoleum, rubberized gym flooring), though some users report best results on carpet. Test it out on your existing flooring and consider a carpet or gym mat for your exercise area if you need a little more traction.
The Valeo Dual Ab Wheel is an excellent choice for your home or office gym! Expert fitness gurus report the satisfaction of targeted ab training with the Valeo, the ease of back pain and neck fatigue as opposed to traditional crunches and situps, and the simplicity of the use of the Dual Ab Wheel.
The idea of using two wheels for added stability has actually been around for quite a while, as professional trainers have been constructing their own ab wheels out of standard gym equipment (think weight plates and metal rods). Valeo has created a quick and easy way to workout with two wheels without taking apart your free weights.
This product is so efficient in working your abs completely, fitness expert John Stone said, “Ab rollouts make traditional crunches feel like angel kisses. This is one piece of training equipment you will love and hate equally.” Angel kisses. Clearly, if you don’t hate your equipment after a training session, it’s time to step up your ab game with the Valeo Dual Ab Roller.
#3. Elite Sportz Toning Ab Wheel
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*Price typically updated every 24 hours. Current price may be different.
Users of the Elite Sportz Equipment Toning Ab Wheel are not only impressed with the wheel itself, but rave about excellent customer service from Elite Sportz. Listed at $19.99, you really get an incredible bang for your buck. The Toning Ab Wheel includes a lifetime warranty – if it ever breaks, just send it back and they will replace it free of charge. Now that’s a great promise. Elite Sportz is a reputable business who touts themselves as a company who actually solves problems for sports lovers and claims to make you better at every sport you play. That’s a big claim to stand behind, and their customer satisfaction says they’re hitting the mark.
The Toning Ab Wheel is the most lightweight model on the market, only weighing about one pound, and is much smaller than its competitors, making it a better contender for women or men with a smaller shoulder frame, but its durable materials mean a stable workout for your core. It comes fully assembled, so you can just take it out of the box and go! Although this model does not come with a workout guide or DVD, the company produces training/workouts for you and includes web links to their free instructional videos so you can watch them anytime, from anywhere, even while traveling.
If you have ever used a piece of gym equipment that feels unstable, you know you’re not getting the best workout you could. You need to eliminate the fear of injury from unstable equipment and have confidence that you are performing the exercises correctly. Good form is key to preventing injury and muscle strain, and quality equipment helps with form. Elite Sportz honors that need for quality and stability with their Ab Wheel.
Beginners will love the feel of this ab wheel simply because of the stability of the design, but more advanced users will enjoy the smoother wheels that require more control from the user’s core. The separation between the six-inch diameter wheels provide stability and more functionality – namely, an easier transition into the side arc oblique workout. Spreading your body weight over two separated wheels creates a solid feel to your workout and eliminates the feeling of falling of wobbling. Users report the wheel alignment produces a reduction of “wobble” even with fatigued arms, and the change from an “instrument of torture” to an “effective core workout.”
The non-slip ergonomic handles have rubberized, “nubby” textured grips to aid in stability and control. Users report them to be extremely comfortable to sustain a longer workout without slipping or fatigue.
The Elite Sportz Toning Ab Wheel is a great looking piece of equipment that produces great results with a tiny footprint that travels well.
#4. Wacces AB Power Wheel
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*Price typically updated every 24 hours. Current price may be different.
Need fitness on a super tight budget? The Wacces AB Power Wheel is a very low cost option to meet your abdominal workout needs. Listed at just $12.95, this is a good piece of home exercise equipment, especially if you are unsure if ab rollouts are the right core exercise for you. Give it a try and you’ll be on your way to tighter abs, leaner arms, stronger shoulders and back, and a well-defined chest without laying out too much cash. Although there is not video or training guide included, rollout exercises are readily available online, and the exercise is simple to learn.
From yoga to pole dancing, home gyms to sports medicine, Wacces is the leading manufacturer and distributor of sports products for the fitness industry. They not only sell the products, they actually make them, and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
The Power Wheel makes our top 4 because of its sturdy single steel bar construction and two non skid wheels for stability and durability. It comes disassembled and is simple to put together – just pop the wheels onto the steel bar, add the hand grips, and get to work! The handles are covered in cushioned rubber foam, preventing slipping even with sweaty hands. A good grip ensures proper form! The wheels have a great rubberized tread for a steady rollout and are made of strong, rigid plastic for durability. This ab wheel is inexpensive, but it’s not cheaply made.
Two wheels provide less wobble and more even weight distribution to give you more stability as you work out. This isn’t the strongest ab roller available, so it is probably best for smaller fitness fans. Beginners will be most comfortable using the AB Power Wheel for straight rollouts (plank style), but advanced users will be able to manipulate the device in an outward arc to incorporate oblique exercises.
The Wacces AB Power Wheel is available in multiple colors, so choose the one that matches your home gym or your personality, and get to work on those rock hard abs.
Pre-purchase considerations
Stability
Stability is the most important feature to look for in an ab wheel as the exercise requires you to put your entire body weight onto the wheel. A stable wheel makes for good form and better results, not to mention prevents injury and fatigue. Consider your weight and body type and choose the wheel that has the most stability for you. Factors that increase stability are larger and wider wheels, dual wheels, non-skid wheel covering, and ergonomic handles with non-slip grips.
Durability
You want to invest in home exercise equipment that will last a long time. There is no point in buying cheap equipment that has to be replaced over and over again, so look for rugged construction in the axle of the wheel, strong wheel materials, and a durable design (is your body weight distributed evenly over the equipment components?) to determine durability. Be sure to choose an ab wheel that is made for your body size.
Cost
Examine your fitness budget and purchase the best equipment you can afford. It pays in the long run to invest in durable equipment, so be sure to avoid making a purchase decision solely based on price. That means don’t buy or avoid something just because it’s the most or least expensive. Buy what you can afford that meets your needs, and pay attention to the manufacturer’s warranty or company’s satisfaction guarantee.
Comfort
You won’t want to use equipment that is uncomfortable. Be sure to choose an ab wheel that is right for your body – if you have very small hands you might be more comfortable with a smaller ab wheel. If you have very large, muscular hands, you should look for an ab wheel with longer, thicker handles. Grip is important for both safety and comfort, so look for non-slip, cushioned grips.
Conclusion (Wrapping it up)
Ab Wheels are an intuitive and inexpensive solution for effective abdominal exercise with the added benefit of sculpting arms, back, and chest. They take up very little space in your home gym – or even the corner of your living room – and are easy to use in the comfort of your home or office. They can also be ideal for traveling, as you can easily use it in your hotel room. You can start to see incredible results in just a few weeks of use of an ab wheel – stronger back, better posture, a whittled waistline, even less underarm jiggle – in just 15 minutes of use a day. All from a simple, readily available piece of home exercise equipment. Professional trainers, body builders, sports medicine doctors, and rehab therapists all use this simple, effective tool for strength training. Isn’t it time you hop on board and see what all of the fuss is about? All you have to do now is choose the right Ab Wheel for you.