Venus Ab and Core Work Progressions and Modifications

As a fitness coach, I am often asked about substitutions for core work in the various Venus Factor and Venus Index workouts.

 

What if I do not have a stability ball for stability ball roll ups or roll outs?

What is stability ball curl ups are too difficult for me?

You can do roll out or roll ups with a towel on a hard surface. 

 **Be aware that the floor can be slick, especially if this is your first try at this, so be sure to have a wall to stop the slide at the end of the motion or just remove your hand/foot from the towel and catch yourself if you feel yourself beginning to lose control. :)

 

What if I do not have a stability ball for stability ball roll outs?

What if I do not have an ab wheel for ab wheel exercises?

The barbell rollout is a perfect substitition exercise for either of those exercises. It also make a nice progression as you can make it more difficult than stability ball rollouts if you go out further.

 

Always remember that it is better to start now than to wait to buy equipment.

You can work around not having a ball, barbell, or ab wheel by doing the following exercises as a substitution:

*Planks - Venus Index video
*Side planks - Venus Index video
*Mountain climbers - Venus Index video

* Above are some creative alternative videos

If you have a physical limitation, you can usually work around the issue. Remember to let pain be your guide, if it hurts- stop!

Here are just a few examples of work arounds to new or existing injuries-

• If your wrist is injured and needs a work around, do planks or side planks on your elbows instead, video here
• For an ankle injury, you can do planks on your knees instead. On roll ups, you would also move the ball or towel to your knees. See above for video example.