How can you improve the humble Ab Wheel? Everlast thought they'd come up with the 'killer' tweak - the quignog; give it an eccentric handle/axle. Sounds great actually looks good too. (On the left in photo)

It promises to give that extra stretch at the end of the motion - which it does. Is this really desireable though - that little bit extra at full stretch may sound tempting but due to being at the extreme end of ROM, this is uncontrollable.

It's not too bad if you're fairly strong and only doing rollouts from the kneeling position, start from the 'pike' position though and you tempt ending in the danger zone.

Reading this you probably think I've a horror story to tell; you're right I do, but it's not the "...went too far, lost control and ripped my abs of the bones and blewout my shoulders..."

Nope, my story starts at the start. In the pike position. We laugh everytime I recant the tale...

Pike start position.

Slowly ease weight onto wheel.

Blam! - Both the wheel and my arms set off backwards towards my feet, through my legs (the offset wheel 'took control')

Class one face plant, solid drop to the knees, wrists grazed, neck and mid/lower back jarred & injured. Over a year later I am still troubled by the 'clicky' neck and slightly stiff back.

TF it wasn't one of my Boxers, but the worst thing is that I've had to start back on kneeling rollouts.

You've been warned!

Tonight's workout is 531 Bench press (week 3), it'll be with a little less ROM after reading the article below (pinched from DaveDrapers site). The Poorman's Rotater has loosened-up my shoulders wonderfully, more o' that in a later post; however workout-wise reducing ROM looks like focus stays more on the chest. The safety bars are gonna get a bashing t'night.

Short Range Bench Presses
One of the fundamental rules of weight training is to always use a full range of motion. What’s not so simple is figuring out what constitutes a “full range of motion.” It is not necessarily going as far as you can go; it’s as far as you can go in good form, with adequate strength and stability in the joints.
It isn’t unusual to discuss the maximum safe range of motion for some exercises. For example, most would agree you don’t want to squat lower than the range where you can keep a flat back. You don’t hear much talk about the safe range for the bench press. One exception is this article from Paul Chek. In the article, Chek details how it may be better to stop the bar a few inches short of the chest. If you look, you’ll find a lot of evidence to substantiate this.
In this T-nation article powerlifter Jack Reape talks about using the floor press to limit the ROM. I think his reasoning is consistent with Chek’s.
I was first introduced to this idea by a gym owner and football coach that followed the Bigger Faster Stronger strength training program. Bigger Faster Stronger advocated using a rolled up towel resting on the chest to limit the ROM in bench pressing. He got good results with their program for his team.
He had been a very good bencher in his youth but had quit the exercise for over 15 years. He decided to try towel benching and managed to match his best numbers from his younger days in his forties, setting a master’s record in the process. He found that towel benching carried over very well to his regular bench. I have passed this along to several lifters who were just about ready to quit the lift, and all have been pleasantly surprised.
A lot of people will tell you that dumbbell bench presses give them shoulder relief. Part of this may be due to the reason they just don’t use as much weight - as a rule, most people can only use about 80% of their barbell poundages. However, if you watch people closely, although the edge of the dumbbell may get to chest level, very few let their hands sink to chest level. Without the bar, they just go to where they feel a good stretch - well short of the range they cover with a barbell.
Powerlifters have been using board presses quite a bit in recent years, a method similar to the towel. Board benching with one to five stacked 2″x6″ boards is an art all its own, especially for the lifters that use the most supportive bench shirts. Now there can be no doubt, these guys are doing it primarily to lift more weight. However, I have met a couple masters powerlifters who can no longer bench raw (without a special bench shirt) without problems, but are still very strong doing all their bench training shirted. The shirt greatly reduces the tension in the bottom couple inches and allows them to work without pain.
So if you’re going to bench press, rethink what the right range of motion really is - maybe it will save your shoulders.

Edit -> UK Distributor Site

I won't deny it - I'm cheap, so cheap that I'll make a Heath-Robinson version of owt that catches the eye. Latest is the Rotater - a rehab/prehab shoulder saver (http://therotater.com/)

Like with most problems, the simplest solution is usually the best. I aint got $50 spare at the moment, so here's the Grim up North knock-off...

The Homemadegymstuff 'Woody'

50x25x410mm legs, 3 90deg brackets and a length of 25mm webbing; below a bit o'padding (OK, carpet)

Loosens up the shoulders great, and it also feels looser in the delts and upper lats... Buy one if you can; make one if you can't. Simple.