If your forearms are lagging behind your biceps and triceps, it’s time to put them first. Explode stubborn muscles with this arsenal of exercises and workouts!

Author: Bill Geiger

If you’re a farmer, mechanic, baseball player, or handyman doing hard physical work with your own hands, you probably don’t need to read this article. Just tense the powerful muscles of your forearm and click on another material. But if your profession does not require a firm grip, traction, stretching or bending of your wrists, then your forearms will likely have to pay a lot of attention.

Strengthening the muscles of the forearm is important not only from an aesthetic point of view, although we have to admit that few things look cooler than muscular arms peeking out from under the sleeves of a T-shirt. Strong forearm muscles will also help you increase your grip strength in numerous exercises for all parts of the body and in large compound movements such as heavy back exercises and. And who doesn’t want to move forward with these exercises?

Developing strong forearms, however, is more difficult than writing a pattern of three exercises of 8-10 reps. Like the calf muscles, the arm muscles require an integrated approach. Unless you have a genetic predisposition for powerful forearms, you will have to do your best.

Forearms under a microscope

Muscle groups in this anatomical region consist of the brachioradialis muscle, which is located in the upper third of the forearm near the elbow joint, a group of small muscles on the outer surface, which are known as extensors of the hand, and muscles on the inner surface, which are flexors of the hand.

In one, these muscles are very similar to the calf muscles. Unlike the large skeletal muscles (quadriceps, chest muscles, and hamstrings), they are composed primarily of slow-twitch muscle fibers.

In addition to the fact that these muscles are very small, which means they have limited growth potential, the predominance of slow-twitch fibers makes them even more stubborn in terms of growth.

“The forearms and hand muscles are very endurance, which means that they have a predominance of type 1 and type 2a muscle fibers, and therefore they have to pay more attention,” says Olympic weightlifter and powerlifter Vince Kreipke.

Many argue that the grip required for multiple pulls, deadlifts, and shrugs provides sufficient stimulation to the forearm muscles. Vince Kreipke disagrees. In these exercises, you hold the barbell isometrically, your hands are in a neutral position throughout the entire movement, which means that there are practically no real brush movements.

“Remember that when you are doing isometric exercises, the adaptation of the muscles being trained is directly proportional to the angle at the joint with which the movements are made,” he says. “This is why it is important to perform any movement with full amplitude. Therefore, to get full-range forearm workouts and increase forearm volume, it is important to train with different movements and not be limited to a simple grip. “

Forearm muscle workout

A dedicated forearm workout is the recommended way to completely fatigue the various muscles in your forearm and make sure they work across the full range of motion. After completing any heavy upper body workout, you can do specific forearm exercises.

If you don’t understand why you should never train your forearms in front of your back or biceps, try it yourself and then try to hold a heavy barbell. Chances are, you won’t be able to hold it long enough. For this reason, you should train your forearms after your back or biceps.

It is only when you fully flex and fully extend the wrist joint that you force the small muscles of the forearm to work actively throughout the range of motion. In order to purposefully work out the flexors (muscles of the inner, or palmar, surface), flexions in the wrist joint should be performed, and the opposite movement is useful for training the extensors (muscles of the outer surface).

Kreipke says clever flexor and extensor exercises are unnecessary; simple wrist curls at the edge of the bench have been effective since the days of Arnold. “You just have to make sure the brush is bent. As a rule, I perform this movement on a bench or on any other point of support, ”he says.

However, there is another large muscle of the forearm located close to the elbow joint – the brachioradial, or brachioradial muscle. Flexion and extension of the hand do not affect it. Although this muscle is also not involved in standard biceps curls, it can be worked out with neutral grip movements, such as, and reverse grip exercises, such as reverse curls.

Strengthen the grip

Since we’re trying to develop monstrous forearms here, it’s appropriate to add some sophisticated training techniques.

To develop even stronger forearms, Kreipke over-complicates hand curls to add grip work to flexor training. “I love using the dumbbells and letting them roll down to the fingertips during the extension phase. This allows me to strengthen my grip and work out the flexors of the forearm. “

Another way to increase your forearm muscle and grip requirements is to use a barbell or heavy barbell. Standard barbells or dumbbells have one-inch grips, but many lifters find that using a thicker bar makes the forearms work harder, which creates additional stimulus for increased muscle volume and strength.

Thick handles stimulate the work of both the muscles of the hand and the muscles of the forearms to a greater extent.

However, you will find that when you start using a thick bar, your grip will quickly become the weak link because you have fewer mechanical advantages. This limits the working weight you can use, but over time, training with a thick bar will dramatically increase your grip strength when working with a standard bar!

Thick barbells and dumbbells aren’t available in every gym, but assistive devices like the Fat Gripz can easily be wrapped around a regular barbell to more than double its thickness. Try using the Fat Gripz for regular exercises and for specific forearm exercises – palms up and palms down flexes and extensions.

practical recommendations

When training the muscles of the forearms, Kreipke recommends adhering to three rules:

• Do a lot of repetitions: 10-20, an average of 15 in each set.
  
• Rest less between sets: just as much time as necessary to reduce the burning sensation in the muscles, usually less than a minute.
  
• Train your forearms long and hard: 60-plus reps per workout.

“The isometric tension of the forearm muscles during multiple rows — assuming you’re not using the straps — should provide enough high-intensity load (when using high weights and low reps),” says Kreipke.

“I highly recommend giving your forearm muscles a lot of work if you want to target that muscle group in a targeted manner,” he continues. “I also recommend actively using opposing supersets — palms up and palms down — to increase pumping. One way or another, you need to force the muscles to increase in volume to adapt to high loads. “

As with other muscle groups with a high content of slow-twitch muscle fibers, you can train your forearms more often – up to three times a week, as long as you do not load them on the eve of a workout that requires a very strong grip.

Experiment with different combinations of sets, reps, and intensity-increasing techniques to find out which technique works best for you. As with training your calf muscles, you can find many approaches to forcing progress that is agonizingly slow. The time and effort put into it will eventually do the trick, and the gradual progress will become more visible.

With this knowledge in your pocket, try the simple post-biceps or back workout below to add some serious bulk to your forearms.

Forearm workout program

For the next level of difficulty, try supersetting the last two exercises. You can also use in the last set for each exercise: reduce the weight by 25% after muscle failure and continue the exercise until the next failure. Don’t be afraid to increase the volume of your training load, try other techniques – or even when working with one hand – for maximum pumping of the forearm muscles.

What about the straps?

Kreipke claims that if you have not previously used straps and straps, then your grip will grow in parallel with the growth of other strength indicators, and you will never have to resort to their help. Moreover, if you pay enough attention to the development of the forearms and grip strength.

However, some lifters understandably resort to using straps on hard days of back work or upper traps to better hold the equipment in their hands. The straps eliminate the possibility of the barbell falling, which can be provoked by the following reasons:

• Sweaty hands
  
• Insufficiently grooved neck
  
• Weak grip
  
• Fatigue of the muscles of the hand and forearm

The straps will definitely help you complete one or two extra reps that will spur muscle growth in the target muscle group. Of course, the reverse of the coin is the lack of grip strength development, but with our plan, you can get the most out of both worlds – by training your grip and forearms separately and using the straps when necessary.

Now head to the gym and blow up your forearm muscles!

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