My forearms are weak. How do I strengthen them? - Delroy from da South
Forearms are often neglected because they get so much work during every other exercise. That is not to say you shouldn't train them, however, especially the extensors - the muscles that bring your knuckles up towards your elbow. Chronic neglect of the extensors can lead to a condition that is like having shin splints in your forearms. Symptoms include shooting pains up the outside of your forearms as well as a dull ache and difficulty performing movements that require use of the flexors (which means pretty much everything).
Aside from avoiding injury, having a strong grip will improve your lifts and athletic performance (assuming you use your arms in some way. Forearm strength may not improve your 40 time or your penalty kick.)
Listed below are a few forearm exercises.
- Reverse wrist extensions: Grab a light barbell or two light dumbbells and sit on a bench with each forearm resting on a knee. Hang your wrists over the edge of your knees with your palms down and making sure your elbows remain in contact with your thighs the entire time. Lifting your elbows will assist in the movement and will make it easier and, therefore, less effective.
Let your wrists go limp, then bring your knuckles up as high as you can, forcefully contracting your forearms at the top of the movement. Slowly lower them until your knuckles are pointing at the ground, then repeat. This exercise is great to do drop sets with if you can only get one or two good sets with a reasonable weight.
- Wrist curls: These are the same as the aforementioned, but start with your palms up instead. The movement is the same, and so is the hard contraction at the top of the motion. For most normal forearm development, I would say do these sparingly, since wrist flexors are usually much stronger than extensors. Too much of one and not the other will lead to an imbalance and the condition 'wrist splints' I mentioned before.
- Reverse curls: This exercise hits the extensors and also works the biceps from an unconventional angle (I say 'unconventional' because I rarely see anyone doing this in the fitness center). Grab a barbell and, back straight and shoulders retracted, bring the bar slowly up towards your chin. Make sure your palms are down and your elbows are in close to your body. As you get closer to the top of the movement, you can concentrate on flexing your forearms by adding an extra little wrist movement towards your chest. It's basically a reverse wrist curl at the top of the reverse biceps curl.
- Wrist-rollers: This exercise may require a bit of assembly, but is certainly worth it. Take an 18-inch long piece of pipe or wood about the diameter of a hockey stick and, using about two to three feet of shoelace or thin rope, tie a light weight to the end of it. Then, holding the stick out in front of you with the weight hanging at the end or the rope, turn the stick until the rope winds around it and the weight comes up to the stick. Roll your wrists the other way to drop the weight. This exercise is great because it can be done anywhere and has the added benefit of stimulating deltoid stability.
When training forearms, keep in mind that they are instrumental (though secondary) in most other exercises. This means that it is not a good idea to train them before you do a bigger muscle group (especially back). If you are diligent with your forearm work, however (a few sets a couple times a week is all it should take), you shouldn't be surprised if you see your other lifts go up accordingly.
