This guy has a pretty balanced set of guns.
Most of the time, hitting the main muscle groups can be enough to create a great-looking set of guns, but forearm workouts can improve your results if you feel arms are still lacking. Here we can check out why people work out their forearms and a couple different routines to try (one that’s especially brutal) to increase both size and strength.
Why The Heck Should I Work Out My Forearms?
The main thing that strong forearms improve is your ability to grip. If you ride dirt bikes, do heavy lifting at work, practice Olympic bar and ring swinging techniques (pardon my lack of Olympian knowledge), or any other activity that involves having a strong grip, you should work out your forearms. But keep in mind that most exercises for biceps (pull-ups, curls, etc.) do a very good job of working your forearms already.
But don’t get me wrong. It’s not necessary for everyone to work out their forearms when you take into account how different everyone’s natural body state is. You could be naturally athletic with large, bulging forearms or very thin with leaner looking guns in general. You just have to work with what you got!
For me, I’m an ectomorph (naturally thin body type) and it’s more difficult for more to put on muscle than a mesomorph (naturally athletic/muscular). Because of this, I have some pretty shrimpy forearms that will never really be huge like some of my athletic friends. And one thing that I do that involves strong forearms is play the guitar. I can definitely notice an improvement in my fretting technique a couple days after working my forearms or biceps so I do a few of these exercises each week to at least help my musical skills.
Standard Exercises/Workout For Visual Appeal
Of course these exercises are going to strengthen your forearms, but they’re simple enough that if you’re just aiming for a visual difference, these will get the job done.
These two exercises can be done by kneeling on the floor next to a bench or sitting on the bench with your arms resting on your thighs with the weights hanging over your knee caps.This could feel tough on the hands however if you have bony legs.
The palms-up wrist curl over bench is a very good isolated exercise to adequately work your forearms. This can be done with either dumbbells or a barbell by following these steps:
- Kneeling perpendicular to the bench with your arms laying across the bench, hold your weights firmly with your palms facing upward.
- Start with the weight curled up and slowly bend down at the wrist for a 3-second count.
- Pull the weight back up (using your wrist and forearms) to the starting position.
Often I’ll extend the length of each repetition by slightly unraveling my fingers still holding the weight when I’m at the bottom of a repetition.
The opposite of the palms-up curl over bench is the palms-down…dun dun dun. This will work the tops of the forearms and usually requires less weight to feel the burn since they’re typically weaker. To carry out this exercise you simply follow the same steps as the palm-up version, but with your palms facing down.
If you’re looking to add purely size (focusing on how to get big forearms or how to get bigger forearms), you can approach these exercise with more a higher rep and set number. For example, your workout could be:
- 10 sets of 10-12 reps of palms-up wrist curls w/ 60 second break max between sets
- 10 sets of 10-12 reps of palms-down wrist curls w/ 60 second break max between sets
Oppositely if you want to increase strength and definition mainly, (size will come with time) follow a rep/set structure more like this:
- 5 sets of 5-7 reps of palms-up wrist curls w/ 60-120 second break max between sets
- 5 sets of 5-7 reps of palms-down wrist curls w/ 60-120 second break max between sets
Notice in the routine designed for strength and definition, there are a fewer number of repetitions, fewer sets per repetition, but a longer recovery time between sets so you’re not over-fatiguing your muscles leading to bulkiness and a flabby look.
A Brutal Forearm Workout From Mark Kislich For Super Grip
Of course there are some great variations of the typical wrist curls that simply involve contracting the muscle and then holding for 30-60 seconds. One particularly evil forearm workout is detailed by World-Class Olympic Coach Mark Kislich over at tsmethod.com.
This involves each of three exercises strung together in a tri-set in order to ultimately increase grip strength. Keep in mind, this guy trains Olympic athletes so you might want to ease into forearm workouts like these when starting out.
Exercise 1: Using a barbell in the wrist curl position, curl the barbell upwards using only the forearms and hold for 60 seconds.
Exercise 2: Using a barbell that’s 30% less weight, ready the barbell in your hands with palms facing down and curl back using the forearms once again and hold at the top for 60 seconds once again.
Exercise 3: This one sounds easy, but you simply stand up straight holding a pair of dumbbells around the same weight used for exercise 1 and just hold them for 60 seconds.
So the routine goes something like this:
- Exercise 1 – 60 seconds – No rest
- Exercise 2 – 60 seconds – No rest
- Exercise 3 – 60 seconds – 2 minute rest
Repeat 2 more times and then pass out. (Just kidding on the passing out, but it really gets your forearms burning)
Forearm Workouts Maintain Visually-Appealing Arms
Realistically, most bicep exercises require effort from your forearms like conventional curls and pull-ups. Pull-ups use your forearm muscles in an interesting way since they help you to keep a strong grip on the bar as you extend and contract those biceps.
But working your forearms really does help to balance out how your arms look in general. When I see guys in the gym, whether they’re lean or big with forearms that might rival they’re biceps, I almost automatically think “Wow, they must really work out.” It’s a simple visual trick, but it really works! Improve your grip and the appearance of your arms.
P.S. If you're interested in the diet that I use when I want to get particularly lean, it's Eat Stop Eat. It's very progressive, and probably not like anything you've tried before.
