How To Build Monster Forearms
If your forearms are being overpowered by your biceps and triceps, it's
time to bring them to the forefront. Blow up those stubborn lower arms
with this battery of exercises and techniques
If you're farmer, mechanic, baseball player, or any other laborer who
completes a lot of physical work with his hands, you probably don't need
to read this. Just flex those monster forearms and click on another
article. But if your job doesn't involve extensive gripping, pulling,
extending, or flexing your wrists, then your forearms probably need some
attention
Strengthening and building your forearms isn't just about aesthetics,
although we agree that few things look better than well-developed lower
arms in a T-shirt. But strengthening your forearms can also help improve
your gripping power on a number of full-body exercises and big movements
like heavy back exercises and deadlifts. And who doesn't want to bring up
those lifts, too
Building your forearms, however, is a little more complicated than
prescribing three exercises for three sets of 8-10 reps. Like the lower
legs, the lower arms require a kitchen-sink approach to training. Unless
you have a genetic predisposition for big forearms, you're going to have
to throw everything at 'em
YOUR FOREARMS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Not unlike the calves, the muscle groups in your lower arms—the
brachioradialis on the top of your forearm near your elbow, and the group
of smaller muscles on the top of your arm near your wrist, collectively
known as the wrist extensors; and the muscles on the underside, known as
the wrist flexors—have a higher degree of slow-twitch muscle fibers than
most of the larger skeletal muscle groups like the quads, hamstrings, and
chest
Besides the fact that these muscles are very small, and thus have a
limited potential for growth, their higher composition of slow-twitch
fibers makes them particularly stubborn to grow
"The forearms and hand muscles can be rather resilient to fatigue, which
suggests type I or type IIa muscle fibers, so they require more attention
to cause them to adapt," says Olympic weightlifter and powerlifter Vince
Kreipke, MS, CSCS
Some contend that the gripping involved in various exercises like rows,
deadlifts, and shrugs provides enough lower-arm stimulation, but Kreipke
argues that, with those exercises, you're holding the bar
isometrically—that is, your wrist maintains a near-neutral position
throughout the movement—so there's little actual movement taking place at
the wrists
"Remember, when training isometrically, the trained muscle experiences
adaptations at only that joint angle, and roughly 20 degrees around that
joint angle," he says. "This is why training through a full range of
motion is important in any movement. Thus, to get full-range forearm
training and build greater size, it's important to train the different
movements outside of simple grip training"
TRAINING YOUR FOREARMS
Forearm-specific training is the recommended way to fully fatigue the
various muscles of the forearm and ensure they're worked through the
entire range of motion. After you complete whatever heavy upper-body work
you're doing for the day, you can do specific movements for the
forearms
If it's not clear that you should never train your forearms immediately
before back or biceps, try it just once and attempt to hold on to a heavy
barbell. You probably can't grip it for very long! For this reason, you
should train forearms after back or biceps
Only when you fully flex and fully extend at the wrist joint do the
smaller forearm muscles get worked actively through their entire range of
motion. That means doing wrist curls to target the flexors (on the palm
side), and reverse wrist curls to target the extensors (on the opposite
side)
Kreipke says there's no need to do complicated movements for the flexors
and extensors; simple wrist curls off the end of a bench have been
effective since Arnold was training. "You just have to make sure that the
wrist is flexing. I normally do this movement off a bench or some sort of
support," he says
However, there's another larger forearm muscle closer to the elbow, the
brachioradialis, that wrist-curl movements don't target. Though it isn't
engaged during standard biceps curls, it does get worked during
neutral-grip movements like hammer curls and overhand-grip exercises like
reverse curls
GET A GRIP
Since we're trying to build monster forearms here, we can turn things up
a notch with even more techniques
To build even stronger forearms, Kreipke adds an exaggerated motion to
his wrist curls to add grip work to his flexor training. "I like to use a
dumbbell and let it roll out into my fingers [on the extension phase].
This allows me to work on my grip as well as working my hand
muscles"
Another way to increase the demand on the forearm muscles and grip is
to use a thicker bar, whether you're using a barbell or dumbbells.
Conventional bars and dumbbells have one-inch handles, but many lifters
find that using thicker bars makes the forearms work harder, which
provides a greater stimulus to grow stronger and larger
Thicker handles stimulate more muscle activation in both the hands and
arms
However, you'll find that when you start using a thicker bar, your grip
quickly becomes a weak link because you have less mechanical advantage.
This limits the overall amount of weight you can use, but over time,
training with a fat bar will improve your grip strength on a regular bar
considerably
Thick bars and dumbbell handles aren't available in every gym, but a
product like Fat Gripz can be easily placed on top of a bar to more than
double its thickness. Try Fat Gripz on regular and forearm-specific
exercises like wrist curls, reverse wrist curls, and reverse curls
THE GRITTY DETAILS
When it comes to training your forearms directly, Kreipke has three
recommendations
Perform higher reps: 10-20, with an average of 15 per set
Take less rest between sets: just enough time to allow the burn to
subside, rather than a full minute
Train them long and hard: 60-plus reps a workout
"The isometric grip work from your other pulling work—assuming you didn't
use straps—should give you plenty of work in the higher-intensity range
[using heavy weights for lower reps]," Kreipke says
"I strongly suggest putting a lot of volume on your forearms if you're
going to focus on them as a muscle group," he says. "I'd also suggest
supersetting opposing movements—wrist curls and reverse wrist curls—to
increase the pump. Either way, you're going to need to blow them up to get
size adaptations out of them"
Like other muscle groups that have a greater percentage of slow-twitch
muscle fibers, you can also train the forearms more frequently—up to three
times per week, provided you don't do them the day before a workout that
requires a very strong grip
Experiment with multiple combinations of sets and reps, as well as
various intensity boosters, to see what really is most effective for you.
As with calf training, you might have to explore multiple approaches to
extract gains that come agonizingly slow. With repetition and time, those
incremental gains finally become more substantive
With this knowledge in your grip, try the simple workout below after you
train back or biceps, to put some serious size on your lower arms
WHAT ABOUT STRAPS
If you haven't been using straps, Kreipke stresses that your grip
strength should improve alongside other strength gains you make in the
gym, so you may never need to use them with enough dedicated forearm and
grip work
However, some lifters understandably opt for straps on heavy back or
upper-traps days to better grasp the weight in their hands so it doesn't
slide out, which can happen for any number of reasons
Your hands are sweaty
The bar surface lacks knurling
You've got a weak grip
Your grip is simply fatigued
Straps can certainly help you complete an extra rep or two, which will
help spur muscle growth in the body part you're targeting. Of course, the
downside is that straps won't help you improve your grip strength. With
the plan above, you may be able to get the best of both worlds by training
your grip and forearms specifically and using straps when you need
them