The Top 5 Best Forearm Exercises

Every serious lifter would love to have massive forearms. It just adds to an already good physique, and would seemingly increase all of your other pressing lifts as well. The problem that most people have is that they aren’t sure how to attack their forearms. Either that, or they are not as consistent with their forearm training.
Forearms should be trained just as often as any other muscle. It shouldn’t just be something you work every couple of months whenever you are bored. Take your forearm training seriously, and you will be on the right path to adding some size on them.

How to Get Big Forearms

Many people think they have to do only direct forearm exercises such as wrist curls, and those will work to an extent, but with forearm training, you have to think outside the box and dumb things down. What is the one major exercise that requires you to have some strong ass forearms? Did I hear someone say deadlifts? That is correct.

Deadlifts, just like they work every other muscle in your body, they also work your forearms. Many people don’t get this much work because they decide to use straps whenever they go heavy. If you can deadlift a ton of weight without straps, then you are sure to have a great grip and huge forearms.
Aside from deadlifts, which you will read about more in a minute, I want to introduce you to 5 other exercises and a variety of techniques that you can use to build great size and strength in your forearms.

Anatomy of the Forearms

The forearm comprises around 20 different muscles, but it contains two main ones: the flexors and the extensors. The flexors are on the side of the palm of the hand and the extensors are on the opposite side.

Anatomy of the Forearms

Function of the Forearms

The flexors and the extensors both regulate the movement of the wrist, fingers, thumb, and they can also control which way the hand faces.
The muscles of the forarms are pretty much responsible for controling the whole hand.

The Top 5 Best Forearm Exercises

Although it is not specifically a forearm exercise, I must list this next exercise as very best forearm exercise. I’m listing first, but I won’t count it as one of the top 5. Consider this forearm exercise #0 – an in “ground-zero” – as in the foundation of your training routine – as in you should use this exercise once every week.

1. Deadlifts

   As mentioned above, the deadlift is an amazing exercise. Forearms are just another muscle that are hit hard by heavy deads. If you decide to use straps, then you will not get the maximum benefit, but if you can use just chalk then you will be well on your way to having strong and massive forearms.
   The lift: to start a deadlift, use your whole body to begin to lift the bar off the floor. Arms should be straight, hands shoulder width apart, knees should be bent. The object is to lift the weight with your legs, glutes, and hips, rather than with your lower back. In fact your lower back should not bend that much, should in fact be pretty straight, and should definitely NOT be rounded. You accomplish this by keeping your head up and by driving with your hips.
   As you push with your legs, remember to drive your feet down through the floor. It is of utmost importance to keep the bar close to your body during the lift.
   At the top you should stand up straight, but do not over extend your lower back as if you were doing some kind of hyper-extension. The driving force at the top should be more of a hip thrust than a lower back spasm. Lower the bar under control, keeping it close to your body.
   Deadlift grip: some people use a conventional grip with pronated hands – your palms face towards your body when you grab the bar. Most lifters find they are much stronger with an alternating grip – on hand pronated, one hand supinated. It is awkward the first couple times, but most athletes tend to prefer the alternating grip.
   Alternate your alternating grip! With each set you should switch the position of each hand. Some people tend to save their strongest grip for their heaviest set. This is perfectly OK.
   Layne Norton is using a bit of a different bar in this video, but it is the same concept.

2. Farmer Walks

   Ok, this is another exercise where you may be wondering how this would do a great deal of more benefit than some type of wrist curls. It’s simple people. You will be holding a ton of weight for a prolonged period of time. Will your forearms be getting more work curling a 10 lb dumbbell or holding 400+ lbs? Exactly.
   The lift: Start by equally loading two shorter barbells, or some other odd object implement, with however much weight you wish. Once you do that, then you will pick up each bar, one with your right arm and the other with your left arm. Next you do the Walk – you will walk a certain distance or for however long you wish.
   You can try to keep adding weight while going the same distance each time. By doing this, your forearms and grip will continue getting stronger.
   You can try to walk further distances with the same weight, which will improve your stamina.
   You can try to walk the same distance with the same weight for time, which will improve your endurance.
   

3. Plate Pinching

   A great exercise for finger and grip strength.
   The lift: You will need 4 plates to start with – 2 for each hand. Start with 5 lbs plates if you are small, weak, or female, otherwise start with 10s. Pinch two plates together with each hand. Your thumb should be on the bottom and your other fingers on top. If possible it is best to pinch with the flat sides out so you won’t get distracted by ribbing, knurling, writing, or embossing. Don’t you dare use the hole in the middle of the plate either. Cheater!
   You can use a stopwatch to see how long you can pinch without your grip giving out. To gauge progress, your goal is to pinch more weight for longer periods of time. You can also get an idea of which hand is strongest and use an extra set here or there to try to even out the imbalance.
   You could also attempt a 3 plate pinch, or if you feel really strong, try pinching some 25s or even 45s. Hey, the strongmen do it!
   

4. Barbell Wrist Curls

   The lift: You will need a barbell to start off with. You may not want to start off with as much weight to begin. Once you get the bar, you will need to find a bench on which to rest your forearms. Position your arms so that you are resting your forearms on the bench with your wrists and hands hanging over the side.
   To perform regular wrist curls, your forearms should rest on the bench palms-up. You will slowly lower the bar by extending your wrists backward, stretching your flexors. Once you reach a full stretch, you should flex your flexors and curl your wrists so that the bar moves up and towards your face. For an extra finger workout, some people like to uncurl their fingers slightly at the bottom of the movement, letting the bar slide down to the tips, then curl the fingers back up tight before starting the wrist curl. I personally perfer the added finger curl.
   To perform reverse wrist curls, your forearms should rest on the bench palms-down. You will slowly lower the bar by curling your wrists forward and stretching your extensors. Once you reach a full stretch, you should flex your extensors, curling wrists up and back towards your face. Try not to extend your wrists so far back the the weight goes over or in back of your wrists, as this would remove the tension from the top of the lift. I’m not that flexible anyway, so I don’t have to worry about it. =)
   

5. Hammer Curls

   Ever wonder how the old tyme blacksmiths had arms the size of watermelons? What do they do day after day after day? They swing 50 lbs sledgehammers with one hand for about 20 hours a day. You only have to do it a couple times a week but in short time you’ll have forearms and biceps like an iron worker.
   The lift: Grab yourself a set of heavy dumbbels. Hold them at your sides with palms facing each leg. Now curl the weight up to your either your shoulder or your chin, but keep your elbow tucked in at the side and pointed straight down. At no time should your elbow move underneath your wrist, as that would take the tension off your arms. Lower the bar back to your side to complete one rep. You can choose to perform this exercise with one arm, alternating arms, or both arms simultaneously.
   

6. Reverse Grip Barbell Curls

   Yeah, this is mainly a biceps exercise, but it will work your forearm extensors out great. What better way to build both your biceps and forearms up at the same time? Except of course for hammer curls.
   The lift: You will need a barbell or EZ Curl bar to start with. After that, you will grip the bar the opposite way that you normally would during a regular curl, with palms down. Your forearms should be facing outward rather than inward. After that, you will just curl the bar up like you normally would with barbell curls. It’s the same movement, but you are performing it so your forearms are being worked. Simple enough.
   

Integrating Forearm Training Into Your Workout

Pick one exercise that isolates the forearms and pick another exercises that also targets the biceps. Use those exercises in one workout, then choose a different pair of exercises for your next workout. Try to repeat each exercise at least once a week. Just remember the forearms can still be overtrained if you incorporate too much direct forearm work into a routine with a ton of pulling and rowing.

Additional Forearm Training Strategies

Aside from incorporating the top 5 best forearm exercises into workout routine, you can improve your forearm training simply by using these additional techniques on other exercises.

• Resist Using Wrist StrapsWrist-straps will take the stress off the forearms and short-change the trainer in this area. In order to fully stimulate the forearms, they require maximal squeezing.Straps compensate for a weak grip and it follows that they will negate any form of forearm stimulation, as they prevent optimal squeezing. Those with the strongest grips tend to have the biggest forearms.
• Use A Thick Bar This will increase the difficulty associated with gripping the bar and will resultantly contribute to significant increases in forearm size. If you don’t have a thick bar, wrap a towel or a piece of rubber around the bar to make it thicker.
• Use A Wrist CurlerEssentially a wrist-curler is a heavy plate (which can vary in weight) attached to a small bar via a thin rope. To execute this movement, hold arms straight out in front whilst gripping the bar.Slowly roll bar with one hand at a time until weight has been raised to shoulder height. Then unwind it and repeat, reversing the way in which the bar is rolled (change from working the flexors to the extensors).
• BoxingRepeatedly punching a boxing bag requires a tremendous amount of forearm strength and periodically structuring boxing sessions into ones routine may provide an edge when it comes to developing these muscles to their fullest.Personally I have found that uppercutting the heavy bag with 50-punches, each arm, works wonders as far as developing the flexors goes.
• Use a RopeWhen doing any kind of pulling exercise such as rows or pull ups, use a rope instead of a bar. You will have to squeeze hard towards the end of each set just to hold on to the weight. This might impact the other muscle group you are training (predominantly back when rowing or pulling), but will hit your forearms and grip hard.
• Grab SandSand grabbing is a great grip strength exercise. Simply fill a bucket full of sand, reach in, grab a handful, let it go, grab another handful, flex your fingers, grab another handful, pull it out, drop it, reach in again, etc… Basically work your hands and fingers all around in the sand until your hands are completely fatigued.
• Practice with GrippersI almost didn’t want to mention grippers because 99.9% of grippers suck. You will need to get the Captains of Crush grippers from Ironmind. Start with level 1 unless you are positive that you already have a world class grip. Work your way up to level 4 and you’ll be famous.

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