Forearm Workout

Looking for great forearm exercises for your workouts?

 

One of the biggest mistakes that I see in the gym is that a lot of people will not train their entire body over a week’s period of time. A common problem is that a lot of guys will train their upper body while passing on the leg workouts. I know leg workouts can be tuff but if you want to avoid looking like a light bulb, you have to do them. Besides, I am a firm believer that increasing your leg mass helps you increase your overall muscle mass in your upper body too.

However, legs are not the only body part that experiences this problem. Another common body part that does not get trained is the forearms. I don’t know if a lot of people just don’t like to train their forearms or forget to do them but it seems to be a common body part that is overlooked.

Now I have to admit, in the good old’ days my forearm workouts were pretty poor and I use to only train my forearms when I was getting ready to compete. I genetically have developed forearms, whether I train them or not, so I use to just skip them during my off-season workouts. The problem that I ran into is that in late 2001 I slightly tore my left forearm while performing a set of preacher curls. It took a couple weeks to get back in the gym, a few years to fully recover from the injury but the lesson learned will last the rest of my life. I learned that when I train my forearms they were less susceptible to injury. I don’t go all out and blast my forearms like I do other body parts but I do give them an honest workout. Over the past few years that I have been training my forearms my injury in my left forearm has completely healed up (this is an injury that would not go away no matter how long I stayed out of the gym). Not only are my forearms stronger now, my bicep workouts and back workouts have also improved. My grip is better for my back exercises, like lat pull downs, and my bicep strength has increased over the past few years.

My forearms workouts are quick, easy and very effective. Right now I am performing a superset of regular wrist curls and reverse wrist curls. When I do a wrist curl I usually sit at the end of a flat bench with my knees together. I will rest my forearms on my legs with my wrist just past my knees. With my weight in hand, gripping the bar with the palms facing up, I will lower my wrist to where my knuckles are facing the floor and then slowly curl my wrist up to where the knuckles face the ceiling. Reverse wrist curls are performed in the same manner with the exception that I grab the bar with my palms facing down instead of facing up in a normal wrist curl.


My workout looks like the following (a great forearm exercise):

1 set x 90 lbs fixed barbell x 12 reps (to failure) then superset reverse curls 1 set x 50 lbs fixed barbell x 10 reps

I will do a total of three sets using the formula from above. If you are unfamiliar with supersets, it is basically one large set where you do one exercise, set down the weight, and without wasting any time jump onto the next exercise. In this example, you perform a set of regular wrist curls to failure, set down that weight and then instantly perform the reverse wrist curls to failure using the lighter weight.

Now, at times I will substitute the fixed barbell with an EZ curl barbell. The EZ curl barbell adds a new angle to the movement and I like the way it contracts the forearm muscles. Overall this workout is easy and only takes a few minutes of your time. However, if done correctly, your forearms should be screaming by the end of the third set (mine tightens up after the first set). So now that you have a good formula for a forearm workout, go out and build some Popeye forearms or your own.