This article lists the most effective exercises to help you gain massive, muscular forearms with ease. The content of the article:
- Forearm structure
- Forearm workout
- Forearm exercises
Muscular structure of the forearm
For athletes, especially bodybuilders and bodybuilders, the harmonious development of all muscles is very important. Massive, muscular forearms are the final part of the athlete's image. Some have naturally large forearms, but most need to sweat a lot in training to get the results they want.
The forearm is the part of the arm that sits between the elbow and the hand. Functionally, the muscles of the forearm are involved in extension, flexion and rotation of the hand. The forearm has 4 layers of the anterior muscles (flexors and rotators), and 2 layers of the posterior muscles (extensors).
The anterior muscles are located on the inside of the arm, from the elbow joint to the hand, the second on the outside. The variety, relatively large length and small volume of these muscles do not allow you to get a quick result after using one or two exercises.
Forearm workout
Forearm swing is a whole set of exercises closely related to basic training. Many bodybuilders, striving for quick results, neglect individual forearm exercises, preferring to work out the muscles of the chest, back and shoulder.
As a matter of fact, the first six months or a year of strength training on the shoulders and chest with lifting dumbbells and barbells, the forearm is actively involved in the work and does not require additional load.
But with a quick result in the form of an increase in muscle mass and the appearance of a distinct relief, every athlete, both professional and amateur, reaches the point where it is necessary to pay more attention to the forearm. Moreover, this is due to both aesthetic reasons and purely technical problems.
From an aesthetic point of view, the harmonious development of the muscles, the uniform development of the whole body is important. Weak forearms with a swinging bicep look ugly, and vice versa - massive forearms show the strength of the athlete, make an impression on others.
Technically, strong forearms allow you to train with more effort than before, and allow you to take more weight. Training your forearms increases your grip strength in deadlift exercises, which is very important for those planning to develop further.
Forearm exercises
Basic workouts for biceps and back already provide the necessary load on the forearms, and it does not matter with what equipment or weights to work. Holding a heavy load with the hand creates the necessary tension in the muscles of the forearm.
The workout of this muscle group is also facilitated by everyday work with weights: pulling buckets, shifting bricks, working with rotational movements of the hand (for example, tightening screws). But even if there is a lot of such work being done, additional stimulation may be needed to grow and strengthen the forearm.
A basic and widespread exercise is squeezing with an expander brush. Wrist expanders are rubber (in the form of a ring) and spring, with a grip in the form of plastic or metal handles. For training, you just need to squeeze the expander in your hand. Optimally, a quick squeeze with a slow release is practiced to increase muscle tension.
Working with the expander is convenient because you can train everywhere, since the expander fits perfectly in your pocket. You can even train on the go. Repetition in one approach depends only on the softness of the expander, some are squeezed out a hundred times.
But if the goal is to increase the volume of the forearms, the expander must be selected very tight, which cannot be squeezed more than 15 times. It is very difficult to overtrain with an expander, the load is very easily dosed.
Because the muscles of the forearm are extensively involved in strength training and daily life, they tire quickly enough. For wider forearm stimulation, specific training is required.
- Reverse grip lift. Exercise allows you to train both the forearm and biceps. With dumbbells in both hands, press your shoulders against your body so that they remain perpendicular to the floor. Lift the dumbbells alternately, turning the hand upward. The shoulder must not move! The exercise should be performed holding the dumbbells with the palms down. If the exercise is done with a barbell, the grip should be such that the distance between the hands is approximately equal to or slightly less than shoulder width.
- Exercise Hammer. One of the exercises that loads all the muscles of the forearm. Performed only using a dumbbell. It is optimal if the dumbbell can be "halved" by removing the weight from one side. The weights are taken in the hand, the forearm lifts and rotates the dumbbell in different directions. It is important to remember that the hand should rotate, not the elbow.
- Working with a long stick. The athlete needs to take a heavy stick, club or long piece of pipe. Moving only with the brush, lift the stick up almost vertically, then lower it back down. It is better to work with one stick in turn with different hands, and take a weight such that there is no cheating with overload on the shoulder. With the next approach, raise the stick straight in front of you horizontally. Then begin to rotate the brush so that the end of the stick describes wide circles. Rotate clockwise in one approach, counterclockwise in the other.
- Lifting the load by winding. A very effective exercise is to wrap a weighted rope around the pipe. This projectile is very simple to manufacture. A pipe or strong stick is taken, having a girth diameter slightly larger than the girth of the hand, and at least half a meter wide. A rope or cable is fixed in the middle, at the other end of which a load is attached. While holding the pipe in your hands and working only with a brush, wind the load. Rotate the pipe while winding, first towards you, then away from you. To complicate the exercise, you can raise your arms up, creating additional stress on your shoulders.
- Lifting loads with fingers and a hand. For this exercise, you can use both dumbbells and a barbell. You need to sit down, put your hand on your thigh, take a dumbbell in your hand, turning it with your palm up, and move the weight of the dumbbell to your fingers. Bend your fingers gradually so that the dumbbell moves into the palm of your hand, then lift your hands up towards you. When bending, breathe out, when unbending, inhale. It is advisable to perform the exercise before the onset of muscle fatigue, but no more than 10-15 repetitions.
If the weight of the dumbbell is not enough, it may be time to switch to the barbell. The bar allows you to use both hands at once. Hands also need to be fixed on the thigh, hold the bar with your fingers, palm facing you. Gradually roll the bar up in the palm of your hand and raise your hands, then lower it down. The weight of the barbell should be equal to the weight of the biceps exercise. Load the biceps first, then the forearms separately.
The workout of the muscles of the forearms should take place on the day of training the arms. It is rational to load this muscle group after basic biceps exercises.
Video on how to pump up your forearms:
