If you’ve been around the gym trenches, you have heard the term if you cannot grip it, you can’t rip it, and forearms play a big part in it. Forearm strength and endurance are critical in all grip-intensive exercises like deadlifts, chin-ups, and all row variations. The grip often fails before the intended muscle group trained is fatigued.
Forearm strength must be addressed and is a common weakness for many lifters. Because forearm strength and endurance are involved in many upper and lower body lifts, it pays to show them a little extra attention.
And stronger forearms mean more weight or repetitions on your grip-intensive exercise for more gains. Here we’ll dive into why the forearms are challenging to build, the benefits of training forearms, and four forearm exercises for your forearm flexing pleasure.
Why Are Forearms Hard To Grow?
Many forearm muscles, small and large, have varying fiber types, but most forearm muscles are slow-twitch dominant. Slow twitch dominant muscle groups like the forearms and calves are challenging to grow because they are endurance based because they rely on a steady supply of oxygenated blood to operate.
Another reason is genetics. A longer tendon and shorter muscle belly make the muscle harder to grow, while a shorter tendon and longer muscle belly make it easier. That you can blame or thank your parents for.
Benefits of Forearm Exercises
Let’s look beyond the vanity benefits to cover three vital benefits of strengthening your forearms.
Living A Quality Life: When you train forearms, you directly train grip strength. Watch out when you don’t train grip strength, mainly when you are older. Because Grip strength is inversely associated with all-cause mortality—every 5-kilogram (11 pounds) decrease in grip strength was associated with a 17 percent risk increase in mortality.
Improved Fitness In And Out Of The Gym: Muscular forearms are vital for a firm grip not only for grip-intensive exercises like pull-ups and row variations but also for activities of daily living. It would be best if you had your grip strength to open pickle jars and doors, hold the drinks, and carry the groceries in from the car in one trip. Because doesn’t everyone like pickles on their hamburgers?
Improved Lifting Performance : Grip strength can be a limiting factor with grip-intensive exercises such as rows, carries, chin-ups, and deadlifts. Improving grip strength by strengthening the forearms means doing more reps with the same weight or more weight overall.
Forearm Training Tips
Due to their slow-twitch dominance, training the forearms two to four times weekly in a higher rep range of 10 to 20 reps for three to four sets is advisable.
Because many exercises rely on grip strength, using these four forearm exercises at the end of your training is best. You’re not fatiguing your grip and doing fewer reps on your compound exercises.
It’s okay to train your forearms to failure, but doing so may affect your grip strength and training the next day. Save this in your back pocket when you can get plenty of recovery between sessions.
There are many exercises to strengthen the forearms, but the four below will give you more for your forearm buck. No cans of spinach are required.
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Barbell Reverse Biceps Curls
Barbell reverse biceps curls train and strengthen the smaller forearm extensors, the brachioradialis, and brachialis. These muscles are underneath the biceps, which will help make your biceps look bigger during flex time. A strength imbalance between the forearm flexors and extensors may lead to sore elbows, so it pays to train this from an injury prevention standpoint.
How to do it:
Note: Start with a weight that’s approx. 10 pounds lighter than your underhand barbell curl
Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding your arms by your sides and gripping the barbell with your knuckles facing up.
Keep your elbows tucked to your torso while curling the barbell slightly above 90 degrees.
Reverse to starting position and repeat for desired reps.
Programming Suggestions: Three to four sets of 12 to 15 reps at the end of your training.
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3-Way Chinup Hold
You are going to like this one. This will strengthen your forearms in three different positions and improve your chin-up performance because of the extended time under tension. The isometric holds in each place test your forearm and grip strength for potential forearm muscle-building benefits.
How to do It:
Either use a bench to reach the bar or jump up.
Start in the top position and hold for ten or more seconds.
Slowly lower to a 90-degree elbow position and hold for ten seconds.
Lower until your elbows are slightly flexed, and hold for ten or more seconds.
Then, hang with your elbows fully extended until failure.
Programming Suggestions: Perform two to three sets of one rep where one rep is holding in all three positions.
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Gripedo Roller
There is no doubt that the Gripedo is a forearm killer. What is a Gripedo? The Gripedo attachment is shaped like a torpedo, hence the name. This attachment slips over a barbell and acts like a wrist roller, and is highly effective at building insane grip strength and Popeye forearms. It trains both forearm flexors and extensors and allows you to use more weight than the standard wrist roller.
How to do it:
Set up the Gripedo like in the video and stand arm’s length away from the attachment.
Stand with your feet hip-width apart, gripping the Gripedo at shoulder height with knuckles facing you.
Roll the weight up, alternating hands until fully wounded.
Reverse the movement slowly and repeat if you have anything left.
Programming Suggestions: Rolling it up and down is one rep. At the end of your workout, two to three reps of two to three sets will create an excellent forearm pump.
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Fat Grip Barbell Biceps Curl
Yes, it’s another bicep exercise because I could not help myself. Forearms have a double duty during the bicep curls as grip assisters and forearm flexors. Adding the fat grip makes the barbell harder to grip by increasing its diameter, forcing your forearms and biceps to work harder. You might need to reduce the weight, but your forearm and bicep pump will make it worth it.
How to do it:
Wrapthe fat grips around the barbell around shoulder-width apart.
Gripthe fat grips with an underhanded grip with the barbell at arm’s length in front of you.
Curl up to your shoulders until you feel a heavy contraction in your biceps.
Pause, slowly lower to the starting position, and reset and repeat.
Programming Suggestions: perform three to four sets of 12 to 15 reps at the end of your training.
