Big Forearm Exercises
To get big forearms it is ideal to get into the habit of doing some forearm exercises after finishing your biceps workout each week. So many people overlook training their forearms since they get quite pumped after training arms and back that they don’t feel they need to do any extra forearm work. However, although your forearms get worked indirectly through training arms and back, doing some specific forearms exercises will allow you to gain more strength and mass on your forearms.
The following is a list of both upper forearm exercises and lower forearm exercises to help build big strong forearms that will allow you to lift more weight when training other muscle groups as well.
One of the most effective big forearm exercises for the upper forearms is the reverse grip barbell curl. Holding the barbell with your palms facing downwards simply curl the bar in the same style movement as you would when performing barbell curls. With your palms facing downwards you will instantly feel the pump in your upper forearms.
Another great forearms exercise for the upper forearms is the barbell wrist curl with your forearms lying across a flat bench. Once again grip the barbell with your palms facing downwards and lay your forearms on top of the flat bench and curl your wrists so that the top of your hands come back towards your body. You can do this big forearm exercise with one arm at a time using a dumbbell as well.
A really popular upper forearm exercise is the dumbbell hammer curl. To perform hammer curls hold the dumbbell just like you would hold a hammer with your thumbs pointing upwards and curl the dumbbell from the straight arm position bringing the dumbbell to the point where your elbow is completely bent and the top of the dumbbell is almost touching your front deltoid. Do alternate dumbbell hammer curls to work each of your forearms. This exercise is also very effective at targeting the brachialis muscles in the arms as well.
An effective big forearm exercise to target the lower forearms is the behind the back barbell wrist curl. Hold the barbell behind your back with your arms straight down and your palms facing outwards. Simply curl at the wrists, it is only a small movement, and you will immediately feel a burn in the lower forearms.
We can also train the lower forearms by doing wrist curls with a dumbbell or barbell laying your forearms on a flat bench. The lower forearm exercise in this case is performed with the palms facing upwards and curling either the dumbbell or barbell back towards the body. This is once again a very small movement and only the wrists move during this forearm exercise but you can really feel the pump in the lower forearm.
One more alternative forearm exercise for the lower forearms is the dumbbell wrist curl holding the dumbbell between your legs while sitting on a bench just like you would to perform dumbbell concentration curls. Only to target the lower forearms you simply curl at the wrists only, to place resistance on the lower forearms.
I usually train my upper and lower forearms at the end of my weekly biceps workout and choose 1 exercise each week for both the upper and lower forearms and do 3 sets for each exercise. This is all you need to do each week since the forearms get hit quite hard while training other body parts but you still should train your forearms directly each week to allow them to reach their full potential.