forearms?

[protienpowder]

how important is it to work these out when trying to gain weight?

 

[Create Reality]

Forearms are the core muscle in nearly all of the body's movements. It is said by increasing strength in the forearms, you will increase strength over all your movements and lifts. So when it comes to forearms, lift em HARD and make em burn!

 

[theory of knowledge]

forearms and shoulders are the secret to huge arms, work them on the same day as your arms,

FOR FOREARMS

Behind the back wrist curls = 3-5 sets and 15 to 25 reps

Reverse curls = 3 sets and pyramid up in weight 10-8-8 (also help build the biceps)

Hammer curls = 3 sets and pyramid up in weight 10-8-8 (also help build the biceps)

For your grip!!! This is important. Here is a good program to get your grip up to par.

Look before you go hit your grip with full intensity, I want you to understand that you can hurt yourself if you train the wrong way. I am a victim of buying a damn heavy duty gripper. I wore myself out with that damn thing with no results. Oh I did have results, I hurt my freaking joints and developed sore ass tendonitis in my wrists. I worked my grip every day. And do you know what I learned? I learned that I was training the wrong way and too hard.

Those heavy grippers are great for TESTING strength. Don't get me wrong they are great for a workout here and there, but as a workout I do not recommend them. Training with these things will really screw your hands up. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is easily achieved with these. Why? You put so much strain on your grip. Also, the pressure one creates on these grippers presses down on the veins in the hands causing poor circulation. In fact many of the gains from these grippers probably come from better nerve activation and not from mass gained. The average gripper is not fitted perfectly to how you normally close your hand. Look at your hand as you close it and make a fist. You will notice that no gripper on the market closes like you hand, so you need to modify your program for your hand's sake. If you want o use those super grippers then hold the gripper and squeeze it, but not all the way. Squeeze it about ¼ of the way and hold for as long as you can. Because most of the force applied from the gripper at ¾ of the range is transferred to your knuckle joints and not your forearms. You will find it easier to close all the way every week. I believe that endurance in gripping is far more easily achieved than to just try to go up in weight each week by gripping at the 70% max range with full range reps.

The safest way to get a strong grip is to do bar hangs and weight pinches.

Just hang from a bar and time yourself. Try to use a thick bar to hang from. Try to improve your time and your grip will get stronger. The main focus of this is to strengthen the tendons and ligaments in your forearms and fingers. The stronger these are the stronger your grip becomes. You can also weight yourself down as well. You ca also fill a fabric bag with weight and hold it. Also holding dumbbells can be used. Don't hang from a rope though. That causes a lot of stress on the elbows. Definitely don't train every day. 2 times a week at the most. 3-4 sets should be enough.

Weight pinches = pick up two smooth weights and pinch them with your hand and fingers flat and grip the plates. Start with 5-10 pound plates and try to hold for 30 seconds once you can hold for 10 seconds then go up in weight. Once you can pinch grip 45 pound plates, you are one strong mofo.

You got to STRETCH between every set PERIOD!!! The more you stretch the more room for growth. You also have to have a good diet, one that supports growth. If you are not gaining weight, then you are not growing.

courtesy of musclenet

 

[bud_2005]

What about that material that is similar to like Play-Doh and you squeeze it in your hand? Will that build up my forearms? Well if that doesn't, how else can I build them from home because I don't have a gym to go to.

 

[protienpowder]

wrists curls are good. Make sure you stretch out your wrists/forearms, i've hurt my wrist so many times by not doing that.

 

[Skilla_Staz]

Plate Pinches
Forearm Curls
Grippers
Finger Pushups
Wrist Twister

I, personally, would recommend doing a forearm/grip workout on your core days. I say a saturday workout consisting ofr 3 or 4 of the above exercises (Definitely use the grippers) and then some ab/oblique work. Doing it this way will allow you to hit the forarms when they're fresh. Also, it will allow you some rest before you need them again. If you do a squat workout on Monday, and your grip/core workout on Saturday, you will have plenty of forearm recovery by the time you actually need to live anything with your hands.

 

[speed dawg]

I have small forearms, and I have committed myself tirelessly to bring them up. I've done every exercise imaginable for them and I've come to these conclusions:

1) Reverse Grip Curl - Builds the Brachio-something muscle on the top of the forearm. I got good results with this.

2) Farmer's Walk - Best forearm exercise there is, IMO.

3) Deadlifts and Power Cleans, no straps - Almost as good as Farmer's Walk.

Wrist Curls basically go obsolete in my workout, I never gained a thing from them, and I could wrist curl 70 lb. DB with good form.

 

[bud_2005]

I have a question about the farmers walk. Well I happen to live on a farm and we have buckets for feed that are 5 gallon buckets. So if I was to fill two of those with water and grab them by the handle and carry them, is that basically what the farmers walk is?

 

[grr]

Yeah, basically. But, you should use weights, and more than would be present in two five gallon buckets. We're talking at least 70 lbs for each arm, starting out. Its the very high weights that make it work so well. There are different ways to do them but I just walk around holding them for about 60 seconds across three sets. You know its working if a properly relaxed grip has trouble holding them for the last 15 seconds.

Also, those 5 gal buckets are a little bulky compared to dumbells, they would make you hold them far from your sides and work your shoulders too much when you want to isolate the forearms & hands as much as possible.

 

[speed dawg]

Yeah, basically. But, you should use weights, and more than would be present in two five gallon buckets. We're talking at least 70 lbs for each arm, starting out. Its the very high weights that make it work so well. There are different ways to do them but I just walk around holding them for about 60 seconds across three sets. You know its working if a properly relaxed grip has trouble holding them for the last 15 seconds.

Also, those 5 gal buckets are a little bulky compared to dumbells, they would make you hold them far from your sides and work your shoulders too much when you want to isolate the forearms & hands as much as possible.

Yeah, like this guy said. Also, I like to use big bars, hits my forearms better. I like to use 100 lb. DBs and just walk until I can't hold them anymore.

 

[mountain]

I never train forearms directly...I have obtained solid results from hammer curls and deadlifts...

This is the best advice, skip all the gay wrist curl exercises. Deadlift as much weight as humanely possible and you'll gain size all around. Don't be stupid about it though, always keep your lower back straight and use your legs.