I want big forearms and calves.....

[speed dawg]

You read that correctly, in my eyes, those are the real vanity muscles. The ones that you see most of the time, even with clothes on. Obviously we could put wide shoulders in here as well, because that's visible with clothes on too. And who doesn't respect a guy when he can big, visibly muscular forearms and calves??

So, my question is, how to achieve this? I know the typical answers will be to eat big, deadlift, farmer's walk, etc. to gain size everywhere thus making my arms bigger. Well, I can't do that. I have a back issue that keeps me from lifting serious weight in a 'pushing' fashion. I already do deadlifts and squats, albeit high reps and low weight. Just a fact of life, so spare me the 'DO HEAVY DEADS HO HE HA'. I know lifting heavy works, I did it for years.

Back to my question, I've had some pretty good results from towel pullups (low reps), rolling up newspapers, reverse curls (15 lb. DB high rep), that sort of thing. I do lots of regular pullups too because it's a pulling motion and doesn't compress my spine. I like to walk around on my tip toes, run in sand, and do bodyweight calf raises for those.

So what else? Do those wrist rollers work? Is there really no way to increase the sizes of those two body parts without heavy whole-body movements that compress the spine?

 

[twentee]

yes, rolling up a cord on a stick, with a weight attached will help. so will "digging" in sand, with both hands, fingers spread apart, and "scooping" up the hands thru the sand. Need about a bushel basket sized wooden crate or plastic drum for this. If you cut a drum in half, gotta split a pc of water hose and use it to form a safety rim around the edges of the drum. If you do not, even a plastic drum will cut you, one day.

 

[Purefilth]

or take steroids and only work those muscles

 

[foreverAFC]

try some reverse barbel curls for the forearms

 

[Krueg]

Calves are usually a harder muscle to build unless you just genetically have 'em. I'd say just do some type of Machine Calf Raises; 3-5 sets of 10-20 reps. Squatting can build up your calves too. For forearms.. Wrist Curls, Reverse Curls, Hammer Curls, Grip Work, Deadlift with a double-overhand grip OR Deadlift with a "Fat Bar", do Barbell Rows with a double-overhand grip w/o straps. Gaining weight can help fill out other areas as well. Hope that gives you some ideas.

 

[TheStig]

A lot of jumping rope will get those calves looking shredded

 

[DanZy]

Brad Pilon recently focused on building his forearms and though they grew over an inch, the difference was barely noticeable. Building up your grip strength should help your forearms but don't expect any miracles.
How to train calves best

 

[switch]

shrugs, i notice my forearms are getting bigger ever since i started doing shrugs.
i got big calves, like goblets , but i think its in my genes since i never exercise them directly. actually a friend told me that i look like a T-rex bcuz i got really small forearms, so i'm going to focus on arms from april.

you can do rack pulls and rows instead of deadlifts , that's more than enough indirect work IMO

 

[speed dawg]

Deadlift with a double-overhand grip OR Deadlift with a "Fat Bar", do Barbell Rows with a double-overhand grip w/o straps. Gaining weight can help fill out other areas as well.

shrugs, i notice my forearms are getting bigger ever since i started doing shrugs......you can do rack pulls and rows instead of deadlifts , that's more than enough indirect work IMO

As I said earlier, no can do on the heavy stuff. I deadlift already, but I can't do enough weight (back injury) to really help the forearms. Mainly I do it just to keep by back and hips loose. I'm slowly building up the weight again, but it will be a long time before I'm pulling serious weight, if ever.

It's frustrating, because hand size and bone structure is what it is, it's not changing.

 

[Colossus]

Speed dawg-

I've had this problem for years. Large upper arms and legs, but lagging forearms and calves. Here's what's helped:

Fat grip anything. Look up the Meadows row; you grab the end of a barbell. Fatgripz from Elite FTS.com can be put on any bar. You need to activate your forearm flexors which make up the bulk of your forearm muscles, and you do this by thick bar work primarily.

Towel or rope pull ups are great too.

For calves, sad to say they are probably 70% genetic. The only thing that helped me is heavy, consistent volume. I'll try to do like 4 heavy sets of 15-20 twice a week. And they're still not big. I've just accepted it.