Are you looking for exercises to build your forearms? You may have a toned and muscular body, but it will never be complete without arm muscles worthy of the name. Beyond just looks, there are many great reasons to work on forearm strength and muscle development.
Indeed, it is a part of the body that most athletes do not take into account during training, wrongly! These small muscles require a suitable strength training program to be worked effectively, so this article will guide you on how to do it.
Find out now why you should focus on those forearm muscles, as well as the 10 best exercises to build forearm muscles!
Why do exercises to strengthen your forearms?
Improve strength and mobility
Forearm exercises build overall functional strength. The body is a kinetic chain where all the muscles, big and small, work with connective tissue, joints and bones.
By building strength in all muscles, you move more efficiently and safely, minimizing injury and pain. No muscle should be neglected in this process, including those of the forearms. This part of the body contains more muscle than most athletes realize!
They affect all movements of the elbows, wrists and hands. Strong forearms therefore facilitate daily tasks and athletic performance in individual and team sports. In particular, they will allow you to perform more beautiful and effective military push-ups to progress in bodybuilding.
Enjoy greater grip strength
Grip strength can be significantly improved by forearm exercises. In the gym, good grip strength will allow you to lift more weight, which in turn improves your overall strength. In particular, you will be able to perform better on the PPL program that you can find in this article if you did not already know it.
In a study of over 140,000 people, decreased grip strength was associated with poorer health. Every 5 kg decrease in strength led to a 17% increased risk of developing heart disease.
Forearm strength training therefore has a significant impact on your physical performance, but also on your overall health!
Improving your grip strength will be useful for all compound exercises where your arms are used: you benefit from a better grip of your equipment and more muscles solid, so you can fully concentrate on the quality of your movement.
Reduce injuries
pain in the forearm can result from injuries and accidents, overtraining or even nerve damage. exercises to strengthen the forearms are therefore regularly carried out as part of rehabilitation.
Strengthening these muscles can help manage pain and speed up recovery after injury or surgery.The advantages are therefore multiple, whether for the definition of your silhouette or the care of your muscle tissue
And we can never repeat it enough: in life as in muscle building, prevention is better than cure!
Also discover: Muscular explosiveness in bodybuilding: everything you need to know.
What are the best exercises to build forearm muscles?
Exercises with dumbbells
The dumbbell forearm exercises are among the most effective because they allow a good range of motion.
With these free weights you can work all your forearm muscles. Here is a non-exhaustive list of movements to perform:
- Wrist flexion: Sitting on a bench, rest your forearms on your legs, palms up. The back of your wrists should be directly over the kneecaps.
Holding a pair of dumbbells, raise the wrists and squeeze. Only your hands should move, but you will feel it all the way through your forearm.
- Wrist Extension: Do the same basic exercise as above, but with your palms down. Raise the wrist and contract.
- Reverse Biceps Curl: Perform a standard bicep curl, but with the backs of the hands and wrists facing up. This targets the forearm muscles that are important for elbow flexion.
- Zottman curls: This variation diverts some of the work from the biceps and redirects it to the forearm muscles that attach to the upper arm.
To do this, perform a regular bicep curl. At the top of the movement, rotate the palms until they are facing forward, then lower back to the starting position.
Body weight movements
Bodyweight forearm exercises can also be more than enough to train your muscles simply, but effectively. They are perfect for exercising at home without specific equipment, which allows you to train anywhere and especially anytime.
Contrary to popular belief, bodyweight exercises are not just for beginners. seasoned athletes can also benefit from it for quick and effective workouts when they don't have time to go to the gym. Here are the moves you can easily perform at home:
- Fingertip Pushups: Do push-ups balanced on all ten fingers to work your wrists and forearms. Start on your knees if necessary.
- Crabwalk: In an inverted table position, keep your hands under your shoulders and your fingers pointing towards your feet. Walk back and forth.
Exercises on machines
Finally, there are exercises to strengthen your forearms using machines and pull-up bars. These movements are therefore essentially achievable in the gym, unless you have weight machines at home. Here are the exercises in question:
- Pull-ups : This is a challenging but important exercise for upper body and core strength. Do pull-ups with your palms facing inward, then outward, to target different muscles.
- Hanging Pull-Up Bar: Simply hang onto a pull-up bar with your palms facing forward and arms shoulder-width apart to impose a big challenge on your core muscles forearms Hold for an effective core exercise.
- Reverse Cable Loops: With your back to the cable machine, grab a lower pulley. Curl your arm forward and bring your hand up to your shoulder, like a bicep curl.
- Towel cable row: You can also use the cable pulley with a different grip to target the forearm muscle. Embed a towel through the handle and hold each end with one hand. Pull back to perform a repetition.
How to maximize the results of these exercises to strengthen the forearms?
The body weight is therefore ideal for beginners, and the use of weights accelerates the strength gain thanks to the additional resistance . But what if you want to train at home with exercises to strengthen your forearms, and not at the gym, without having to choose between simplicity and effectiveness ?
The answer is the Powerball Sport Pro™ by Fitness Super-Human™ ! This is a gyro ball designed for wrist, arm and forearm strength training. It is a very practical little accessory equipped with a mini internal motor for an double active rotation, which solicits the muscular tissues of the wrist and forearms.
The Powerball's silicone exterior ensures a comfortable, secure grip, with an integrated display to choose spin speed, number of spins, etc. Both light and powerful, the gyroball strengthens your muscles while reducing the risk of lesions, tendonitis or other joint damage.
You can therefore combine the use of this Powerball with the exercises mentioned above, to optimize muscle work and train anywhere: at home, in the car, in a queue, etc. !
In summary: Exercises to strengthen the forearms
exercises to build forearm muscles are therefore beneficial not only for building a muscular figure, but also for your health! You can improve your strength and mobility, increase your grip strength and reduce the risk of injury.
As for the type of movement you can perform, there are dozens: with dumbbells, body weight, on a machine or with the Powerball Sport Pro™. It all depends on your level, your availability and your sporting goals!
You can customize your workouts to include exercises from each type of session to work your muscles in a comprehensive way and achieve muscular, firm and defined forearms. So, get ready to practice with your first exercises to build your forearms.
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