Tip How to Really Train Your Forearms Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip How to Really Train Your Forearms Make your own dirty joke then check out this killer workout strategy by Christian Thibaudeau October 9, 2019April 6, 2022 Tags Training High-Frequency Forearms Want bigger, stronger forearms? Train them often. Forearm exercises don't cause much, if any, muscle damage, especially for exercises with less eccentric loading like the wrist roller or Thor's hammer (see video). But even wrist flexion and wrist extension will cause little damage. Furthermore, these exercises have a very small impact on the nervous system because they're very simple and done with light weights. Energy expenditure is low too since it's a short range of motion and smaller muscles are involved. None of the factors requiring more recovery time are present with forearm training. Unless you go absolutely crazy with the volume there's no reason you can't train forearms every day. Because big forearms look cool. Hey, they're the only thing that's 100-percent showing in a T-shirt! Having well-developed forearms will do more for you than simply attracting admiration. Bigger and stronger forearms make it easier to build bigger biceps. Coach Charles Poliquin wrote about this phenomenon 20 years ago. The body hasn't changed since that was written. By building bigger, stronger forearms you'll be able to handle more weight in both curling and pulling exercises, which will increase the stimulation on the biceps and back muscles. Bigger forearms and a stronger grip also help the bench press. Look at the top bench pressers in the world; they all have thick forearms. To bench heavy weight you need a strong grip. The harder you can squeeze the bar, the less the wrist will tend to cock and get the bar misaligned. (The bar should be directly above the wrist joint. If the wrist is cocked, the bar moves away from that alignment.) On top of that, big forearms create a bigger "body" on which to spread the load of the bar. This can decrease stress on the shoulder joint. You shouldn't overdevelop one part of the forearms. For example, the wrist flexors tend to be trained a lot more than the wrist extensors (the flexors are involved a lot when curling and pulling) and the forearms supinators are often dominant over the pronators. Just like any other muscle imbalances in the body, this can lead to problems like tendonitis. So if you want to jack up your forearms and train them every workout (or every day) then work on flexion/extension one workout, do supination/pronation on the next, and do grip work on the third. Then just rotate through that. Since forearm exercises have a short range of motion, you'll need to do either higher reps or use a slower tempo to create enough fatigue and trigger growth. Sets lasting 30-60 seconds should be your target. I actually don't count reps when doing forearm work. I put a timer on and keep working until I've achieved failure or close to it in the 30-60 second range. But I'll prescribe a number of reps in a couple of the examples below for the sake of simplicity. Workout A – Flexion Extension Exercise Sets Reps Rest A1 Wrist Roller 3-4 30-60 sec. 1 min. A2 Wrist Curl 3-4 10-12 90 sec. Workout B – Supination Pronation Exercise Sets Reps Rest A1 Thor's Hammer Pronation (4 second negative) 3-4 10-12 1 min. A2 Thor's Hammer Supination (4 second negative) 3-4 10-12 1 min. Workout C – Grip Exercise Sets Reps Rest A1 Pinch-Grip Deadlift (Hold 30-60 sec.) 3 2 min. A2 Fat-Grip Hold (Hold 30-60 sec.) 3 2 min. You can use other exercises if you prefer, but you get the idea. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training Tip Smith Machine BOSU Ab Crunch Combining two of the silliest things in the gym – the Smith machine and the BOSU ball – actually makes for a fantastic ab exercise. Try it. Abs, Exercise Coaching, Tips TC Luoma January 27 Training The Science of 10 x 3 If you've spent most of your lifting career doing 3 sets of 10 reps, do the opposite and you'll see astounding new gains. Here's why and how to program it. Bodybuilding, Powerlifting & Strength, Training Chad Waterbury January 19 Workouts The Zombie Apocalypse Workout They're coming. Are you ready? You'll need to be strong and athletic to survive. Do this program or die. Metabolic Conditioning, Powerlifting & Strength, Training Christian Thibaudeau & Chris Shugart June 23 Training 6 Weeks to Superhero - Bench Press Complex I've tried every way known to man to quickly pack on muscle while getting ripped to shreds. This is what I've found to be the absolute best method. 6 Weeks to Superhero, Bench Press, Exercise Programs Christian Thibaudeau April 11