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MASSIVE FOREARMS
🕑 Added 2025-03-26 02:10:32 +0000 UTCHey, fellows. Today I represent a very practical article. Today we’ll try to figure out once and for all how to build the forearms in the best way. And although these muscles are not of high priority due to their small size, they are most often visible during the year. That's why we don't want to leave them flaccid. How do we structure the studying? First of all, I will give you a short theoretical overview of how our forearms are arranged in terms of anatomy. This must be done in order to understand what exercises are suitable for us to train them. Okay, let's get started...
FOREARM is the part of the bodybuilder arm, which is located between the elbow and the wrist. The feature of the forearm is that it consists of a huge number of small and medium muscles. The nature has made us this way in the process of evolution to make it easier for us to manipulate the surrounding objects. After all, this requires a very variable forearm mobility, which can only be achieved by a variety of muscles performing these movements.
I personally divide the MOVEMENTS, performed by the forearm muscles, into FIVE large categories:
Forearm FLEXION (anterior muscle group, i.e. the one on the biceps side)
Forearm EXTENSION (posterior muscle group i.e. on the triceps side)
Forearm SUPINATION (muscles that rotate the forearm outwards)
Forearm PRONATION (muscles that rotate the forearm inwards)
Forearm CLENCHING (muscles clenching the fingers into the fist).
FOREARM BONES are important for us because their structure allows to move in different vectors, and thus perform different exercises. The fact is that there are TWO important bones inside the wrist - the RADIAL and the ULNAR bones, which are connected with each other by ligaments and muscles. This anatomical structure allows the radial bone to move around the ulnar bone around a circle. That's what we call “supination” and “pronation”. The muscles performing this task can be developed and they will provide additional forearm size.
Another interesting point is that many of the forearm muscles are on different “levels”. Some are closer to the skin and some are closer to the bones. We are not going to get deep into this matter, because we are practitioners, not medical students. The effect is important to us.
MOST IMPORTANT FOREARM MUSCLES
These are the muscles that are the largest in size. After all, you should agree that there is no reason to accentuate and waste time on something that grows badly. When you come to practice your legs you do squats for quadriceps, instead of wasting a lot of time on the development of the adductor or gemellus muscles of the thigh. This is true in the cost-benefit terms.
So the situation with the forearm muscles is still more confusing because there are lots of these muscles. But most of them duplicate the function of the main muscle or develop something that does not give an increase in size. Therefore, we will consider the development of those muscles that are responsible for the greatest increase in size. Here we go...
BRACHIORADIALIS MUSCLE is the largest muscle of the forearm. It flexes the forearm, and also takes part in both pronation and supination of the forearm (i.e. it rotates the forearm inwards and outwards). In case of reverse grip flexion of the arms (palms face down), the brachioradialis muscle is the second most important muscle after the brachialis muscle. Basic exercises: reverse grip barbell curls, "hammer"...
FLEXORS OF (RADIAL and ULNAR) WRIST - these muscles are located from the inside of the forearm (biceps side) and are responsible for the movement of the wrist towards the arm. This is its main function. However, there is one more thing - wrist pronation (turning outwards). Basic exercises: forearm direct or reverse grip curls (depending on the position of the arms) with a barbell, dumbbells or machines.
RADIAL WRIST EXTENSOR is the muscle on the "back" side of the forearm (triceps side) which is responsible for extension of the wrist "outwards" (to the elbow side). In other words, it extends the wrist in the radiocarpal joint. Basic exercises: reverse grip extensions (barbells, dumbbells)
ROUND WRIST PRONATOR - this muscle is located on “lower levels” (deeply inside). It is attached next to the elbow from the little finger side, because its main task is to pronate (expand) the wrist inwards (towards the little finger). The second non-basic function is forearm flexion.
QUADRATE WRIST PONATOR performs the same function as its “big brother” (round pronator). Its difference is that it is a quadrangular plate located next to the palm, i.e. from the other edge of the forearm. Basic exercises: any pronation with weights (i.e. thumb load)
WRIST SUPINATOR rotates the forearm outwards (supinates) and takes part in the elbow joint extension. The supinator is located even "deeper" than the pronator and crosses it crosswise on the other side, i.e. it is attached from the elbow on the thumb side. Basic exercises: any supination with weights (i.e. little finger load)
FLEXOR and EXTENSOR - muscles located on the inner and outer side of the forearm. The flexors are most often trained for the "strong grip" needed in exercises or for a firm handshake. These muscles do not produce very much growth in size, but I will tell you about them too. Basic exercises: Pulley weighs, "holding" against the clock or weights (plate pinch, hanging on the bar, etc.)
One more word about ANOTHER IMPORTANT MUSCLE ...
BRACHIALIS MUSCLE is the muscle that lies under the biceps. It does not belong to the forearm, but in all curls with the pronated wrist ("hammer", "reverse grip", etc.) does most of the work. This is important because the mentioned curls are the main exercises for the development of brachioradialis muscle (which is the number one for size).
CONCLUSION: it's best to TRAIN THE FOREARM on BICEPS training day! If you do it another day, your flexors will get excessive (double) load. And this can lead to overtraining.
Another important point that you should take into account is that the FOREARM is THE WEAKEST LINK IN ALL PULLING EXERCISES, because it's what makes your hands hold the weight in the pulldowns. If you overload this "link" at the very beginning of training, it will be difficult to train your back or biceps...
CONCLUSION: FOREARM SHOULD BE TRAINED IN THE END OF THE TRAINING if you have any other muscle groups scheduled for that day. In general, in my opinion, the best time for the forearms in your weekly split is RIGHT AFTER THE BECEPS TRAINING.
HOW OFTEN THE FOREARM SHOULD BE TRAINED?
There is an opinion that the forearm is a very hardy muscle, which works a lot during the day, so it is difficult to train it. Personally, I do not agree with it, because the load during the day is very low-intensity (well, picking nose, pushing the keyboard buttons, etc.), so the cheapest methods of energy supply and slow phasic muscle fibers are used. When we train the forearms using the barbell and dumbbells, mostly fast phasic muscle fibers are working. From this point of view, I do not see any special prerequisites for "unusual training" of the forearm. You need a normal POWER LOADING with a barbell and dumbbells.
THE FOREARM IS SMALLER IN SIZE, than most other muscles, so it can recover a little faster than other muscles. It's a theory. In practice, almost none of the professionals train the forearms more frequently than the rest of the muscles. Moreover, most professionals do not train them on purpose at all, because they get enough power load during pulling and biceps curls.
CONCLUSION: THE FOREARMS SHOULD BE TRAINED WITH THE SAME FREQUENCY AS OTHER MUSCLES. You can do it less frequently, but it’s not recommended to do it more frequently. This is my personal point of view, just so you know...
THE NUMBER OF REPETITIONS should be a little more than in other exercises. Why? Because the forearms make short amplitude movements. Just compare forearm extension with knee joint extension (barbell squatting). What will take more time? I hope you remember from my lessons that the muscle doesn't care how many repetitions in the set you do (it has no brains to consider this). A muscle does care how long the load lasts. For maximum hypertrophy, it should be within 15-30 seconds. That's why you need to do a little more repetitions for time compensation in your forearm short amplitude exercises. Most often it's 10-20 REPETITIONS!
THE BEST EXERCISES for forearm development:
REVERSE GRIP BARBELL CURLS (brachioradialis muscle + extensors)
FOREARM BARBELL CURLS while sitting on a bench (radial and ulnar flexors)
WRIST PRONATION with wrist wraps or single-end dumbbell (both wrist pronators)
OPTIONAL EXERCISES FOR FOREARM (less effective):
"HAMMER” BICEPS CURLS
WRIST SUPINATION with wrist wraps or dumbbell
REVERSE GRIP FOREARM EXTENSION while sitting on the bench
PULLEY WEIGHTS & WEIGHT “HOLDING”
FOREARM TRAINING PROGRAM
So, I'm not considering now the forearms training to win in arm-wrestling or other competitions. I consider workouts in terms of maximum growth in size. That's why, by the way, I provided MAIN AND OPTIONAL EXERCISES. The main exercises will provide maximum growth in size because they affect the largest muscles, while the optional ones can provide other important indicators (such as grip strength).
We train the forearm right after the biceps (at the end of the training)
Reverse grip barbell curls are mandatory because this exercise actively affects both the biceps and the forearm.
Then we do "forearm curls" and wrist pronation.
It looks as follows:
REVERSE GRIP BARBELL CURLS 3-4 Х 6-12
FOREARM BARBELL CURLS while sitting on a bench 3-4 Х 10-20
WRIST PRONATION with wrist wraps or dumbbell 3-4 Х 10-20
Note that you only do two "net" forearm exercises (curls and pronation). It's very convenient, because it saves time.
CONCLUSION
Well, that's all I wanted to tell you today. Specially tried to be succinct. I believe I've managed to do that. With particular pleasure I want to tell you good news that there is no such detailed material anywhere else. Anywhere. Well, if you don't like my forearm training methods, you can turn on the Brazzers and use yours! Ha-ha!
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