Forearm Exercises To Increase Forearm Size And Grip Strength

Performing special forearm exercises will increase the size and strength of your forearm as well as your wrist, and improve your grip strength immensely.

Having a strong grip is important in everyday life, but is even more important in sporting activities. I know of barely any sports in which having a good strong grip and strong forearms and wrists wouldn’t be beneficial – not only in performance, but also in staying injury free.

When lifting weights, particularly for a beginner, direct forearm work may not always be necessary, as heavier weights are slowly and steadily being used, the forearm is forced to adapt its grip and so the forearms grow anyway.

However, there may come a time when your grip is letting you down, and if you wish to give yourself that little bit of added extra forearm size and grip strength, you’ll need to do some direct forearm exercises.

There are many ways to work the forearms, ranging from simple grip workouts using proper grip equipment or something improvised, to using curling motions with weights, adding progressive resistance so forearm size and strength just keeps increasing.

Towel Exercise

One simple exercise you could use, is to grasp a towel, and with an overhand grip, keeping the hands together or a few inches apart, now, twist the towel in opposite directions, almost like you are tightening or opening a jar of something, until the towel is to tight it can’t be twisted anymore. Continue exerting as much force as you possibly can when you’ve reached this position for the count of 10-15. Unfold the towel, have a 30 second break and then twist in the opposite direction, so both the top and bottom muscles of the forearms are worked. Repeat this 3-5 times, two times a week.

Wrist Curls

This exercise is very effective for building forearms, and can be performed two handed using a barbell or one arm at a time using dumbbells.

Sitting on the edge of a bench or chair, hold the dumbbell with an underhand grip, with your forearm resting on your thigh and your dumbbell holding hand hanging down. Now, keeping your forearm steady and flat, curl the weight up as far as you can using nothing but the power of your wrist, and slowly lower.

Some people like to allow the barbell or dumbbell to roll down their fingers at the end of this movement, before curling it back up for added stretch. I’ve found doing this tends to put more strain on the wrist, and while beneficial for some, may cause strain and pain for others.

You should repeat this exercise for 10-15 repetitions, for 3 sets, and do no more than twice a week. It’s very strenuous, and you may find you get a burn and extreme pump from doing this exercise.

If using a barbell, simply do precisely the same, with a grip wide enough or close enough that you are comfortable with, so long as your forearms are parallel.

Reverse Wrist Curls

Just like in the towel exercise, twisting (or curling, in this case) the wrist upward or downward will hit the different muscles of the forearm, and the reverse wrist curl will hit the top muscles (the ones on top of the forearm when the palm is faced down). It’s performed precisely the same as the regular wrist curl, although using an overhand grip, in reverse.

Expect this to be far harder, though, as not only is your grip at a mechanical disadvantage being overhand, but, the muscles on the upper side of the forearm are far weaker, so don’t expect to be able to lift as much. However, I still recommend you go for 10-15 reps for 3 sets, no more than twice a week, so your forearm development improves all round and maintains balance.

Once the grip gets tired performing any of these exercises, you’ll really notice it – because you’ll barely be able to grip a bottle of water, let alone a weight. So expect failure to come quick and be pretty final during your workout – so never perform wrist curls or forearm workouts first; always do them last.

One final tip is, when performing wrist curls, do reverse wrist curls first. That way, you are giving what is a mechanically disadvantaged lift a better chance to work the muscles before failure, and then work on the regular wrist curls after. I learned this pretty quickly, that once your grip is tired from doing wrist curls, doing reverse wrist curls can sometimes be almost impossible.

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