Forearm Workout!! ADVANCED AND BEGINNERS

Solve your forearm aches and pains by producing strong, powerful forearms. Even if it isn’t something you are suffering from you can only benefit by training forearms on the days between your training of the larger muscle groups.

 I sometimes train forearms twice weekly, I feel it really improves my chest, shoulder, bicep and triceps workouts.  I should point out that you should maybe train forearms on a training day when starting out at it, you will quickly get used to it and when your recovery improves you can slot it in between days at the gym or training larger muscles.

The reason I say in between the gym is because I train forearms at home in front of the t.v on the days between gym days J. You can train forearms at home as easily as you can in the gym. BUT!! You NEED!!!.. to be sure that you are not going to over extend your wrist in either direction when wrist curling heavy weights. To be sure of this set up something like this..

..Obviously you should imagine /\ Samson /\ is holding a dumbbell or a plate or something but the illustration is just to show that you need something in place to stop you over extending at the bottom of the movement and injuring yourself. DONT THINK YOU CAN JUST DROP A WEIGHT.. if you do, the damage could be done before you even let go of the weight because as you open your hand (palm up)  the weight will roll out of your hand opening it quickly and forcing your wrist into a vulnerable position.

FOREARM INJURY CAN POTENTIALLY DESTROY THE REST OF YOUR TRAINING SO TREAT IT WITH DUE RESPECT AND DO IT CAREFULLY.

You can also over extend at the top of the movement and cause injury if the weights are heavy enough so be careful of this aswell.

Start light with your workouts and keep the reps high

10kg dumbbell wrist curls (palm up)

20 + 20 + 20 (3sets20reps)

Curl your wrist through the whole range of motion slowly and squeeze at the top for each rep

2.5kg Reverse curls (palm down)

20 + 20 + 20

Sounds very light but to begin with you will only need a very small weight. Even when you are advanced this exercise does not require alot of weight.

You can lower the reps and increase the weight once you are familiar with the movements and performing them safely but don’t drop the reps to less than 12 unless you plateau and even then not for a long period of time, a month at the most. Just to get you out of the rut.

Also you can incorporate POWERBALLS for warm up and warm down operate them for 2mins or so at the beginning and end of your workouts.

And GRIPPERS like Captians of Crush (other grippers available;) I would recommend you use grippers at the beginning of your workout after your warm-ups. You can do closes, partial closes, inverted closes, holds, inverted holds.

Or hang from a pull up bar for time build up to hanging with one hand. Be inventive with your workouts and try not to do the same thing for longer than 4-6 wks

TRAIN FOREARMS SAFELY BUT TRAIN THEM HARD FOR GREAT RESULTS THROUGHOUT YOUR WORKOUTS!!

Forearm pain specifically when training BICEPS

Alot of people ask me about this, when you are training heavy biceps you start to feel a pain in your forearm. you feel that the best way to describe the pain is that it is deep within the bone. The pain is magnified tenfold when you open your hand or release the weight, in other words whenever you take the strain of your arms you recoil in pain. You also may find that when you supinate the wrist (raise the pinky side of the palm)  the pain also worsens.

 I have experienced this first hand!! I know the pain and just how bad it can get. 

Many people will tell you to rest biceps, Others will tell you not to avoid training biceps but to avoid supinated curls or palm up (traditional bicep curls) replacing them with movements like hammer curls, to avoid the stress on the forearm. Although this will temporarily fix the problem after your body gets used to hammers in the same way and you start to increase in weight, you WILL feel pain again.So use this method of alleviating the stress and pain in your forearms, but while you do so, make the best use of the time you have to do the following and you may never have to stop training biceps (although maybe a week off would possibly also benefit your training, But this is more for when you plateau).

The BOTTOM LINE IS...... Your forearms are crying out because they are being left behind! They have went from being the strongest link in the chain (before you began training) to becoming one of the weakest...

Why do I say this? Anyone reading this... searching for this on the internet... I would make a large wager that they DO NOT regularly, effectively train there forearms.( IF YOU DO>>STOP TRAINING AND CONSULT A DOCTOR)

''I thought my forearms would get developed when I do my back,biceps, chest ......'' correct!! BUT not enough if you are starting to lift some heavy weights for biceps... Your forearms are taking the strain of that weight.. Its like strengthening both shores in the hope that a bridge will be able to take more weight... If the bridge is weak, it itself will need strengthening! Especially if you intend to increase the load at any time!

Strengthening your forearms is probably a different ball game than you are already used to. the regularity and methods of training are very different, In fact keep an eye out for my next post and I will walk you though  exactly how to train forearms safely..

If you cant wait check out some of the related videos on my main page>

I USE POWERBALLS AND GRIPPERS TO FACILITATE MY FOREARM TRAINING BRILLIANT TOOLS!! look for links on my blog for best prices.