The ultimate forearm workout The best 5 exercises for Popeye arms

Here's a quick summary:

1. The best way to build your forearms is to get as strong as you can with a handful of basic exercises.
2. If that's not enough, you can add forearm-specific exercises such as barbell holds, grip trainer exercises, plate pinches, fat grip training and dumbbell farmer's walks.
3. If you want to get your forearms growing as quickly as possible, use a fat grip during your curl and press exercises, finish one of your weekly training sessions with 2 to 3 sets of barbell holds and perform 6 sets of grip trainers per week.

The forearms are like the calves of the arms. You can have muscular biceps, shoulders and trapezius, but the "look" just won't be complete if you have spindly forearms.

Strong and muscular forearms are more than just vanity. They also improve your grip strength, which is crucial for increases in your pulling exercises like rowing and deadlifts.

Trained forearms can even help you progress faster on chest and shoulder exercises, which require a strong grip to stabilize the barbell.

The bottom line is that the stronger your forearms are, the better progress you will make in strength training.

However, this does not necessarily mean that you have to train your forearms directly several times a week. It may be necessary to target your forearms in your training, but if you do everything else right, they can get quite big and strong without direct training.

In this article, I'll cover all aspects and show you exactly what you need to do to build forearms that would make Popeye envious.

The anatomy of the forearms

Your forearms are made up of many small muscles, each of which plays a slightly different physiological role. Rather than looking at each of these muscles individually, you can simply divide them into two broad categories:

1. Flexors
2. Extensors (extensors)

The flexors are used to flex the wrist and fingers and the extensors are used to extend the wrist and fingers. The flexors are also responsible for rotating the palm downwards, while the extensors are responsible for rotating the palm upwards.

We could go into more detail about the forearm muscles and talk about the different superficial, slightly deeper and deep muscles, but this is not necessary for our purposes.

All you need to know is that one set of muscles flexes the wrist and fingers and rotates the palm downwards, while another set of muscles extends the wrist and fingers and rotates the palm upwards.

The simple science of effective forearm training

Building big and strong forearms is pretty straightforward

1. Do a lot of heavy pushing, pulling and curling.
2. And if that's not enough, perform a handful of additional forearm exercises as needed.

Most people find that point 2 is unnecessary - that heavy chest, back and arm training is enough to build big, strong, well-proportioned forearms.

However, some find that grip weakness limits their progress on point 1 and that targeted forearm training is an easy solution to this problem.

Although your grip strength will improve naturally with a well-planned weight training program, there are a number of forearm exercises that can help you speed up the process.

I used a handful of these exercises to improve my grip strength and use more weight on pulls and rows and it worked perfectly.

It was also quite simple - it works more or less the same way you train any other muscle group in your body.

Accordingly, the principle of progressive overload is the most important principle you need to follow to get the most out of your forearm exercises.

Progressive overload refers to increasing the amount of tension your muscles produce and the most effective way to achieve this is to progressively increase the weight you move.

In other words, even when training smaller muscles such as the forearms, the primary goal is to get stronger over time.

Your total body strength will also affect the size of your forearms because when you increase the weight you move on bench presses, deadlifts and curls, you're not just overloading your chest, back and biceps - you're also overloading a number of other muscles including your forearms.

This is why many people see forearm-specific exercises as unnecessary - the size of their forearms and their grip strength more or less keep up with the rest of their body.

So if you want bigger and stronger forearms, then you should also be looking to increase your full body strength and muscle mass, and to do this you need an effective training program.

The best forearm exercises

Considering the function of the muscles of the forearms, the exercises that work the forearms best are the exercises that are generally used to increase grip strength.

Let's look at these exercises in isolation.

Barbell hold

Barbell holds are a brutally simple forearm exercise that can easily be performed at the end of a training session.

Here's how this exercise works:

Prepare a barbell on a squat rack or on the floor as if you were going to do Romanian deadlifts.

Hold the bar (without handles, of course) for 10 to 20 seconds or as long as you can. Then pause for 1 to 2 minutes before performing another set. Increase the weight by 5 kilos as soon as you can hold it for 20 seconds or more.

Work with the new weight until you can hold it for 20 seconds and then increase it again, etc.

Grip trainer

An extremely effective way to train your forearms is to increase your strength when squeezing your hands.

This involves nothing more than a hand flexion - closing your hand around an object and squeezing - but is great for building strong forearm flexors, wrists, hands and fingers.

One of the easiest ways to increase your squeeze strength is to use a spring grip strength trainer - if you use it correctly.

The key is that the resistance is in the range that allows you a full range of motion - no partial repetitions. However, the resistance should also not be so low that it barely challenges you.

Probably the best-known and most popular grip trainer is the Captain of Crush grip trainer. It has been on the market for over 15 years and is very popular in bodybuilding, powerlifting and strongman circles.

You have 11 resistance options to choose from, ranging from 60 pounds to 365 pounds. A good starting point for most is in the 60 to 80 pound range. On the other hand, if you are an experienced strength athlete who can deadlift 150+ pounds without grip assistance, then you can probably start with the 100 pound model.

Here are some guidelines for training with a grip trainer.

Pay attention to correct exercise form

If you are an experienced strength athlete, then you know how important correct exercise form is. The difference between correct and incorrect exercise execution can be like night and day in terms of progress and results.

The same applies to training with a grip trainer.

A full squeeze is far more effective than a partial squeeze.

How you should structure your grip training sessions

A training session with a grip trainer is quite simple:

• Perform 5 to 6 sets per training session and aim for 8 to 10 repetitions per set.
• Rest 1 to 2 minutes between sets.
• Your ultimate goal is to successfully perform 5 to 6 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions.
• Once you have achieved this, you can use the next resistance level.

You can increase the difficulty of your training sets by performing repetitions while holding the contracted position. To do this, squeeze the grip trainer fully and hold it for 10 to 20 seconds (start with 10 seconds and work your way up). Many exercisers like to end their sets with one repetition with hold.

Plate Pinches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNbatvOweWw

Plate pinches (squeezing and holding two weight plates between your thumb and remaining fingers) is another simple forearm exercise that only requires a couple of weight plates.

Start with two 5 kilo plates and try to hold them for 10 to 20 seconds. Once you can do 20 seconds, it's time to increase the weight.

Instead of going straight to two 10 kilo plates, it is easier to add a third 5 kilo plate and hold 3 plates. You can increase the number of plates until the stack becomes too wide to hold between your thumb and remaining fingers.

Fat Grip Training

Fat bar training has been popular for decades and with oversized rubber grips you can easily put this type of training into practice. These grips are popular because you don't have to change anything in your training program - you simply place these grips around your barbell or dumbbells and you're ready to go.

However, the marketing is a little over the top when it comes to these grips. No, Fat Grips are not "powerful muscle building aids" as often claimed... but they are an inexpensive way to train your forearms and grip.

I have used these grips quite a lot and like them best for my press and curl exercises, but not for heavy pulling exercises.

The reason for this is simple: you can't pull nearly as much weight with these handles as you can without them and the amount of weight you have to remove from the bar isn't worth it.

You can, however, use these grips when warming up for heavy pulling (and then remove them when the heavy work sets begin). The downside to this, of course, is that your grip strength will be more depleted for your heavy sets, which means you probably won't be able to move as much weight as you normally would. For this reason, I do not recommend using it for heavy pulls.

Dumbbell Farmers Walk

This is an old school strongman exercise that will never lose its place in the realm of forearm exercises.

Aim for 10 to 15 meters of walking per "set" and increase the weight once you reach this distance.

The ultimate forearm training program

The forearm muscles are very resilient, but training them too often is counterproductive, especially if you are also doing a lot of heavy weight training.

For this reason, I recommend adhering to the following guidelines:

• Use fat grips during your press exercises and curls.
• End one of your regular training sessions with 2 to 3 sets of barbell holds. I personally do this after my back training sessions.
• End one of your training sessions with 2 to 3 sets of plate pinches. There should be a few days between the barbell holds and the plate pinches.
• Do 6 sets with a grip trainer per week. I do this on the two days of the week when I'm not training with weights.

My program looks like this:

• Monday: Chest with Fat Grips
• Tuesday: Back and barbell holds
• Wednesday: Arms with Fat Grips
• Thursday: Shoulders with fat grips
• Friday: legs and plate pinches
• Saturday: Rest day and training with the grip trainer
• Sunday: Rest day and training with the grip trainer

The bottom line on forearm training

In many ways, forearm training is like abdominal muscle training.

If you follow a sensible weight training program and have good genetics, you may well never need it.

On the other hand, if you are struggling to build muscle mass in your forearms and your grip is weak, then you may benefit from incorporating forearm-specific exercises into your training program.

The primary muscles you should be training are the forearm flexors and extensors, which flex, extend and rotate the hands.

The best way to build strength and mass in the forearms is to progressively overload your forearm muscles with heavy basic exercises such as bench presses, shoulder presses and deadlifts.

Isolation exercises such as barbell curls also train the forearms.

If you are not building the forearms you want with these exercises, you can also perform forearm-specific exercises such as the following:

• Barbell hold
• Training with a grip trainer
• Plate pinches
• Fat Grips
• Dumbbell farmers walk

If you include these exercises in your training program, use fat grips in your presses and curls and finish one of your weekly workouts with 2 to 3 sets of barbell holds and another with 2 to 3 sets of plate pinches and perform 6 sets with a grip trainer twice a week.

Do this, eat your spinach and you'll build forearms like Popeye.

Source: https://legionathletics.com/forearm-workouts/

By Michael Matthews