4 Powerful Workouts For Bigger Forearms

Training your forearms will add symmetry and seriousness to your physique. But an unimpressive forearm development is one of those things that detracts from a complete and well balanced muscular package.

There are more reasons to train your forearms other than for aesthetics, achieving a complete forearm development will help you build maximum grip strength and enable you to work with heavier weights.

The forearms are a complex muscle group that must be targeted with specific exercises and heavy loads in order to obtain their full potential. If your genetics haven’t enabled you with an ability to build forearms without any substantial difficulty, you will have to adequately stimulate growth by training with a smart training program.

Repetitive squeezing and gripping work great for building forearms, below are a list of workouts which incorporate these movements in combination with heavy weights for you to choose from.

These workouts can be performed at the end of your regular training sessions. Perform them in a consecutive manner, completing all prescribed sets and reps of one exercise before moving to the next.

Workout 1:

1. Wrist roller

Grab a wrist roller with a pronated grip straight up and hold it out in front of your body.
Make sure the rope is not wrapped around the roller, then roll your hands forward in an alternating fashion until the weight is raised and your arms are fully extended.
Reverse the motion and return to the starting position.
3 sets x 4-5 reps, 90 second rest

2. Pinch grip

Place two dumbbells or rimmed weights facing outward in a standing position on the floor.
Bend down and pinch the head of each weight with your fingers, lift them off the floor and hold.
3 sets x 15-30 second hold, 60 second rest

3. Towel wring-out

Grab a thick towel and soak it in water, wring it out by twisting your wrists in both directions.
2 sets x 60 seconds, 0 second rest

4. Wrist flexion/extension stretch

Slightly bend your left elbow and clasp your right hand over the fingers on your left hand, extend your left hand and gently bend the wrist back.
Hold the stretch for 60 seconds.
Perform the opposite movement to stretch the opposing muscles, bend your wrist and fingers in the opposite direction so that your palm comes closer to the forearm.
1 set x 60 second hold on each side, 0 second rest

Workout 2:

1. Farmer’s walk

Pick up a heavy set of dumbbells.
Stand tall and walk with them as fast as you can, maintaining a neutral back.
3 sets x 20-second walks, 60 second rest

2. Band finger extension

Take a rubber band and put it around all of your fingers, then spread them apart as far as possible and hold for a second.
2 sets x 20-30 reps with each hand, 0 seconds rest

3. Single dumbbell wrist curl

Take a dumbbell in one hand and sit on a bench, allowing your elbow to rest on your thigh, bend at 90 degrees.
Your working hand and the dumbbell should be loosely hanging off your knee with your palm up.
Curl your wrist up so your palm faces your biceps.
2 sets x 15-20 reps on each side, 0 second rest

4. Wrist flexion/extension stretch

Slightly bend your left elbow and clasp your right hand over the fingers on your left hand, then extend your left hand and gently bend the wrist back.
Hold the stretch for 60 seconds, then perform the opposite movement to stretch the opposing muscles, bend your wrist and fingers in the opposite direction so that your palm comes closer to the forearm.
1 set x 60 second hold on each side, 0 second rest

Workout 3:

1. Kroc row

Place your left knee and hand on a bench and grab a dumbbell with your right hand.
Maintaining a natural arch in the lower back, row the weight to your side in an explosive manner.
To ensure maximum contraction, focus on getting a full range of motion by fully extending the shoulder at the bottom and forcefully pulling it up and back at the top.
3 sets x 15-20 reps on each side, 90 second rest

2. Single dumbbell wrist extension

Take a dumbbell in one hand and sit on a bench, placing your elbow and forearm on your thigh and allowing the working hand to loosely hang off your knee with the palm faced down.
Curl your wrist up so that the back of your hand faces your biceps.
2 sets x 20-30 reps on each side, 0 second rest

3. Lacrosse ball forearm roll

Place a lacrosse ball on a box and place your forearm on the ball with the palm of the hand facing down.
Push your forearm into the ball, then slowly roll from the wrist to the elbow and back.
As you roll, turn your wrist slightly on both sides to ensure that all of the tissues have been targeted.
2 sets x 30 seconds on each side, 0 second rest

Related article: 4 Week Workout For Brutal Ripped Arms

4. Wrist flexion/extension stretch

Slightly bend your left elbow and clasp your right hand over the fingers on your left hand, then extend your left hand and gently bend the wrist back.
Hold the stretch for 60 seconds, then perform the opposite movement to stretch the opposing muscles, bend your wrist and fingers in the opposite direction so that your palm comes closer to the forearm.
1 set x 60-second hold on each side, 0 second rest

Workout 4:

1. Towel pull-up

Attach a towel to a pull-up bar, grab each end of it.
As you hang from the towel, pull yourself up until your chin is raised above your hands.
If this proves to be too hard, hang from the towel for as long as you can instead.
3 sets x As many reps as possible, 90 second rest

2. Cable thumb curl/pinkie curl

Attach a rope handle to the pulley then grasp an end of it with your left hand and pull it to thread through the hole, so that you end up having one long rope.
Take a step back so that your arm becomes fully extended then flex your wrist to bend the thumb back toward your forearm.
After you complete all sets and reps with both hands, grasp the rope with your left hand again and perform the opposite motion by curling your pinkie toward the underside of your forearm.
Repeat with the other hand.
2 sets x 15-20 reps on each side, 0 second rest

3. Cable supination/pronation

Attach a rope handle to the pulley and make it thread through the hole as described in the exercise above.
Grasp an end of it with your left hand, take a step back and sit on a bench.
Maintaining a 90 degree bend in your elbow, rotate the wrist inward until your palm faces down.
After completing all sets and reps with both hands, grasp the rope with your left hand again and perform the opposite motion by rotating the wrist outward until your palm faces up.
2 sets x 15-20 reps on each side, 0 second rest

4. Wrist flexion/extension stretch

Slightly bend your left elbow and clasp your right hand over the fingers on your left hand, then extend your left hand and gently bend the wrist back.
Hold the stretch for 60 seconds, then perform the opposite movement to stretch the opposing muscles, bend your wrist and fingers in the opposite direction so that your palm comes closer to the forearm.
1 set x 60-second hold on each side, 0 second rest