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Forearms – The Forgotten Muscle
- Updated: July 26, 2014
Most of you reading this are missing the boat. Sure, you look forward to training your biceps and triceps and getting that insane pump that makes it difficult to steer the car on the ride home from the gym. But there’s a third muscle that makes up your arm that is sort of the redheaded stepchild of the group and that is the forearm.
It’s not as if you have to invest a ton of time into working your forearms, either. Four sets of a particular exercise at the end of your workout twice a week will do the trick because you are using them as secondary muscles on a lot of other movements. Mix the movements up so that you’re hitting them from different angles, too.
If you are lucky enough to be born with Popeye forearms, then perhaps you can get away with not training them and only getting the fringe benefits from other body parts being worked in conjunction with them. But if that isn’t the case, then it behooves you to do some isolation exercises.
WRIST CURLS
You can do these with either a barbell or dumbbell at the end of a bench. Use a full range of motion and a weight that you can handle properly for 12-to-15 strict reps. The barbell sets go quicker, obviously, since you don’t have to alternate each arm. A great movement for your wrist flexor muscles.
REVERSE WRIST CURLS
Standing with a barbell behind you and these actually can give you a slightly longer ROM at the top of the rep than the regular wrist curls can.
REVERSE CURLS
Use a barbell and these will work the forearm flexor muscles good, giving you some nice detail in a very conspicuous spot.
HAMMER CURLS
Yes, these are truly a biceps exercise but you will really isolate the brachioradialis muscles, which are part of the forearm.