Overview
Effective forearms training involves targeting the brachialis and wrist flexors and extensors to some capacity.
The brachialis works as an elbow flexor, and there are a variety of small muscles surrounding the wrist that work flexion and extension.
Because of this forearms training should generally be thought of as three or four distinct motor patterns; neutral grip elbow flexion, wrist flexion, wrist extension, and possibly finger flexion.
Forearm training is clearly tied together with biceps training.
It’s also worth calling out forearm training can get extremely complex (say if you’re a high level arm wrestler or strongman), we will be keeping it to our target audience here.
Prescription
Minimalist
An absolute minimalist approach means 1 movement ‘slot’.
In this case if we can only 1 motor pattern, there’s a clear winner:
- Neutral grip curl
Moderate
If we have more resources to expend on the muscle group, it is of course the preferred approach.
In this case the movement slots would look like this:
- Neutral grip curl
- Wrist extension
Maximalist
This is the approach if we are throwing everything at the kitchen sink. Use sparingly either if you are in a plateau or looking for a specialisation phase.
Here the movement slots might look like this:
- Neutral grip curl
- Wrist extension
- Wrist flexion
- Finger flexion
Standout exercises
Neutral grip curl movement
There are several standout options here and an additional one that’s more suitable for pump work and/or mechanical drop sets.
DB Hammer Curl
- This is the decades-old classic for good reason. It allows strict reps and cheat reps, you can’t get too strong for it, and hits the midrange position hard.
DB Pinwheel Curl
- A unilateral option that is a good alternative, these can also be done strict but the real winner is a slight sideways rocking motion to get a slightly cheaty reps.
Swiss Bar Curl
- As a true bilateral option this allows the most overload potential in the midrange. Generally however we’re getting enough bilateral work from biceps exercises that this isn’t typically necessary. Still a good option to rotate in on occasion.
Mini Swiss Bar Preacher Curl
- Despite being a bilateral option, this doesn’t have the same issue as the standing swiss bar curl as we are locked in on a preacher pad.
- Unfortunately, this equipment is pretty rare in gyms, definitely a S tier option.
EZ Bar Reverse Curl
- The only real option of a pronated grip as opposed to a neutral grip; this is great for prehab and pump work but not so much for true progressive overload. The limiting factor may end up being wrist strength for a lot of people.
Wrist extension movement
DB Wrist Curl and variations
- Ideally with your forearms resting on a bench.
- This could also be done with cables; we’re keeping this as one exercise grouping as wrist extensions aren’t going to be a movement you progressively overload like other muscles, instead the focus will be on the pump and joint health.
Wrist flexion movement
DB Reverse Wrist Curl and variations
- Ideally with dumbbells with arms supported, a straight bar or cables still work of course.
- We’re keeping this as one exercise grouping as wrist extensions aren’t going to be a movement you progressively overload like other muscles, instead the focus will be on the pump and joint health.
Finger flexion
Most people won’t really need this, but if you’re looking to spend a few minutes to fully train the hands each week this would be the final piece.
Hand gripper
- Obviously, you’ll need to buy a hand gripper. This will be working the isometric position with near maximal effort.
Execution
It’s hard to go terribly wrong with neutral grip curling. Get familiar with strict reps, then work on adding some cheaty reps (still under control) at the end.
Programming
Reps, tempo, sets, rest times
Neutral grip curls, like supinated bicep curls, are fairly straightforward. Standard programming applies here.
Wrist flexion and extension work should be done for high reps, probably around 15-30 reps. You can also afford to cut the rest times for these, anywhere down to 30 or 60 seconds.
Intensifiers and volume
Standing neutral grip curls are ripe for intensifiers. Mechanical drop sets from strict full ROM to strict partial ROM to cheaty 3/4 ROM, cluster sets and drop sets all work.
The wrist flexion and extension work should just be done for straight sets.
Sequence
As always the standard rule with a muscle group with multiple exercises in a session is shortened-biased first, midrange-biased second, lengthened-biased third.
This pretty much applies dead on for biceps, with the addition that if you’re training forearms always sequence that right before biceps to fully warm-up the joints.