Effective exercises for working out the muscles of the forearms

Often the train­ing of the mus­cles of the fore­arms is not giv­en much atten­tion due to the fact that they already work indi­rect­ly in all exer­cis­es for the hands. For ama­teurs and novice ath­letes, this approach is quite accept­able, but for those involved in weightlift­ing, armwrestling and body­build­ing, this mus­cle group should be more thor­ough­ly worked out. Weak fore­arms mean not enough grip, which is an obsta­cle to achiev­ing tan­gi­ble results in these types of fit­ness.

The structure of the forearms and their functions

In order to suc­cess­ful­ly pump some mus­cle group, it is impor­tant to know its struc­ture, as well as its main func­tions. Under­stand­ing what actions this or that mus­cle per­forms, it is much eas­i­er to under­stand the very essence of the exer­cis­es and more clear­ly per­form their tech­nique. The com­po­si­tion of the fore­arms includes a large num­ber of mus­cles that cov­er the radi­al bones and wrists from above, the largest of which are: the bra­chio­ra­di­alis mus­cle, exten­sors and flex­ors of the wrists and fin­gers.

The main func­tions that the mus­cles of the fore­arms per­form include: exten­sion and flex­ion of the hands and fin­gers; abduc­tion of the thumbs to the side; rota­tion of the fore­arms in and out.

To make the fore­arms volu­mi­nous, each of the mus­cles should be worked out, exert­ing on them an unusu­al phys­i­cal load for ordi­nary life.

Equipment for doing exercises

To effec­tive­ly work out, strength­en the fore­arms and build mus­cles in this area, you need to train them using a vari­ety of devices. With a low lev­el of phys­i­cal fit­ness, class­es should be car­ried out with­out weights, and when the mus­cles and lig­a­ments are some­what stronger, you can grad­u­al­ly add addi­tion­al weight. Among the pos­si­ble shells, the best for work­ing out the fore­arms are:

• dumb­bells — class­es with them form the basis of the train­ing, while they can be used both in basic and in iso­lat­ing exer­cis­es;
• pan­cakes — are used main­ly in iso­lat­ing exer­cis­es, they are con­ve­nient for their rather large weight;
• the expander is a con­ve­nient and com­pact sim­u­la­tor for exer­cis­ing any­where, the phys­i­cal load when using which falls direct­ly on the fore­arms.

In addi­tion to these basic devices, less con­ve­nient ket­tle­bells can be used, as well as a rope or cable for hang­ing the load and fur­ther train­ing with it.

A set of exercises for working out the muscles of the forearms

To effec­tive­ly load the mus­cles of the fore­arms, it is impor­tant to per­form both basic and iso­lat­ing exer­cis­es. The for­mer involve a large num­ber of mus­cles and help add vol­ume to them. The lat­ter include in the work, main­ly, the tar­get mus­cles and con­tribute to an increase in their strength.

A set of exer­cis­es for high-qual­i­ty train­ing of the fore­arms:

1. Stand straight with your feet hip-width apart. Take dumb­bells in your hands so that your palms are direct­ed inward, press your elbows tight­ly to your body. Bend your elbows, leav­ing your shoul­ders motion­less, raise the dumb­bells to them and hold in the top posi­tion for 2 sec­onds. Only the fore­arms should move in this exer­cise, but here they have an indi­rect phys­i­cal load and the biceps main­ly work. The trunk dur­ing the exer­cise must remain motion­less. Per­form a total of 4 sets of 15 reps each.
2. The next exer­cise effec­tive­ly works out the biceps, as well as the fore­arms and brachialis. Stand straight with your feet shoul­der-width apart, grab the dumb­bells with a reverse grip and low­er them along the tor­so. Press­ing your elbows to the body, bend your arms, lift­ing the dumb­bells to your shoul­ders. In the upper posi­tion, turn the hands 180 degrees so that the palms look for­ward. Then slow­ly unbend your arms, turn your hands to their orig­i­nal posi­tion and do the next rep­e­ti­tion. In total, you should per­form 4 sets of 10 rep­e­ti­tions.
3. This exer­cise involves a sta­t­ic load on the mus­cles of the hands. Stand up straight, take a pan­cake with both hands, lift it above the floor and hold it for half a minute. Then rest for about the same time and repeat the exer­cise again, doing only 4 sets, while you can work with both hands at the same time, and each in turn. The vol­ume of mus­cles can­not be achieved by such a lift­ing of the load, but it is pos­si­ble to sig­nif­i­cant­ly increase the grip strength.
4. The fol­low­ing exer­cise effec­tive­ly engages the mus­cles of the fore­arms, while it can be per­formed with any con­ve­nient load: dumb­bells, ket­tle­bell or bar­bell. Using a firm sup­port, fix the arm so that the hand hangs freely and can move in all direc­tions. Take a weight in your hand with a reverse grip and per­form lift­ing and low­er­ing of the brush. Thus, the inner part of the fore­arms is worked out, while the oppo­site side can be loaded by tak­ing the load with a direct grip so that the palm looks at the floor.
5. You can also effec­tive­ly train your fore­arms with the help of a carpal expander, which is in the form of a ring or two han­dles con­nect­ed by a spring. The exer­cise con­sists in the max­i­mum com­pres­sion of the pro­jec­tile and its slow expan­sion. If you man­age to com­plete more than 50 rep­e­ti­tions, then you need to use an expander with a slight­ly high­er resis­tance.

This set of exer­cis­es forms the basis of train­ing the mus­cles of the fore­arms, it can be sup­ple­ment­ed and mod­i­fied depend­ing on your pref­er­ences and lev­el of train­ing.

Rules for physical activity on the forearms

When start­ing a set of exer­cis­es for the fore­arms, be sure to study the fol­low­ing rec­om­men­da­tions:

1. Always do basic exer­cis­es at the begin­ning of your work­out, and leave iso­la­tion exer­cis­es for last. The fact is that the base requires a lot of ener­gy, so in the sec­ond half of the train­ing it sim­ply may not have enough strength.
2. The train­ing pro­gram should be designed in such a way that you can com­bine exer­cis­es on the fore­arms and back, or on the fore­arms and arms in one day.
3. Imme­di­ate­ly before class, per­form good artic­u­lar gym­nas­tics for the hands to avoid pos­si­ble injuries.
4. When com­bin­ing your fore­arms and oth­er mus­cles, load the first ones at the very end so that tired hands and a weak grip do not affect the effec­tive­ness of oth­er exer­cis­es.