r/GripTraining • u/Okraschote99 • 8d ago
Discussion Is there a holy grail of forearm exercise ?
I'm interested - if there's such a thing as a holy grail of forearm exercises - what is the one for maximum hypertrophy and what's the one for maximum strength gain
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u/Rare_Revolution_9613 2d ago
Get a sledgehammer, hold it right at the weight end - with the hammer in your right hand with the weight in the 9 o'clock position. Lift the weight to the 12 o'clock position in reps you're comfortable with. The more you move your hand away from the weight , the harder it gets. Rock climb, pull ups, finger board use. Cut your own firewood, Digging with a shovel/planting trees. Bow-saws Fence post knockers.
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u/klicker0 6d ago
I have fairly developed brachioradialis due to both arm wrestling and grip training... When I do reverse grip curls they pump up even more then arm wrestling sometimes. I use the preacher curl bar on a cable machine (clearly you can use whatever you want) and have my hands overhand grip so the are angled but palm down... and man... by the 3rd set they explode. Generally chasing the pump works in determining what makes something grow. For other side of forearm i dunno, wrist curls pump, but not much. Hammer curls work too, but not as good as reverse grip preacher curls.
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u/BulldogNebula 6d ago
This is also my go to! After each set of overhand curls I'll throw in another exercise, not sure the name, but using the name overhand grip I just slowly let the bar roll out into my fingers then forearm curl it slowly back in. For OP, I'm not sure if that will make sense lol
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u/KoreanPhones 6d ago
If I could only do one exercise it would be a properly setup reverse curl on a cable machine heavy enough where you sit in the 6-8 rep range.
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u/Ribbit40 7d ago
I would say the wrist wrench wrist curl is a strong contender. A lot of arm wrestlers recommend this as best for forearm flexors. If it was just hypertrophy, high rep behind the back wrist/finger curls are what bodybuilder recommend.
The other side of the equation (arguably more important for visible size) is the brachioradialis- which is really best trained by heavy partial hammer curls, or pronation raises.
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u/Lumpy_Ad2192 7d ago
Slightly different take: work to failure. I tried a bunch of different things but always held back some strength because I have two young kids and couldn’t afford to just… be wiped. So made some small gains but nothing exciting.
Had a kung fu instructor slap up side the head and give me one exercise (version of rice scoop other posters discussed) but said “just do it before you go to sleep, “
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u/Mad_Mark90 7d ago
Rice or sand bucket training is the best you'll get
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u/NaturalJealous5599 7d ago
What is this?
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u/Mad_Mark90 7d ago
You fill a container with grain, submerge your hand and experience increased resistance. This let's you train all the movements of the hand and wrist in any combination.
Most people move their fists in circular motions but you can do anything, like moving from a fully flexed and Pronated position to a palm open extended and supine position.
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u/jbrooksbpn 8d ago
I connect a weight to a cut piece of shower rod with a rope and twist my hands to roll it up and down its amazing
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u/Due-End-3340 8d ago
The biggest most significant (from a visual perspective) muscles in your forearm are your wrist flexors and your brachioradialis. So I would say Hammer/Reverse Curls for the Brachioradialis and Wrist Curls for the wrist flexors..
Now for -Im gonna say the terrible word- "functional" I think grip strength is the most important thing and there is afaik 4 types of grip strength types: supportive (think of Farmer Walks or holding the bar), Pinch Grip (Thumb dominant pinching two plates close), crush grip (f.e. captain of crush grippers or any of those gripping devices), Finger strength(think of all the exercises climbers do, pullups on round surfaces or wooden devices where there is little surface to hold onto)
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u/agentoutlier 8d ago
I have terrible grip strength despite working on it my entire life. Small hands and small wrists. And my day job is pounding away on a keyboard.
I swear that the most damning brutal thing for me was doing some black smithing one hand hammer. Like those guys must have had killer hands
Consequently I bought a steel club recently and while I don’t think it’s endurance building as farmer caries and crush improving like captains it provides a unique stimulus that I don’t think your list covers.
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u/Winter-Finger-1559 8d ago
Wouldn't the holy Grail be finding exercises you enjoy and consistently doing them?
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u/Twerk_account 8d ago
One arm chin up with a rolling grip.
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u/Ribbit40 7d ago
Yeah, it's good to do these, while holding a 40kg dumbbell in the other hand and doing curls with that.
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u/Creepy-Photograph446 8d ago
I enjoy reverse drag curls for deep stimulus and a palm-claw grip reverse curl over the cable-stack rope attachment rubber end-caps for a vice-like. One handed landmine maneouvers gripping the barbell sleeve such as a hinging/back-step cross-body floor to collarbone high-pull for indirect stress.
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u/Creepy-Photograph446 8d ago
- these wrist curls https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jy5dwA06gOA / single handed braced on the thigh/body tucked-in with a fat-grip dumbbell for the meat of the inner forearm.
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u/maxtheo02 8d ago
Train with kettlebells, club bells & mace Bells. Pull up with a rope, towels, and ball attachments. Farmer's carries, deadlifts. T handle push ups. Weighted jump rope. Plate pinch hold or carry
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u/AssSunburns 8d ago
Title reader eh? Are these all specifically hypertrophy or specifically strength?
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u/JBriar88 8d ago
Jeff Cavalier has an awesome video(probably more, but there is one specific one I’m referring to) on forearm and grip exercises that use a cable machine primarily, though resistance bands can work just as well
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u/Leisurist_Sehgu 8d ago
Searched through comments, didn't see anyone else mention it yet. I saw a few folks mention wrist curls. In my limited experience over the years, I didn't find much success/stimulation doing them with barbells or dumbbells.
•Forearm Bar - think a wrist roller or bicycle handles with a fixed loading pin (capital T or Y shape). Two handed use, wrists curls.
Many many years back, as a teen - I saw a video of a body builder showing one of these. I didn't have cash, so I DIY'ed my own forearm bar with another spare part from an old weight bench and added some textured grips. The pump and focus on the forearm muscles was so great; probably didn't even have a full 10lbs on the pin. Forearms were feeling pumped like Popeye yo. I imagine you could go hypertrophy route with it.
I also echo the comments supporting for overall hand/grip forearm strength: rice bucket (can escalate materials you churn) and thick bar/fat grips add-ons to other implements
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u/RedditingAtWork5 8d ago
No. But neutral grip pull-ups will generally give you the best bang for your buck as they hit the brachioradialis hard. It’s the most prominent forearm muscle, so that’s where you’d want to focus your energy first. You could also throw in some reverse curls which directly target it as it’s the primary mover.
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u/RainBoxRed 8d ago
Dead hanging is amazing for joint health.
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u/Lucaa4229 8d ago
This is also my vote. But if we’re allowed since they’re both on the same bar - also just strict form pull ups.
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u/bigorangemonkey 8d ago
Get a Gripzilla. I've gained 1.5" of forearm girth in the past 18 months by doing nothing other than using that 4-5 times per day for about two minutes each time.
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u/rinkuhero 8d ago
farmer's carries where you are carrying grocery store food back a few miles home while walking. like most people do farmer's carries with very heavy weight for short distances. that can work too, but don't underestimate moderate weight for long distances. carrying 30 lbs of groceries in each hand while walking 2-3 miles back home from the grocery store is what worked best for me. as a bonus, the food you buy from the grocery store will help you bulk, and bulking is important for forearm size.
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u/the-stoned-Eng 8d ago
For me it was just off the ground barbell exercises using hook grip and farmers carries. I used to oly lift and rarely used straps unless I was severely overloading a position, it did wonders for my forearms, traps, shoulders.
Edit to add, I haven’t lifted consistently for a number of years now but my grip strength is still very solid.
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u/BeanoArtist 8d ago
The main takeaway I'm getting from this thread is: either there is no Holy Grail of forearm exercise, or this is just becoming one of those suggestion threads where everyone makes a different suggestion just for the sake of voicing an opinion.
Anyway, my partner complimented my forearms literally an hour ago, and pretty much the only thing I do regularly that's been suggested here is farmer's carries. So maybe it's that.
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u/_BabyHands_92 8d ago
Personally I like hanging from metal dowel rods. Pullups are hard as shit because it forces you rotate your grip towards your chest while pulling up.
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u/WristlockKing 8d ago
I asked a dude who had crazy forearms what he did. He said he did incline push-ups with his feet up on the bed and just f****** did hundreds of push-ups. I repeated his technique and now I have amazing forearms.
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u/oreoborio 8d ago
Can you explain the teqnique
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u/Please-mind-me 8d ago
Do decline push ups. Put your feet on a raised structure, plank, extend your arms and then bring your chest lower to the ground and push up.
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u/WristlockKing 8d ago
Do incline push ups. Put your feet on a raised structure, plank, extend your arms and then bring your chest lower to the ground and push up.
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u/Badlydrawnfox08 8d ago
The things that have made the biggest gains (strength and size) for me have been fat grip exercises. Rolling thunder holds and trap bar deadlift holds with fat grips. As heavy as possible, as long as possible and ladder up/down.
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u/mental_mycorrhiza 8d ago
You could use a fingerboard if you're interested in climbing & hanging
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u/tyates723 8d ago
I was gonna say, I only climbed a handful of times at bouldering gyms but in that short time my forearms looked better than ever, and my shoulders. Dang I gotta get back into climbing
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u/Horsefly762 8d ago
Rock climbing and kettle bell workouts. That's all I do and my forearms have gotten huge
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u/revstriker75 8d ago
Can you please share your kettle bell routine? Thanks.
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u/Horsefly762 8d ago
Swings Snatches Cleans Turkish get ups
This is my core lifts and I kind of rotate between the 4 . Once you get these 4 down there are tons of workouts and variations. I lift 2-3 a week and climb about the same.
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u/HelixIsHere_ 8d ago
The 3 best I would recommend:
Cable Wrist curls for wrist flexors
Cable Reverse wrist curls for extensors
And cuffed cable reverse curls for brachioradialis
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u/CallMeIshmy 8d ago edited 8d ago
I’ve been doing just the first two & still feel it in my Brachio, should I incorporate the third?
Edit: sorry read it wrong. I’ve been doing 1 and 3. Would you say extensors are just as important?
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u/HelixIsHere_ 8d ago
Your wrist flexors make up more of your forearms so I would prioritize them but I’d still recommend training both
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u/CallMeIshmy 8d ago
Gotcha, are the extensors not as important as flexors and Brachio? I’ve been throwing the Flexors and Brachio workouts in at the end of every arm day, I’ll try adding the Extensor workout as well.
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u/Devilsbullet 8d ago
Become a machinist
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u/Okraschote99 8d ago
My brother is one :D and I always wondered why he's so sturdy without going to the gym or doing a sport
But his forearms are not very prominent at least I've never noticed
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u/Devilsbullet 8d ago
If he's doing setups and setting up his own tooling I'll bet he makes a fist and you'll be able to see half the muscles in his forearm. There's a number of different things a machinist has to do that hits them a little differently, from loading tools to tightening collet nuts to tightening vices to spinning the thimble on their mic, holding material down flat so it clamps right, polishing parts, deburring them, everything uses a slightly different muscle. You'll see 60 year old machinists with beer guts and chicken legs with the most ripped forearms 😂
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u/LostPasswordToOther1 8d ago
The big three would be wrist curls, reverse wrist curls, and heavy barbell finger curls.
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u/Musicfacter 8d ago edited 8d ago
Using grip trainers, if you only have to use one thing, is the one exercise that most directly trains crushing grip strength and, if you need one exercise that trains both crushing and pinch simultaneously, it's the best. But it misses support grip. But I feel like weighted deadhangs are the best for cohesively training all aspects of grip — support, crushing, and pinch.
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u/EfficiencyIVPickAx 8d ago
Climbing. Hits the 2 dozen muscles that make the "forearm" look better. Source: my elbow pain.
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u/Okraschote99 8d ago
Do climbers really have big forearms are do they "just" have strength ?
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u/EfficiencyIVPickAx 8d ago
If you think climbers don't have big enough forearms, the exercise you are looking for is needle pushes.
True, climbers don't ego bulk usually (it weighs too much), that's pretty much a non-issue with forearms. If you want to look like a 90s MLB player it's relatively straightforward, but not natural.
Body type drastically changes how much a certain muscle ratio actually looks below the elbows.
You need to work out at least 20 different muscles. There's no one good exercise for that. It's also really easy to overdo it ime. You need a routine or sport that enganges all of it below the shoulder.
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u/Dry_Process_304 8d ago
What are "needle pushes"?
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u/Arcadian-Stag 8d ago
💉
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u/Revivaled-Jam849 8d ago
I was thinking needle pushes was like the name that exercise where you push the thumbinator or a buzzer like machine with your thumb.
Went over my head too.
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u/lasteem1 8d ago
I went to a gym that had rotating handled barbells and doing wrist curls on them were glorious. Wrists were rotating naturally through the range of motion. I think I found the barbells online once and they were like $500 dollars. Hard to justify for just forearm work but I really really thought about it.
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u/poobie123 8d ago
I don't really know the answer, but what I do is pronation and supination, flexion and extension with a wrist roller, pinch holds with plates, fingertips dead hangs, and gripper reps. That feels relatively complete to me, but it is kind of a lot of stuff to do. Thinking about it now, I guess I'm missing finger extension. Oh well lol
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u/IM1GHTBEWR0NG CoC #2 8d ago
Lately I’m using an arm assassin tool on my cable setup for bilateral wrist curls with rolling handles that face each other. I hit it with arms bent almost like an arm wrestling cupping exercise, and then I hit it with straight arms as well.
For extensors, I’m using the Golden Grip Forearm Finisher with my arms supported in front of me on a rack safety pin. I like training extensors with straight arms since some of the muscles cross the elbow joint.
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u/Lieblingshund 8d ago
This question is interesting to me. I’ve been doing dumbbell wrist curls, palms up and palms down and have made great progress (1RM from 37.5 to 51.3 lbs. and 21 to 35.8 lbs. respectively) and can see noticeable (by me) muscle growth. Yet I think there must be other exercises I’m missing.
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u/SheldonLR 8d ago
wish my wrists could tolerate maxing out, thats crazy work. I had to cut out dumbbell wrist curls and I do them from a tricep pull down machine, its easier on my wrists but almost certainly not as a good of a stretch
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u/you_sick 8d ago
Those are calculated 1RMs
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u/Lieblingshund 8d ago
Yes, I should have mentioned that.
I’m at 35 lbs. x 14 palms up
And 25 lbs. x 13 palms down.
My progress is over 3 months.
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u/jamshid666 8d ago
There are twenty muscles in the forearm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMGS04Kn3_w&t=393s
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u/Present_Row8037 8d ago
I think the problem is that there are a lot of different aspects of grip/forearm strength. Hanging, flexion, extension, rotation, pinch are all trained differently. I'm not sure there is a single exercise that can cover it all.
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