Wrist and Forearm Curls Exercise for Big, Muscular Forearms

You are as strong as your weakest link. Want bigger lifts on compound exercises? Then perform forearm or wrist curls and extensions to build stronger, flexible and muscular wrists/forearm muscles.

Forearms complete the Arms!

Where have the forearms of steel gone? Big, Thick and Muscular forearms!

Forearms are the first thing noticed in t-shirts and polos. So lets build them with curls, reverse curls and finger rolls.

Inside This Article:

• The Importance of Forearm Training
• How to perform Wrist curls with proper Form
• Rep and Set range for forearm muscle building
• Other Forearms Exercises for big gains
• Recommended Programs

The Importance of Forearm Training

Should bodybuilders do forearm training?

If you are doing heavy deadlifts, pulls and presses, then your forearms are taken care of. add forearm curls and extensions as a completion superset in such case.

But advanced bodybuilders should train them for balance, symmetry and strength.

Although bigger, muscular forearms look sexy, strong wrists and grip are critical for bigger lifts on exercises like presses, pulls and deadlifts.

Big compound moves stimulate the wrist joints and forearm muscles but forearm specialisation exercises target them even more for total muscle growth.

How to Perform Barbell Wrist Curls with Proper Form

You can do barbell or dumbbell wrist curls. I suggest you do both as both have benefits.

Barbells, since performed bilaterally helps you lift more weights. Dumbbell allow better range of motion and can be useful for trainers with painful wrists.

The Grip, Posture and Weight Selection

Grab the barbell with underhand grip, slightly narrow than shoulder width apart. Place the arms on a flat bench with your wrists hanging at the end of the bench. You can also perform curls on a preacher curl bench and change the end-contraction bench.

Lock your knees against your elbows to stabilise them if you do them on a flat bench which is recommended.

The Two Step Forearm Curls

Step One: With the tight grip right position of hands, take a breath in and curl your wrists and fully contract your wrist muscles. Get a small squeeze on top for fuller contraction.

Step Two: Exhale and Lower the barbell to the deepest position in a slow, controlled manner.

I suggest keeping the bar within your palms and not let them roll as doing so reduces the strength. You can perform finger rolls as a separate exercise for finger strength.

Rep and Set Scheme for Forearm Exercises

Forearms respond best to heavy weights in the rep range of 6-8 per set and multiple sets of 3-4, done twice a week as forearms recover fairly quickly from heavy workouts.

Other best Forearm Exercises

Wrist extensions, inward and outward movements called supination and pronation, EZ-curls and lesser known suitcase side curls are excellent for all round hand and grip strength.

Recommended Programs

Try the NNMB Muscle Building Program for bigger Arms, legs and shoulders.