(ThyBlackMan.com) When talking about strength training exercises and weightlifting, the forearms are often overlooked in favor of biceps, ABS, and other more prominent muscles. Building forearm strength and toning your forearms is no less important than any other part of your body, as it keeps a well rounded and aesthetically pleasing balance to your arm structure, and a lot of forearm exercises can double as hand strengthening exercises.
Here are three of the most effective forearm exercises and how to perform them.
1. The Farmer’s Walk
The Farmer’s Walk, also known as a Farmer’s Carry, is a very simple exercise in terms of keeping proper form. Unlike exercises like curls, the idea is to actually keep your arms as still as possible. Find the heaviest dumbbells you can carry with one hand. If you don’t have dumbbells large enough or heavy enough, a heavy duffel bag can do in a pinch. Place the weights on either side, bend and the knees and pick up the weights, keeping your arms straight at your sides. Keeping your arms down at your sides, walk around with the weights for about 30-50 yards depending on what you can handle, then stop and simply hold the weights as long as you can. Not only is this exercise great for forearm strength, but also improving your grip as well as overall endurance.
2. Towel Pull Up
Throw a towel over a pull-up bar so that both ends hang even with one another. Grab on to the towel with both hands and pull yourself up until your chin is past your hands, then slowly lower yourself back down in a controlled fashion before pulling yourself back up again. If you can’t pull yourself up so that your chin is past your hands, go as high as you can, and then hold yourself at that height as long as you can.
3. Wrist Curls
Sit on a bench or chair, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Let your forearms rest on your knees or thighs so that your wrist bends back over your leg, keeping your palms up. From here, simply move the weights by curling your wrist, and then easing your wrist back down to its initial resting position. It is very important to maintain steady control as you ease your wrist back into the neutral starting position. Simply letting the weight pull your wrist back down can cause muscle strains or tear the ligaments in your wrist.
These three exercises offer ways to specifically target different areas of your forearm muscles, providing a fairly even toning and building of the forearm. As with all weight lifting exercises, it is important to know your own limits and always maintain proper form. If you reach a point where you can’t keep proper form when doing these exercises, either due to soreness, exhaustion, or pain, immediately stop and let your body rest. Continuing past that point not only greatly reduces the effectiveness of the exercise, but increases the risk of injury.
Staff Writer; Jerry Shaw