Best Forearm Exercises For Mass & Insane Vascularity!

Aprox Reading Time - 10 minutes

Best Forearm Exercises For Mass – Article Outline

  1. Intro
  2. Forearm Anatomy
  3. Best Forearm Exercises For Mass List
  4. Conclusion

Intro: Best Forearm Exercises For Mass

Let’s face it. We all know the importance of having strong forearms. We know that lacking forearm strength can hinder your strength in other areas including but not limited to deadlifts, bench press, curls, shoulders, and triceps. I remember when I first started lifting, my forearms would often fatigue first before the main muscle I was trying to work out. This was frustrating and I knew I had to get my forearms stronger.

While your forearms will naturally get stronger just by you continuing to lift over time, it is more beneficial to train them like any other body part. I remember when I was 17, I was able to incline press the 80lb dumbbells but I could barely lift them off the rack and walk them over to the flat bench that I was using. This was a pain in the ass lol. While forearms are not my most favorite muscle group to train, they are vital…kind of like training abs lol.


Forearm Anatomy

As you can see, there are a lot of different muscles involved in the forearms but you basically need to make sure you train both the posterior muscles (palms down) and anterior muscles (palms up). Luckily with most forearm exercises, they are simple enough where you can just reverse your grip from palms down to palms up in order to train both sides of the forearm. See below our list of the best forearm exercises for mass.


Exercise List

  1. Behind the Back Barbell Wrist Curls

Behind the back barbell wrist curls are a great exercise to target the anterior muscles of the forearm. To perform this exercise, grab a barbell with light weight and hold it behind your back with your wrists facing away from you. Start with your forearm and wrists in one straight line and then curl your wrists up. Repeat this exercise until you are fatigued. To make the exercise tougher, try either adding more weight or holding your wrist in the curled position.

2. Palms Down/Up Wrist Curl Over A Bench

The palms down (or up) wrist curl over a bench is another exercise to get massive forearms and increase strength. Grab a light barbell and a bench and sit in a position similar to how Arnold is seated and hold the barbell with your wrists up. Make sure when your curl, you allow for full range of motion and squeeze and hold your forearms at the top. To perform the exercise with your wrists down, take a knee on the side of a flat bench and holding the barbell with your palms down, curl the barbell towards you and hold and squeeze at the top. You’ll feel and insane pump and burn in no time. You can also use a cable machine instead of a barbell for this exercise.

3. Reverse Grip Curls

Reverse grip curls are a great exercise you can throw into your arm day workout and if you’re like a lot of gym bros, everyday is arm day so you’re forearms will get huge in no time lol. This exercise targets both the forearms and biceps so one way I like to incorporate this exercise is to superset it with palms up (or supinated) bicep curls. You may have to hold the bar a little wider than usual as some people experience pain in their forearms/elbows if they hold the barbell with too narrow of a grip. A variation for this exercise is to use a cable machine instead of a barbell or an EZ-Bar instead of a barbell.

4. Seated Dumbbell Wrist Curls

This exercise has 3 great variations to it which you can perform a circuit with. Starting off, make sure you grab a pair dumbbells that aren’t too heavy. I’d suggest anywhere between 5-15 lbs. You can perform this exercise with your palms down, palms up, and palms facing towards you. To perform this exercise with palms down and palms up, simply rest your forearms on your knees as pictured above and curl the dumbbell and be sure to hold and squeeze during the contraction. To perform this exercise with your wrists facing toward you, while in the same seated position, hold the dumbbells on your sides with your palms facing you and curl your forearms toward you and also away from you so that you work both the posterior and anterior portion of the forearm.

5. Hand Grip Strengtheners

The hand grip strengthener pictured above as well Fat Gripz are great tools you can use to help increase your forearm strength as well. The benefits of a grip strengthener are that you can literally work on your forearms anywhere. You can train them while your watching TV or anywhere in the comfort of your own home. Fat Gripz are another great tool you can use at the gym that make each exercise a little bit more challenging however after a few uses with Fat Gripz, you will feel an insane burn in your forearms. Better yet, the next time you go to complete that exercise without Fat Gripz, it will feel a lot easier to complete the exercise.


Conclusion

If you’re like me, you have a love/hate relationship with forearms and instead of dealing with them, they often get ignored unfortunately. Fortunately for you, you now understand the importance of training forearms and how strong forearms can help you in other more important lifts such as the bench press and deadlifts. Plus you probably know that veiny forearms are a good way to pick up chicks. They love veiny forearms lol. Make sure to incorporate forearms into your weekly training program and be sure to let us know in the comments below what some of your favorite forearm exercises are.


Be sure to check out the video below from Rob Riches as he demonstrates his forearm workout and gives some of his best tips on how to train them effectively.