Written by Patrick Dale, PT, ex-Marine

While your biceps and triceps make up the bulk of your arm mass, your forearms are probably the most visible arm muscle group. After all, whether you’re wearing a T-shirt or have your sleeves rolled up, your forearms are on show.

So, why is it that so many lifters pay so little attention to their lower arm development? It’s no wonder that skinny forearms are such a common sight.

As well as being an aesthetic issue, skinny forearms often lead to a weak grip, and a weak grip can affect many aspects of your workout. For example, if you want to deadlift big or do heavy rows, your grip is critical.

Yes, you COULD wear lifting straps to bolster your grip, but that’s a way around the problem rather than a fix. Once the straps come off, your grip will still be weak, and your forearms will still be skinny.

In this article, we reveal 13 of the best forearm and grip exercises and provide you with a workout that’ll turn your skinny forearms into massive, strong bowling pins!

Unlike your upper arms, which are mainly made up of your biceps and triceps, your forearms are much more complex. That’s because they control all of your fingers as well as your wrists. Some forearm muscles cross your elbows, too.

Broadly speaking, the muscles of the forearms can be categorized as flexors or extensors. The flexors are responsible for closing your fingers into a fist and curling your wrist downward. In contrast, the extensors open your fingers and pull your wrist upward.

The muscles that make up the forearm are (1):

Flexors: Flexor carpi ulnaris, palmaris longus, flexor carpi radialis, pronator teres, flexor digitorum superficialis, flexor digitorum profundus, flexor pollicis longus, and pronator quadratus.

Extensors: Brachioradialis, extensor carpi radialis longus, extensor carpi radialis brevis, extensor digitorum, extensor digiti minimi, extensor carpi ulnaris, anconeus, supinator, abductor pollicis longus, extensor pollicis brevis, extensor pollicis longus, and extensor indicis.

Do you need to know all these names? Definitely not! But it does illustrate that the forearms are a complicated body part, and you can’t just hope that they’ll get bigger and stronger.

Instead, you need to choose the best forearm exercises and train them hard and often – just like any other muscle group.

Beef up your lower arms and turn your hands into powerful talons with the 13 best forearm and grip exercises!

This classic, old-school exercise is an excellent way to build up your forearm flexors and strengthen your wrists. With no special equipment required, you can easily add this exercise to your biceps workout to finish off your arm training.

Important note: Rolling the weight down to your fingertips may cause elbow pain, especially if you do this exercise too often or with too much weight. If you experience any elbow pain, stop short of extending your fingers and just focus on the wrist part of the movement. You’ll still get a great forearm workout but without the discomfort. 

No bench? No problem! You can still train your forearms even if you only have a barbell to train with. This exercise can also be done in a Smith machine. However, because of the behind-the-back position, some lifters find this exercise a little hard on the shoulders, so skip it if you have a history of shoulder pain.

Where regular wrist curls work your forearm flexors, this exercise works the extensors. Training these muscles will not just add size to your forearms; it will also help keep your forearms muscles balanced, which may help reduce your risk of injury.

Barbell reverse curls are often thought of as a biceps exercise. While this is true, barbell reverse curls are also an effective forearm extensor exercise. Studies have shown that reverse curls target the brachialis and brachioradialis while providing plenty of work for your biceps (2).

How to do barbell reverse curls:

Like reverse curls, hammer curls are often thought of as a biceps exercise, but they’re also good for your forearms.

Hammer curls target the brachioradialis, which is the largest of the forearm muscles, and the brachialis, which is a forearm muscle that also flexes the elbow. It was a favorite of old-school bodybuilding legend Larry Scott, who had some of the best biceps and forearms in the history of the sport. 

The farmer’s walk is a popular conditioning exercise that also happens to be a great way to build bigger forearms and a vice-like grip. It’s a very straightforward exercise that requires nothing but a heavy pair of dumbbells and some space to walk.

Read more about farmer’s walks in our in-depth guide to this excellent exercise.

This unusual exercise is excellent for building bigger forearms and an unbreakable grip. Unlike most forearm exercises, your fingers are kept relatively straight, so it’s a good way to add variety to your forearm-building workouts.

Pull-ups are an excellent lat exercise. But, by swapping the bar for two towels, you can turn this popular bodyweight back builder into a killer forearm workout. This exercise won’t just bulk up your forearms; it will turn your hands into unbreakable vices!

You can use the towel grip method on other exercises to increase forearm activation, including curls, rows, and pulldowns.

This exercise turns one of the best posterior chain exercises into a challenging but effective forearm and grip builder. You may have seen this exercise on the World’s Strongest Man, where competitors lift and hold enormous weights. However, unlike Eddie Hall and his friends, you should NOT use straps for this forearm exercise.

While the deadlift hold (exercise #9) is a great forearm and grip exercise, it’s not necessarily the most practical. For a start, you’ll need access to a barbell and plenty of weights. You’ll also need to be able to do a perfect deadlift.

The dead hang works the same muscles, but it’s a more straightforward exercise to master. Plus, all you need is somewhere to hang from, such as a pull-up bar or even a tree branch. This is a favorite exercise for climbers, who are renowned for their muscular forearms and fantastic grip strength.

Whether you make yourself a DIY wrist roller or use a commercial model, this old-school exercise is a tried-and-tested forearm and grip builder. A few sets of wrist rolls will leave your lower arms pumped and swollen.

Tennis balls are ideal for grip strength training. They yield slightly when you squeeze them but don’t compress completely. This means you can crush them as hard as you like (or can) to give your hands and forearms a great workout.

This resistance band exercise specifically targets your finger extensors. While these muscles won’t add a lot to the size of your forearms, training them may help prevent the imbalances that can lead to problems like carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive strain injuries (RSIs).

Add any of the above exercises to your arm workouts to build bigger, more muscular forearms. Better yet, dedicate one or two workouts a week to forearm training. Add this workout to the end of your upper arm workout, or do it on a separate day.

However, it’s best NOT to train your grip the day before your back workout, as your fatigued forearms could make your back workout less effective.

Exercises 1a and 1b are to be done as a superset. Do 8-10 wrist curls followed immediately by 8-10 reverse curls. Rest for 90 seconds, and then repeat the pairing. Do three supersets in total.

While the forearms aren’t the most glamorous muscle group, they can be one of the most impressive when properly developed. They’re also the muscle that people are most likely to notice when you are wearing a T-shirt.

Strong forearms will add a lot to your workout, too, especially during exercises like deadlifts, pull-ups, pulldowns, and rows. The more unbreakable your grip is, the more weight you’ll be able to lift, the more reps you’ll be able to perform, and the better your results will be.

So, don’t leave your forearm development to chance. Instead, train them hard and often using these 13 excellent exercises and our tried-and-tested forearm workout.

1 –PubMed: Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Forearm Muscles  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

2 –PubMed: Muscular Coordination of Biceps Brachii And Brachioradialis In Elbow Flexion with Respect to Hand Position https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

Patrick Dale is an ex-British Royal Marine, gym owner, and fitness qualifications tutor and assessor. In addition, Patrick is a freelance writer who has authored three fitness and exercise books, dozens of e-books, thousands of articles, and several fitness videos. He’s not just an armchair fitness expert; Patrick practices what he preaches! He has competed at a high level in numerous sports, including rugby, triathlon, rock climbing, trampolining, powerlifting, and, most recently, stand up paddleboarding. When not lecturing, training, researching, or writing, Patrick is busy enjoying the sunny climate of Cyprus, where he has lived for the last 20-years.

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