How To Set An Effective Forearm Workout

Forearm Workout

Are you looking for an effective forearm workout? Well, the purpose of this article is to help you choose a forearm workout that fits your needs and maximize your results.

Forearm Workout Recommendations:

1. How Often Should You Perform Your Forearm Workout?

Beginners: two or three times a week (full body workout)

Intermediate/Advanced: once or twice a week depending on your split routine

2. How Many Exercises Should You Include In Your Forearm Workout?

Beginner: 1 exercise

Intermediate/Advanced: 2-4 exercises depending on your split routine

3. How Many Sets Should You Do?

Beginners: 1-3 sets

Intermediate/Advanced: 6-9 sets

4. How Many Reps Should You Do?

The forearms usually tend to respond better to high reps, a 10-15 reps range would work best for most people, but you may want to experiment for yourself and see what works best for you. They also tend to recover fast that’s why it is always recommended to keep your resting time between sets to a minimum.

5. Best Exercises To Include In Your Forearm Workout

Most of the exercises for the forearms can be considered as a variation of wrist curls, reverse wrist curls and reverse curls (dumbbells, barbells, plates, cables and machines can be used). Wrist curls for instance, can be done in a standing position or using a bench with either palms-up or palms down. Behind the back wrist curls are also possible.

Hummer curls is another good choice for your forearms. Please note that performing stuff like weighted chin ups, dead lifts, shrugs, and other basic barbell and dumbbell exercises for other muscle groups without weight straps will help you improve your grip, therefore it can compliment your forearm workout. For a complete list of exercises (with descriptions), you can click here.

As example we included here an effective forearm workout that you may want to consider:

Reverse barbell curl - 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Seated dumbbell palms-up wrist curl - 3 sets of 10-15 reps

Start by doing 10 reps per set and try to increase that number as you go. Once you become capable of doing 15 or more without sacrificing the exercise proper form, switch to a heavier weight and redo the cycle. There are also some muscle shocking/training techniques (not recommended for beginners) such as drop sets that can be used to shock your muscles into new growth. These shocking techniques can help you avoid or break through plateaus (learn more here). To give you an idea, here is another example:

Reverse cable curls – 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Seated dumbbell wrist curls – 3 sets in total (2 regular sets of 10-15 reps then a set of drop sets (start by performing 6-12 reps (till failure) then quickly without resting grab a lighter weight and go for as many reps as you can, and then decrease again the weight...and so on).

For best results make sure to perform the exercises the right way (as always, form is important, after all we’re looking for an effective forearm workout not strained wrists). Always try to change your routine often to get full benefit from your forearm workout and don't forget to check out our huge forearms article if you need more tips and ideas to maximize your results.

Please help us serve you better: feel free to contact us here if you have any thoughts, questions, information, a forearm workout to request, or recommend.

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