I have yet to use a forearm workout that I feel works for my forearms(to add significant size). I’ve accepted the fact that my forearms will take years of training to catch up with the rest of my arm. However I do see people giving others advice on forearms and how to develop size and grip.
So I’m curious if anyone here has actually completed a forearm routine for a given set of time (whether it be a couple of months to a couple of years) that has actually succeeded in adding size to their forearms and documenting such. You see plenty of bicep shots with measuring tapes documenting progress, but I’m curious to see if anyone here has actually documented and shows proof of gains they’ve made using a specific forearm program? Any takers?
Those arent mine. Just an inspirational photo to get the thread started. If i had those forearms and weighed the 180 that i now weigh id look like a gorilla. Lol
[quote]AndrewG909 wrote:
Those arent mine. Just an inspirational photo to get the thread started. If i had those forearms and weighed the 180 that i now weigh id look like a gorilla. Lol[/quote]
Wouldn’t you think adding 20-30 more lbs of overall mass whilst hammering your forearms mighty hard at least twice a week via heavy pin wheel curls, reverse cable curls and hammer curls they’ll grow a good amount?
[quote]AndrewG909 wrote:
Those arent mine. Just an inspirational photo to get the thread started. If i had those forearms and weighed the 180 that i now weigh id look like a gorilla. Lol[/quote]
Wouldn’t you think adding 20-30 more lbs of overall mass whilst hammering your forearms mighty hard at least twice a week via heavy pin wheel curls, reverse cable curls and hammer curls they’ll grow a good amount? [/quote]
right… OP… please note the biceps that are attached to those forarms. This guy is big all over… not just in the forarms. Train everything and gain weight.
[quote]Rohnyn wrote:
I don’t know about you guys, but if you’re lifting heavy with compounds a few times a week, your forearms shouldnt needn’t much more stimulation.
I deadlift till my hands fall off, and have seen veins pop up where I never thot possible in my forearms.[/quote]
Forearms have a pretty complex setup of muscles and it’s real interesting when you dissect the make up. Yeah you’ll get “some” work from heavy rows/deadlifts. Yet those of us who weren’t genetically gifted with decent sized forearms (same as calves) from the get go need to do extra work bottom line and gain more overall weight to even have our bodies compensate us with bigger forearms. Just the way I see it.
My forearms are going to not look what I consider “decent sized” until I’m well over 200+ lbs relatively lean at my height and repping some serious weight on the exercises I mentioned.
Nothing new, it’s all about pounding them hard consistently like any real lagging muscle.
I know guys who have barely done any forearm exercises and just have monster forearms naturally. I talk to these kinds of guys all the time and I always hear yeah my gramps or some other member from my moms side has huge forearms like me too…
You are 180 pounds and your arms are so big that your forearms will take years to catch up with them? How tall are you and what is your bodyfat % ? Did you have your legs amputated?
I just bough fat gripz and have been using them for 1-2 exercises in my pulling days 2x a week. Only had a few workout so far but my forearm are sore after each one and i get a sick pump.
I don’t know why so many guys are afraid of just directly working their forearms these days. lol
Not everyone needs direct work, but if you do you aren’t going to see great progress from “deadlifts and rows” alone obviously. The standard wrist curl, hammer curl, reverse curl, etc. has worked for generations.
A personal favorite of mine are kpipe curls:
Forearm exercises are just like any other. Move up in poundages regularly, gain bodyweight, be consistent. The guy in those videos, for instance, trains his forearms regularly with pinwheel/hammer curls, seated barbell and standing dumbbell wrist curls, and DB/EZ kpipe curls. Is it some kind of coincidence that he has beastly forearms? Obviously not.
If you are just throwing in some hammer curls at the end of your back/biceps workout once in a while, don’t expect to see much progress.
Get better genetics? Seriously seems to be the limiting factor for this muscle, not that you can’t make it noticeably larger. I’m not going to throw out numbers (for the sake of my own pride lol), but my forearms achieved the same size as a friend of mine with large arms, with almost no direct work and me being significantly smaller every where else insert obligatory cock joke here, maybe had him on legs. He had me beat on pretty much every arm exercise as well. My dad has huge forearms, so it’s kind of obvious where it comes from.
One thing I have noticed; I have a good mind muscle connection with my forearms and feel them doing a lot of the work in certain movements, anything with a neutral grip and the dumbell angled vertically throughout the movement gives me a great pump (basically crushing the DB like your life depended on it). Until recently I felt all barbell kurls more in my forearms than my bi’s (never understood that one, but I’d get burst blood vessels around my elbows a lot when I first started lifting). I never use straps, but have recently started hook gripping everything, which seems to lead to a lot less forearm activation. I have always preferred heavy pulling movements to pushing ones. Maybe some of this helps in some way.
There’s a thread in the T-Cell about forearms if you’re just looking for training tips, if all you’re after is progress pics, then hopefully one of the larger guys here can remember what his forearms used to measure.
Disclaimer: I’m not huge, I don’t have huge forearms, proportionally my forearms are large. I have a lot of growing left to do.
[quote]AndrewG909 wrote:
Those arent mine. Just an inspirational photo to get the thread started. If i had those forearms and weighed the 180 that i now weigh id look like a gorilla. Lol[/quote]
Wouldn’t you think adding 20-30 more lbs of overall mass whilst hammering your forearms mighty hard at least twice a week via heavy pin wheel curls, reverse cable curls and hammer curls they’ll grow a good amount? [/quote]
I first began lifting when I was 132lbs at 5’10" ( i was a boxer so i stayed as light as possible) I am now 180. So I have added considerable mass to my frame, but genetically lagging muscle groups will always lag. The concept of gaining weight overall doesn’t work for real problem areas because by gaining weight all your muscles are getting bigger whilst your problem muscles which are also getting bigger are not keeping up with the other body parts that naturally grow faster.
I’m not asking for a solution to my problem, as I’ve stated I have come to understand my forearms as a problem area that I will have to continue to hammer for many years and work them relentlessly before they are up to par. I’m just curious to know what kind of progress others have made and if they’ve documented it. You almost never see progress pics of forearms. Yet people are always quick to throw things like, “just deadlift, or do hammer curls”, I’d assume that people who throw out solutions so nonchalantly must have made progress themselves. I’m just asking to see pics of said progress.
So my challenge to everyone who has made real progress in their forearms to post some pics cuz everyone at T-Nation knows “Pics or it didn’t happen”
[quote]andrew88 wrote:
You are 180 pounds and your arms are so big that your forearms will take years to catch up with them? How tall are you and what is your bodyfat % ? Did you have your legs amputated? [/quote]
Please take the time to read the posts. As I’ve stated before the forearms in that pic are not mine. But on a side note, how did you know my legs were amputated. looks around Are you watching me??
