Let’s have another go at exercise tweaks, this time for guys who are after big forearms and calves
Fist for the forearms: I call this the “fat roll”. No. I’m not saying you should bulk up to 350lbs to obtain big forearms.
Before I tell you how to perform the exercise I want to tell you that I would suggest you to do some grip work (Pinching plates, hanging from a bar, doing pulling exercises without straps) to see if that is enough for your forearms to begin growing. If not, enter the fat roll:
- I want you to find a lat pulldown machine
- Attach a V- shaped handle to it
- Put fat grips onto the handle. (if your gym doesn’t have them, buy a pair, they are not very expensive)
- Sit onto the pulldown and pull the handle to nose level, just the way you would if you were doing back
- Now, just start doing wrist curls (make sure that the fat grips can rotate around the handle) you can add a static hold in the end of the set to get the most out of it.
After doing your fat roll set, get onto a bench with a barbell (I load it up to 90lbs, you don’t need much weight for this)
Sit at the end of the bench, with your forearms on your thighs, palms up. (just like you would do if you were to perform a wrist curl) let the bar sink to the tips of your fingers and hold it there, it will stretch like crazy. Don’t let your hands touch your legs, it destroys the purpose of this stretch. Try to hold it for a minute, then cry.
It should look like this, just let the bar sink even lower to the tips of your fingers.
It is important that you have done a forearm exercise before doing this stretch, otherwise it will hurt in the wrong way.
Now, for the calves.
Two things: Massive contraction and massive stretch.
First, for the contraction:
I noticed this when I was about to stretch my back (I hang from a bar with 45-55kg (100-120lbs) hanging from my waist with a dipping belt)
As I was trying to reach the bar in order to strap myself to it, I had to stand on my toes and hold it there for a while. I got maybe one of the biggest calf pumps ever.
So what I would suggest is this:
Simply hang 45kg (100lbs) from your waist with a belt and get on the tips of your toes. Then begin to walk with small steps. With each step, contract your calves as hard as you can. Do that for a minute or two and tell me that your calves aren’t full of blood.
After doing that, move on to the seated calf raise machine.
Do one set in the regular DC-fashion. So a fast positive, a 5 second negative, and a 15 second stretch at the bottom. Really push that stretch to be as deep as possible.
Do a straight set to failure (which should come at about 12 reps).
The set will take about four minutes to perform, but don’t go light. You have to go lighter than usually but don’t be the guy who pushes baby weight (for themselves) and thinks it’s brutal.