forearm training

[alfresco]

This is fairly long so go grab a cup of coffee, a glass of LBA's (that's a free plug) a bottle
of beer, or spark up a cigarette, and make yourself comfortable. As is my nature, it
includes some back-story which I think is important to understanding my motivation and
my then current state of mind (insane), but I believe that it will all come together in the end.
At any rate, it was fun to write and I hope it will be equally fun to read.

I was sitting in the hot tub yesterday morning after my 3 hour walk in the woods.
Yes, I know, I have no life, and for some reason I got to thinking about a post in the
Article's Forum by a new member, his first message, in the Growth principles for beginners
section, having to do with forearm training. As a beginner, I like to drop in there now and
again to keep abreast of any recent developments.

And not wanting to piss in Big A's sandbox, I thought (yes, I know what your all thinking
. . . here we go again) it might be beneficial to carry over to this forum; my experiences
with forearm training. While this is clearly not an attempt to answer this individuals question,
Big A could do this far better than I, plus it's his sticky, but I do think that my experiences
might be beneficial if not downright humorous, i. e., the lengths some people, me, will go to
improve a body part.

Many years ago I embarked on a very serious and very strenuous forearm training regimen.
I had just been exposed to rock climbing, and tying to make good use of my reduced
bodyweight as a result of my attempt to be a full time vegetarian, I thought that having more
grip strength would be beneficial to my climbing. And like most things in life when you are
starting out, you think you know what is best, when in retrospect, I had so very much to
learn. In my case, I learned that there was not much, if any, carry over when it came to
grip strength and rock climbing. But I did manage to build a nice set of forearms along the way.

I did not want to quit weight training and just train in the climbing gym I had built in my
newly purchased house (more on that later) so I thought that if I did all my exercise in a
way that involved more of my grip strength, I could kill two birds with one stone. Plus, I
had an old forearm training article from Muscular Development magazine that included a
"forearm twist" machine and a new style wrist curl bar I wanted to try out. And never
being a person to do things half way, I started out by building the machine and then designing
and manufacturing various fat and oddly shaped exercise barbells and dumbbells.

The routine . . .

All this is from memory as I can't seem to locate my training records. Some things I am certain
of and some are a bit fuzzy, but it's about as accurate as it can be and is clearly true to the
spirit at the time. My training partner at the time was also consulted, just to double check
some of things I'm going to relate.

My workouts at the time started with squats. One of the good things about having a
fat bar around (3 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter) is it makes doing squats extremely
comfortable. Try it sometime. No more neck calluses and painful digging into the vertebras.

2. Upright rows with a fat bar, immediately followed by overhead presses with the same
weight / same bar. We also did fat bar dumbbell lateral raises from time to time. Just fat
bar presses or seated behind the neck presses were rarely done because the fat bar is
so easy on the grip when doing pressing movements and what's the point in that? We
mostly stuck with upright rows with a wide grip with a comparatively light weight because
of grip limitation.

3. Short fat bar bent arm pullovers, immediately followed by fat bar bent over rows. We tried
doing fat bar pulldowns and pulldowns with pinch grip on a rectangular bar but it proved way
to dangerous. Think about it . . . just imagine having your grip fail you, and having the weight
basket suddenly come falling down with you collapsing at the same time is a big shock. I may
be stupid, but I'm not that stupid. By the way, I did try and do 1 arms pulldowns with a
special short fat and rectangle bar. While it reduced to liability for injury, for some reason,
it was never very comfortable or result producing. Fat bar bent over rows, if and when you
grip fails, it fails safely. The bar just falls to the ground. Thud. And it did, all the time.

4. Occasionally, we would do fat bar bench presses or fat bar dumbbell fly's. Again, since
they did not really tax the forearms or grip strength, we avoided them. Also, I was never into
training my chest much for a couple of reasons, one of which is that if over developed when
you are young, it's one of the first things to sag when you get old. I won't go into that the
second thing is. And when I did train my chest, it was mostly utilizing dips and my chest
always responded favorably. Chest, back, and shoulders have always been early and
easy responders. My legs and arms have always sucked big time.

5. Fat bar barbell curls were usually what we did for biceps though sometimes we did incline
or seated dumbbell curls with fat bars. Maybe followed by a set up chin ups.

6. For triceps, we did lying triceps extensions with reverse grip (curl grip, for a explanation
of this, see the post about this exercise) immediately followed by a set of normal grip ext-
ensions. Then we did as many close grip chest press as we could. Sometimes we followed
this with a set of dips.

7. Deadlifts with a fat bar. We used various grips; a normal, palms opposing grip and
sometimes a normal, palms facing the front of the body grip which was far harder. Always
to failure and with a lighter weight that I could uses with a normal bar but surprisingly enough,
I got up to some pretty decent poundage's considering the inherent limitations. A helpful
hint though; we taped the bar, like we did all our forearm bars with wide, white fabric athletic
tape and used a ton of chalk so our hands, because of perspiration, would not slip.

All these exercises worked the forearms, produced a good pump, and warmed them up for
what was to follow.

Forearms . . .

1. We started by doing a set each on a supination / pronation machine I built that utilized
a round pulley attached to a chain that weighed, unfortunately I have forgotten now, so
many pounds per foot.

2. Side front and side rear write curls were next. The best way to describe this exercise
is imagine your hands hanging down by your side, palms facing you body, thumbs forward.
Now, imagine a straight bar of about 18 inches in length in each hand, protruding to your rear,
joined about half way out by another bar to keep them apart and connected. Kind of "H"
shaped with you in the middle.Now flex your up. We could handle far more weight when it
was to our rear, but could only use a very light weight when in front. I never really got the
hang of the exercise but it does work an entirely different function of the forearm muscle
if you think about it.

3. Seated wrist curls with a short fat bar or with a short rectangular bar. The fat bar worked
great but the rectangular bar you had to use a pinch grip and with your palm being open and
flat, I seem to recall not doing these very often as they really stretched the forearm muscles,
almost too much. The curved shape of fat bar was far more comfortable and seemed to
work just as well. Thumbs on top or under, we tried and did both.

4. Reverse wrist curls were also done with the short fat bar, forearms resting on the tops
of my thighs. We quickly followed this with a set, same weight, same bar, of reverse curls
to failure.

5. Fat bar behind the back wrist curls. For those of you unfamiliar with this exercise, you
do this one by standing up very straight with the bar behind you and wrist curling up to
a contracted position. The range of motion is somewhat short, but if you really contract
at the top, it can be very effective, especially when done with a fat bar.

6. A rectangle bar, pinch grip deadlift, just trying to hold on, with palms facing the body,
immediately followed by dead hangs from a normal diameter chin-up bar until we fell to earth.
The we picked up a set of pre-loaded rectangle shaped bar dumbbells with a pinch grip and
held on to them for a long as we could.

7. Lastly, we did the standard wrist roller, only this one was made from a large diameter
piece of pipe and we stood on top of a bench (would have stood on the roof, done it from up
there if the owner would have let us, we did ask though) so we could roll further and longer,
and we did this to failure.

We did the weights three times per week. And all this would take us something on the order of
one hour, with the majority of the time focusing on forearms alone. Much time was spent
setting things up and breaking them down, but we were lucky enough to be working out
in friends garage where we could do what we wanted and not be bothered by interruptions.
Plus we had that nice cold pint of beer waiting for us at the corner pub when we were finished.
That is if you could hold on to it. My forearms were usually so wasted that I could barely get
my key into the cars ignition.

Now get this . . . on my off days, I trained in the climbing gym I built in my garage. In there
I had another chin-up bar, a skinny ledge (which got thinner the further out you got) I attached
along the bottom of one of the roof rafters where I could do finger tip pull ups and hanging finger
tip traverses, a gymnastic peg board I built from maple hardwood with super thick dowel
handles, a fat gymnastic style climbing rope I bought at a marine supply store in SF, a huge
climbing wall littered with randomly shaped and placed holds (all hand made) and screwed
in place with sheet rock screws, a overhanging climbing wall with small, ladder like holds, and
a seldom used, poorly designed by me, overhanging crack simulator.

And across the street, down the road a bit, there was a four lane bridge over a creek. Under the
bridge, on the long smooth concrete support structures, we glued (with a very expensive, two
part epoxy that the highway system uses to attach the reflectors to the tarmac) granite holds
which I rummaged for at the local cemetery where the monument company deposited all their
scrap granite. Small bits and pieces that had one smooth side I would then attach under the
bridge so we could practice traversing to build up our finger strength and forearm endurance.
We did that for a while, until the drunks kept breaking bottles on the holds which left a pieces
of glass on them and littered our landing area. So this was pretty short lived but fun
while it lasted.

So I was training all the time, and climbing on the weekends and on vacation, literally
whenever possible. I certainly had more then my fair share of energy (on a ultra high
carbo diet, that helped) back then. Looking back on it now, I really don't see how I managed
to squeeze it all in. But I obviously did and I have zero regrets, well . . . maybe a few.


The results . . .

My forearm measured 12 1/8 inches before I started (with a 6 1/2 inch wrist). When I finished
this routine about 4 months later, it was a rock solid 13 inches. While this may not sound
like much, you have got to remember that I weighed about a buck fifty at the time. And
although my forearms are no longer that size, they seem to have maintained more than their
fair share of vascularity and strength.

My climbing improved dramatically. I skyrocketed through the beginning grades, ending
up as a solid intermediate lead climber, and able to easily follow a grade of so harder,
surpassing my very experienced climbing partner who had introduced me to the sport a
year or so earlier. He said he has never seen anybody improve so much in so little time
as me. Looking back, I credit very little of my progress to the forearm training (mostly
psychological) and do credit my progress to having a fantastic climbing partner / teacher
and us climbing as much as humanly possible that first spring and summer.

My grip strength did improve enormously during the course of our training. I know this
for a fact. Exercises that were downright impossible to do when I started, we easily
accomplished down the road. And while there was a unavoidable reduction in the
weights for some exercises that was never surmountable, overall, my physique did
not suffer. I was lean as a hounds tooth which helped, actually the leanest (mainly because
I was a vegetarian) and strongest I have ever been at that reduced bodyweight because I
did not give up the weights in the process.

I wish I had this much talked photo of me back then, but the other couple that took it
have since divorced and I have lost track of both of them. But when ever they saw me,
they would always talk about that photo and how great I looked. It was of me in shorts,
no shirt, in that great early morning light, walking back to camp after having had a wash
up in the river before setting out for a day of climbing. I don't think it was becasue I was
that spectacularly built, it was just that they had never seen me with my shirt off before.
I never wore short sleeved shirts, tight tee shirts or tank tops, or shorts for that matter,
even when climbing. So the look was one they were unprepared for that's all.

A stupid side note . . . like the real dickhead I was at the time, I was constantly testing my grip
strength by shaking hands with literally anybody and everybody I came in contact with. Big or
small men, I would shake, squeeze and hold on while I looked them straight in the eye to judge
their reaction. Even if I had seen them earlier that day, I would shake there hand again. I'm lucky
I didn't get punched. But who knows, maybe they thought I was running for a office.

The down side . . .

Eventually, I developed a terrible case of tendonitis in my right bicep's and left elbow. I was so
painful that I had trouble wiping my butt. (I know, more info than you need to know, but that is
how painful it was.) And it took forever to go way. About two years of self induced therapy
and adjustments to my training routine. But I really think it was "over climbing" that caused
my injury, not the barbell exercise with the funny bars. Aside from the constant icing and anti-
inflammatories, what I think contributed the most to my recovery, at least at the start, was
giving up being a vegetarian. When I saw a doctor about my injury, he said ". . . eat some meat.
You are not living in some third world country". And by doing so, adding more and better(?)
protein to my diet, I started to heal. I still had my injuries, injuries that I had to handle with kid
gloves for some time to follow. Then, it all just went away. Spontaneously so it seems.

Thinking back on it now, I think that all the forearm training may have actually prevented further
injury or more injuries, but I really have no way of knowing for sure.

And to the obvious question, what did I learn? . . . that's a subject for another post.

 

[Emperor]

Great read alfresco. some good exercises I have yet to try. question still remains though: to HIT them or not to HIT?

 

[MartyMcFly1]

read the whole thing. thats quite the forearm regimine.

 

[Dad]

An interesting post, al.

I noticed sometime back that yuo see very few powerlifters or strongman contestants with skinny forearms. I figured this was because mostly what these guys do is just try to hang onto a lot of very heavy things without having them fall out of their hands.

For years (and years, LOL) now I've not used straps on chins, deads, pulldowns, shrugs, etc - and almost never had problems with grip, or forearm size relative to everything else.

Certainly there are great routines for forearms, but just trying to hang on to really heavy things can do wonders!

 

[dalvare1]

im not sure if this is in there but DC posted a vid of a great forearm execise on I-M using a reverse grip cable curl. gotta do it right though check out the vid its a great exercise

 

[Ashop]

read the whole thing. thats quite the forearm regimine.

Yes,,,quite the routine,,,good informative info.

 

[trainlikeaboss]

I've recently took to hitting forearms twice a week because I feel they are lagging (at least to my standards). My typical routine includes cable wrist curls using a straight bar that is able to spin, first with a pronated grip for three sets followed by supinated grip. For the supinated grip the arms rest on the legs. Then I will usually superset standing wrist curls with reverse curls using an ez bar, with the forearms resting on the body for the reverse curl and hanging straight down for the regular curl. I used to use dumbells and lay my arm on a bench but that seems to be hard on the wrist. Can't confirm with measurements but I feel that I have seen some improvement.

 

[HillbillyHill]

using straps

I don't use straps. strengthen your grip you strengthen your forearms.