exercise for forearms: 7 Best Exercises for Forearms

Exercises for forearms are meant to stretch and strengthen the important muscles in your hands, wrists and elbows.

These muscles are used in everyday life for daily tasks, such as opening a glass jar or carrying things. They play an important role in sports, such as golf, racquetball and basketball too.

Exercises for forearms can also help increase your grip strength, which is related to upper body strength.

For heavy lifting and strength training, strong forearms and a good grip are of utmost importance. Stronger forearms let you squeeze your weights harder, engage more muscles and generate more force in every move.

A strong grip is also essential in daily life, as it helps you carry, hold and lift items with ease.

Best Exercises to Get Strong Forearms

Perform these seven exercise to get stronger forearms:

1) Farmer's Carry

Farmer's carry. (Image credits: Freepik)

Farmer's carry is an essential exercise that can help you build a vice-like grip and strong forearms. It also helps develop a stronger core and improve shoulder stability.

Here's how you can perform this exercise:

Stand upright with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms resting on your sides.
Keep a set of dumbbells or kettlebells on the floor, one next to each foot.
Squat down to grab a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand.
Engage your core, and pulling your shoulder blades down and back, stand up.
Start walking with your head up, shoulders back and core muscles contracted.
Walk for a fixed time or distance.
You may perform 2-3 sets for 20 yards.

2) Plank with Shoulder Taps

Plank with taps. (Image credits: Pexels/ Andrea Piacquadio)

Plank shoulder taps are an excellent exercise that target various muscle groups in the body, but they are preferred mostly for the excellent arm workout they provide. Plank shoulder taps work out your biceps and also strengthen your forearms - as the entire body's weight is borne by one arm when the other is performing the tap.

Here's how you can perform this exercise:

Start by getting into a high plank position with your hands directly under your shoulders and your feet hip-width apart.
Your spine must be neutral, neck and back straight, and your hips aligned with your shoulders.
Your core must be engaged and your glutes squeezed, so that your body remains flat and stable.
Raise your left hand to tap your right shoulder, and set it back down. Your body weight will be borne by your right hand when your left arm is in the air.
Repeat the process with your other hand. Alternate tapping both shoulders in this way, and aim for 15 taps on each sides. Perform three sets.

3) Pinch Carries

Pinch carries are an excellent exercise that can activate your forearms by forcing you to squeeze your fingers so that the plates don’t separate. You'll have to pinch two plates (or more) together so that they don’t slip.

Grab two plates, and pinch them together, making sure to keep the smooth side out. Do that with both hands simultaneously.
Stand upright; contract your core, and start walking.
You may do 2-3 sets for 15 yards to get muscular forearms.

4) Towel Curl

Towel curls. (Image credits: Pexels/ Cottonbro studio)

Towel curls target the bicep muscle as well as the forearm flexors, brachialis and brachioradialis.

Wrap a thick towel around a barbell such that your hands are still able to completely close when you grasp it.
Hold the barbell with an overhand shoulder-width grip, placing the bar in front of your thighs.
Making sure to keep your upper arms stable, curl the bar.
As you will be reducing your reps with each set, add more weight each time.

5) Plate Curls

You can build big, menacing forearms by increasing the strength of your pinching grip. You can train this grip by varying the ways in which you hold your weight.

To perform plate curls, grab a plate by its end plate, and curl it like you would a dumbbell. Perform 5-6 sets of 4-8 reps; use a heavier plate if you can do more reps.

6) Towel Pullups

Towel pullups. (Image credits: Pexels/ Tima Miroshnichenko)

Working on your grip is the key to working on your forearms. Pull-ups are a great way to build a strong grip and thick arms; however, gripping a towel instead of the bar can take this exercise to the next level.

You'll now have to crush the towels just to stay up, and squeeze even tighter to pull yourself up.

Wrap two towels around a pullup bar, and perform your pull-up by grabbing each towel.
Keep your chest up and your shoulders down as you rise.
If you are unable to do that in the beginning, start with just one hand grabbing a towel and the other hand grabbing the pullup bar. Alternate sides, and complete the same number of reps as you did on the other side.

7) Grip Crushers

All the exercises mentioned earlier engaged both your forearms and plenty of other muscles. However, using hand grippers can isolate your grip and forearms and strengthen them specifically.

To perform this exercise, wrap your hand around a grip crusher, and squeeze it hard till the two handles touch.
It will be easier if you warm up with easier resistances first.
Perform 2-3 sets with a gripper than you can fully close 5-10 times. If you are able to do more, advance to a harder gripper.

Try out the above-mentioned seven exercises to get muscular, sculpted and strong forearms.