Exercises For Strengthening The Forearm

The forearm muscles can be overlooked when designing a muscle-strengthening program. However, they help us perform many vital functions for everyday living. These functions include flexing the arms at the elbow, flexing and extending the wrist joints, twisting the hands and wrists, and flexing and extending the fingers. These uses are crucial for athletes that have to manipulate objects with their hands and arms. There are many resistance exercises that can help strengthen your forearm muscles.

Curls

Although curls primarily exercise the muscles on the front of the upper arms, several forearm muscles help flex the arms at the elbow joints. To perform curls, stand with a dumbbell in each hand at your sides, with your palms facing your body. Flex your arms to move the weights toward your shoulders. As you lift the weights, turn your hands so your palms face toward your shoulders. Once your arms are fully flexed with the weights close to your shoulders, reverse the movement back to the starting position.

Forearm Twists

Forearm twists exercise the muscles that rotate the hands. Hold a dumbbell in each hand as you sit on a bench. Rest your forearms on your thighs, with your hands hanging over your knees. Begin with your palms facing each other. Twist the dumbbells so your palms face downward, then twist in the opposite direction until your palms face upward.

Hand-Grip Exercise

Repeatedly squeezing a hand-grip device or a tennis ball works on the muscles of the forearm that flex the fingers and palm. This exercise can be done anywhere and while you are performing other activities.

Wrist Curls

Wrist curls exercise the muscles that flex the hand at the wrist. Start in the same position as forearm twists, but with your palms facing up. Flex your hands until your palms face toward your body, then slowly extend your hands until your palms face forward. Do not move your trunk or legs during the exercise.

Wrist Extensions

Wrist extensions work the muscles that extend the hand at the wrist joint. Perform them like wrist curls, but begin with your palms facing downward.

Wrist-Roller Exercise

A wrist-roller device consists of a small bar or stick, some rope and a weight. The rope is tied to the center of the bar at one end and the weight at the other. Grip the bar on each side of the rope, with your palms facing downward. Extend your arms away from your chest at shoulder height so the weight hangs near the ground. Repeatedly flex your right hand, followed by your left, to turn the bar so the rope winds around it. Stop when the weight reaches the bar. Then, repeatedly extend your right hand, followed by your left,, to unwind the rope. Also do the exercise by extending your hands to wind the rope and flexing them to unwind the rope.