The forearm muscles are responsible for moving your wrists and hands in multiple planes. Different athletic activities also place different demands on your grip and forearms strength. It is important to take this versatility and mobility into account when selecting your forearms exercises. Wrist curls and lever lifts each address a different function of your forearm muscles.
Forearm Muscle Anatomy
Your forearms house muscles that are responsible for flexing and extending your wrists and fingers. The forearm musculature also rotates your hand palm-down or palm-up, which is also known as pronation and supination. Wrist curls primarily involve the wrist flexors. Reverse wrist curls are a forearm extension exercise, involving the extensor muscles on the knuckle-side of your forearm. The wrist lever recruits the biceps bracii and the supinator muscles.
Wrist Curls
Wrist curls can be performed with barbells, dumbbells, or handles attached to cable machine. This exercise is typically performed in the seated position, with your forearms resting on your knees, but wrist curls can even be done with a barbell held at waist height behind your back. Strengthening the flexor muscles with wrist curls benefit any activity that requires grip strength,. Such activities can range from gripping a tennis racket to gripping a handhold on a rock climbing wall.
Reverse Wrist Curls
Reverse wrist curls, performed palms down, can also be performed on a variety of equipment including barbells and dumbbells. One cause of elbow tendonitis is an imbalance in the strength of your forearm extensors and flexors. Reverse wrist curls can serve to strengthen the extensors and prevent such imbalances. Stronger wrist extensors are beneficial in activities ranging from a tennis backhand to stabilizing the hand while punching and blocking in boxing and many martial arts.
Wrist Lever Lifts
Wrist levers can be performed with specialized leverage bars, dumbbells loaded on one side, or even a simple sledgehammer. Lever lifts can also be used to train ulnar deviation. Supinating your wrist occurs in everyday activities as common as turning doorknobs. Athletic activities that require wrist supination include strikes in certain martial arts. Other movements requiring supination include arm wrestling, gymnastics skills performed on the rings, and sword parries and attacks in Olympic fencing.
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