How to Get Big Forearms

Your forearms are probably the most exposed part of your body. People can see them when you're wearing a t-shirt or similar, and if you roll up your sleeves they're also visible. Grip strength is also directly related to the strength of your forearm. If you want to have a mean handshake or are tired of having skinny forearms / wrists, then read on.

The forearm consists of three major muscle groups: The brachioradialis, which is an elbow flexor and mainly used to bring the forearm toward the upper arm, especially with a pronated (palms facing out) grip. You also have the wrist flexors, which affect grip strength and how well you can bend your wrist toward the bottom of your forearm. Finally, you have the wrist flexors which affect how well you can open your hand and pull your wrist back. This is situated on the top of your forearm and is probably the hardest to build.

Now that you know what muscle groups you have to work, I'll list a few of my favorite exercises for working each one. If you're doing a three day spit, you should be doing one of these lifts each day.

Brachioradialis: This is the easiest muscle in the forearm to work and will make it appear wider from side to side.

In order to work this muscle, I recommend doing reverse preacher curls. That means you do the preacher curls with your hands facing out. This'll put a lot of strain on this part of your forearm as well as the brachialis.

Another good way to work the brachioradialis is to do pull ups. Pull ups are one of the best exercises around and put a tremendous amount of strain on both your shoulders and back. What few people know, however, is that they also work your forearms really well. You should take a medium grip when doing these.

Wrist Flexors: These are probably the most useful muscles in the forearm because they directly affect your grip strength and how well you can pull something toward you with your wrist. They're also fantastic for arm wrestling! There really is only one way to work these and that's with wrist curls. When doing this exercise, you should let the barbell roll to the end of your fingers and then curl it back up into your hand and then bring your entire hand up toward your forearm. I specifically recommend the standing barbell wrist curl, where you do this standing and with the barbell behind your back.

Alternatively, you can hold onto heavy weights or squeeze stuff, but this isn't as effective.

Wrist Extensors: This muscle group isn't that useful, but it's pretty easy to work. You do the same as you'd do with the wrist flexors, except keep your hands closed and bring your hands back so that your knuckles are coming toward your forearm.

For more information on how to get big, visit my blog: Build Muscle Fast.