28-Days-to-Lean Meal Plan
With the right plan and the right discipline, you can get seriously shredded in just 28 days.
Read articleIf you’ve been around the gym trenches, you have heard the term if you cannot grip it, you can’t rip it, and forearms play a big part in it. Forearm strength and endurance are critical in all grip-intensive exercises like deadlifts, chin-ups, and all row variations. The grip often fails before the intended muscle group trained is fatigued.
Forearm strength must be addressed and is a common weakness for many lifters. Because forearm strength and endurance are involved in many upper and lower body lifts, it pays to show them a little extra attention.
And stronger forearms mean more weight or repetitions on your grip-intensive exercise for more gains. Here we’ll dive into why the forearms are challenging to build, the benefits of training forearms, and four forearm exercises for your forearm flexing pleasure.
Why Are Forearms Hard To Grow?
Many forearm muscles, small and large, have varying fiber types, but most forearm muscles are slow-twitch dominant. Slow twitch dominant muscle groups like the forearms and calves are challenging to grow because they are endurance based because they rely on a steady supply of oxygenated blood to operate.
Another reason is genetics. A longer tendon and shorter muscle belly make the muscle harder to grow, while a shorter tendon and longer muscle belly make it easier. That you can blame or thank your parents for.
Let’s look beyond the vanity benefits to cover three vital benefits of strengthening your forearms.
There are many exercises to strengthen the forearms, but the four below will give you more for your forearm buck. No cans of spinach are required.