Mike Brewer

While it would be all too easy to take cheap shots at you here or to speculate that your undoubtedly woman-free lifestyle might actually help achieve this singular goal, I'll forget that you cursed me and wished that I'd die like a dog at the feet of all Muslims and help you out.

The forearms are hig-endurance muscles, just like the calves. They are used in huge numbers of repetitive movements each and every day. Every stroke on a keyboard, for example, involves the forearm. In that respect, they are harder to overload, and therefore tend to grow slower. The forearms are also hugely complex compared with other larger muscle groups. The quadricep, for example, is a huge muscle, but it's only really responsible for moving a single joint over a single direction of movement. The forearms, however, are involved in moving the wrist in a 360 degree rotation, and for opening and closing the hand, as well as in assisting the fingers in their individual motions. In other words, there are a whole lot of muscles, and they contract in so many different directions they are tougher to target. Put those two things together and you have a diverse high-endurance set of muscles that's tough to isolate with a single weight motion. Those are the obstacles. Now let's look at solutions.

If you want to make forearms grow, you have to find a way to overload them. As we've discussed, that's difficult to do, and the key is in a combination of what I call "pre-fatiguing" and then using heavy, heavy weight to create the overload. Here's a simple experiment to get an idea for the pre-fatigue phase.

Bend your elbows to their full bend so that your palms are out in front of you at roughly eye level. Now bend your wrists forward so you look like you're doing some kind of Tyrannosaurus impersonation. You need to keep everything bent to the extreme for this exercise. The bends in the elbows and wrists serve to isolate a piece of your forearm - the belly of the muscle on the inner arm - and will make the reps more focused. Now, all you need to do is grip as if you're tearing something apart. Flex hard throughout the exercise and make your fists as tight as you can while still keeping thebend in your wrist. It's uncomfortable, and it will make you sorely aware of your own lack of flexibility, but trust me. Now, do that movement as fast as you can (while flexing as if you're tearing something tough) for 100 repetitions, or as many as you can stand to do in one set. It's even more effective if your tearing gripping motion is done in sequence from pinky to forefinger. 100 reps should create a noticeable burn and a "pump" in the muscle. Immediately, do the next set to hit the upper forearm. It goes, as you might expect, the other way. Now let your arms hang down at your sides and bend your elbows 90 degrees so your forearms are parallel with the floor. Bend your wrists back so your fingers are pointing up at the ceiling. Now do the same gripping tearing motion (picture some kind of old kung fu movie Tiger Claw exercise and you'll probably be close) for another set of 100 reps. This time, the pump should be on the topside of the forearm, and your wrists should be aching and on fire. If not, repeat until both the top and bottom of your forearms are "pumped" and fatigued. Now you can begin the overload phase, which is what will make them grow.

One of the best tools for inspiring growth in your ofrearms is a simple stick, about two feet long, with a weight on the end. You want to select a weight you cannot rep with more than 6 times, so make it heavy. Better to go too heavy than too light, because you can always choke up on the stick to make reps easier. I currently use 20 pounds in the form of 2 ten-pound plates on the end of a kali stick, secured with big honking wraps of duct tape above and below.

Hold the stick at arm's length, withthe weight pointing downward. Exercise #1 will start and end in this position. Lift the weight using nothing but the wrist. The first direction you want to go is directly back toward your elbow. Try and touch your elbow with the weight. If you can do more than 6 reps, use more weight.
#2: Hold your arms at your sides with the weight pointing straight out the top of your fist. Now, using nothing but the wrist, try and bring the weight up and touch your shoulder. You probably won't have the range of motion to do it of course, but the motion is what counts. You'll notice that this is working the same group as the last exercise, but from a different point of resistance. A few sets and you'll see why it's important. You'll feel the pump in a different place within the muscle. That means you're doing it right.

Now set the stick weight aside and grab a straight curl bar. Pile on the weight, again making sure you can't do a full six reps. You want to do some reverse curls now. Do five sets of four to six reps, making sure failure occurs on the last rep of the set. Rest for a full minute between sets. This is important.

Next, do forearm curls thus: Using your four-to-six rep weight, lay your forearms on a bench (or your lap) so that just your wrists and hands fall off the edge. Curl the barbell using just your wrists. You should be feeling it in the belly of the muscle. I prefer the straight bar because it supinates the wrists and isolates the biggest parts of the muscle belly, which is what's going to give you size.

Last exercise, hammer curls. Use dumbells so you're doing each arm individually, and again, four to six rep weight. Failure on the last rep, and the last rep should be four, five, or six. Full minute rest between. You want to feel fresh at the start of each set, and shot at the end. Hold the dumbells naturally at your sides. Bring them up to 90 degrees (and not beyond!) just by bending the elbow. Do not turn the wrists over like a regular curl. Pause slightly at the top, and flex like a madman throughout the motion. This one will work the brachialis, which will give your forearms height and shape.

If you apply this program, you'll see results in two weeks or so, with noticeable gains coming in a month or two. Do it for a year, and I have no doubts that almost anyone can put two solid inches on their forearms. When I did it, my forearms grew from 16.5 inches to 18, and it took six months. You can skip a day between forearm workouts, but remember that the forearms are high-use muscles and the yrecover faster than some other muscles do. In other words, they can take the work. The secret is in prefatiguing and THEN doing your mass building sets. You have to wear out the muscles before shocking them with heavy weights, or you'll just end up seeing thicker wrists and stronger tendons instead of size gains. The idea of pre-fatiguing is to take the connective tissues (tendons) out of the equation and make the muscles actually do the work. It's an important step.

On your off days, do something like kali stickwork with heavy sticks or Japanese sword arts to keep the forearms working.

Hope this helps.

Oh, and I hope the Jews bulldoze your home.