Forearms

[jonbid]

i was wondering how i could imrpve strength in my forearms. I have been told that nuckle push ups are good, but i thought they helped wrist and shoulder strength not forearms.

does anybody know of exercises that I can do to strengthen my forearms. I havent got access to machines or heavy weights but i have some weights.

any help?

[Szczepankiewicz]

Get a coffee can, fill it with rocks.

Tie a rope around it.

Tie the other end of the rope to the middle of a stick.

Roll the can up. Roll the can down.

[ryanhall]

Wrist curls can help too

[jonbid]

is there such an exercise as upright rowing? where you lift from the front up to under the chin... would that help?

[eXcessiveForce]

instead of a coffee can use a 50lbs weight and if you want to make it real hard stand on a chair with a really long rope, or off of a second story balcony, But it hurts like a bugger.

you need to roll it up on to the stick and then roll it back down again.

Also remember to invert your grip.


or you can do something I teach my students called lizards.

YOu need a partner, They hold your feet up in the air while you lay fave down on the ground. Then lift yourself off the ground like you are going to do wheelbarrows. but instead push youself and pull your arms up and switch them. Left goes forward while right goes back slightly. you will slowly move across the floor. The idea is to push off as high as you can so that you can swith your arms.

Good luck.

[Kingston]

strengthens bone not muscle....of forearm

knuckle pushups (or regular pushups im not sure) strengthen the bone in your forearms, that is if you do them regularly. this is because it would be a wieght bearing exersize for the bones in your forearms.

i also heard it allows you to punch harder...dout that...but who knows.

[Mayur]

You can try some of these exercises for ur forearms -

Hold a newspaper in ur hand and crush it with ur hand, hold the crushed newspaper in a tight fist in the end and crush another when finished

Pulling objects can help a lot

Make a tight fist and roll ur wrists for about five-ten minutes and then reverse the direction

Hold something which can't be crushed and try to crush it as much as u can get a really strong grip on it and hold this position for as long as u can

Hope this helps

Regards,
Mayur

[jonbid]

hey, thanks for the ideas, i was talkin to someone the other day and he suggested badminton... i know that might sound strange but i had a go the other day an my arm was killin, but it was nly one arm and it seems a bit strange to take up another sport just to help another.... or does it?



thanks for the ideas

[RBFC]

Almost any exercise that involves your grip will work the forearms very well. The muscles that work your grip lie in the forearm. Some of my favorites are the wrist roller (mentioned before), deadlifts, bar hangs, farmer's walk, and wrist levers.

You may also read my article on grip training at www.mmaringreport.com which outlines the basics of grip training.

Try this "special" little exercise: Take two of the cylindrical pads, like the ones used on a leg curl, that are about 4" in diameter. Place them over the handles of dumbbell bars, and then load the plates. You will be gripping the dumbbells by squeezing the foam. Pick up the dumbbells and walk with them (keeping your fingertips pointing downward) so that your squeezing is the only way you can hold on. You can also do any other dumbbell exercises with this set-up, however, the pinch grip is only worked when the fingertips are pointed down. Otherwise, the dumbbells are "laying" in your palms.

If you have any questions about any of the exercises described above, or about the contents of the article, I'll be glad to help.

Lee

[jonbid]

erm i read the article and there are some things i learnt, but I have to say i am not in a position to use any machines or buy any new equipment purely for my grip, I do kickboxing, and I am 15. Being the only person in my family interested in martial arts i try to do exercises using nothing else but the resistance offered by my weight. This is why i do things like nuckle push ups etc.

I have weights but they arent heavy, i found that curling them palm down helps.

could pull ups help? I have a bar.

[Biker]

Pull-ups will help build grip endurance and strength.

Another thing would be to take a Sunday edition newspaper, open it up and alternate between hands wadding up each individual page. It's killer.

[jonbid]

hey i goignt o try that tomorow, i make sure everyone finished readin it, hehehe or not.

[RBFC]

Hanging from the chinning bar will improve your grip strength in the position that your hand is formed while gripping. I'd recommend that you get a tennis ball to squeeze (if you're on a budget) so that you can actually do the "squeezing" motion in your workout. You can progress to doing one-armed hangs from the bar, and add weight to your body once that gets too easy. Once you can hang for 30 seconds (or so) you should increase the resistance in order to build strength, otherwise you'll build endurance with little overall strength increase.

The same situation occurs when wadding up newsprint. The effort required per repetition is fairly low, so you will get an endurance-related "burn", but improve your strength very little. It's like taking a 5 lb. dumbbell and doing curls: eventually you'll get a burn, but your strength won't increase much.

You must train for grip strength by using the same schemes that you train to increase strength in any other muscle group.

Lee

[Zlatan]

Originally posted by eXcessiveForce
instead of a coffee can use a 50lbs weight and if you want to make it real hard stand on a chair with a really long rope, or off of a second story balcony, But it hurts like a bugger.

Im sorry but theres no way you wrist roll with 50lb's of weight, i use 15 pounds and i can only roll them up 4 times each grip.

[RBFC]

With standard-type wrist rollers, you can "jerk" the weight upward quickly, then roll the cord while there is less tension on it. You can use much more weight this way, and it is HARD to avoid accidentally cheating like this.

To make it truly a grip/forearm exercise (rather than an upright row), mount the wrist roller on a horizontal bar at shoulder level. Now, you can ONLY use your rotation of the handle to raise the weight. You are no longer able to lift the weight and can only raise it with wrist power.

Picture sliding a larger pipe about 12" long over a 1" barbell bar. The rope and weights are attached to the short pipe, and wind up and down on this short pipe. The short pipe spins freely on the bar, and the bar supports the weight. The weight will unwind quickly if you don't grip the pipe, and the rotation of your wrist is the only way to raise the weight further.

Lee