Forearm Training

[bastionhd]

Currently doing chest & back, legs, shoulders & arms, rest and repeat. What would be the ideal day to add a forearm exercise such as a reverse curl? Currently doing 6 exercises on my shoulder & arm days (2 shoulder/2 biceps/2 triceps) so ideally I’d prefer not to add another exercise to these days.
If I add 1/2 sets of heavy reverse curls at the end of 1 (or both) of my leg days would this have a negative impact on my arm day the next day or would 24 hours of rest be sufficient?
Cheers

 

[concernedcatholic]

@bastionhd Forearms usually recuperate very fast for me, similar to calves.

I’d say do it as you planned, and accommodate if you end up too sore. It may take a bit of adapting but before long you’ll be able to use them pretty much any workout day so long as it’s not directly before heavy pulls. Pre fatiguing them from heavy pulls can be great as well, but don’t let grip strength be a limiting factor in any exercise other than grip specific ones

 

[joywager]

@concernedcatholic Ah forearms, the claves of the arms.

Mine have grown without ever having to directly target them. Same for my traps. The claves on the other hand, are stubborn as fuck.

 

[liannaj2]

@joywager my whole arms are the calves of my arms

 

[concernedcatholic]

@joywager I was in an almost opposite boat, largely hampered by being a former fat guy so my calves were relatively big for a beginner, before I really needed to do work specific to them. But forearm size was hard to see until I really successfully started to cut. And I mostly mean they both recover the same for me: relatively quick.

 

[bastionhd]

@concernedcatholic Thanks for the reply, will give it a shot for a few weeks and see how it goes.

 

[baitularqam]

@bastionhd Maybe try to superset your biceps and triceps exercises so you have more time for some forearm exercises.
Personally I do Upper on Monday and Friday morning, and those days I try to fix my elbow and forearm tendonitis with some wrist roller and weighted pronation/supination exercises at the end of day at home because I don't have the time to do it at the gym.

 

[mamatash]

@bastionhd Wrist rollers

 

[bastionhd]

@mamatash Have a homemade one which I haven’t used in years lol, does it work well?

 

[bastionhd]

@mamatash Damn nice, any specific rep/set range you recommend? Or would something like 2 x 12-15 be fine?

 

[mamatash]

@bastionhd I do 3 sets of 8-12 reps personally, I would add weight when the 12 reps starts becoming to easy. I do it twice a week

 

[mamatash]

@bastionhd Oh and yeah that sounds volume sounds good

 

[johnwgrieshaber]

@bastionhd Don't forget forearm flexion and extention. Wrist rotations for the pronator not a big muscle but looks freaky lol

 

[swhnly65]

@bastionhd Why not add it to your chest/back day? It’s not like it’ll impact your leg training (I’d think) and would be plenty of time to recover for arms

 

[bastionhd]

@swhnly65 Was thinking about that as well but maybe my forearms would be too fatigued after all my back exercises. Will give them a go after legs and see how it works out first and if not I’ll try them on my chest/back day

 

[born4victory]

@bastionhd If your forearms are burning out during back exercises you must have shit form. Acquire some lifting straps or fix your form and you won’t have that issue.

 

[singingmichelle74]

@bastionhd I do a very similar split, and I do forearms at the end of Arm days. But I superset most of the exercises on Arm day, so it ends up taking not too much longer than a regular workout to add in forearms at the end.

You could also try supersetting in forearms on Leg day. The shouldn't interfere with your leg exercises at all, with perhaps RDLs at the only exception.

 

[lisac]

@bastionhd Superset forearm exercises with alternating muscles groups

 

[nathan12]

@bastionhd I have a day only for arms and that's when i train forearms. I do the Reverse Curl, Wrist Curl, Wrist Extension. On my "off" day i do Pronation, Supination, Ulnar and Radial Deviation and also Grippers.

 

[mike230]

@bastionhd A lot of people say "Forearms recuperate very fast." Which, is valid. You have to go in slowly though and see if that's the case with you.

The reason I say this is because I'll do 3 sets of DB Wrist Curls (which are better for the majority of the forearm...reverse curls mainly only hit the brachioradialis and extensors) and will be sore up 3 days after. My calves are even fucking worse with that - I will be sore, occasionally, up to 4 days after with direct training (where as it's only 2-3 days after I just don't and do Goodmornings.) It was interfering with my cardio, so I stopped training calves, for instance.

If you're a freak that got weird fast-twitch forearms like I do, make sure you have straps or some kind of grip assistance for your back day. I do Chest-Legs-Back kind of split, so my forearm training is on chest day.

I would not do heavy ass reverse curls. That shit is taken care of with back work and bicep work. Just do higher rep reverse curls at the end of one of your pull days, wrist curls on push days, and a hammer curl on the second pull day...and you're set.