Ok, Lately I've been doing this forearm routine: I use a 10 pound weight, and lay my forearms on my thighs. I then curl my wrist upwards, palm facing up, then palm facing inwards, then palm facing down. Today i felt a minor pain in my wrist but it went away after i finished. I was wondering if this exercise had any negative effects, such as putting too much strain on my wrist. I really hope that in fact im wrong, and its helping, because this is the best damn forearm routine ive ever tried.
Listen to your body. One time pain is usually just a bone or tendon allignment. But if the same pain re-occurs then the exercise may be causing some damage. You should modify it, or drop the weight, or stop doing it for a couple of weeks and start again. If none of these works then stop the exercise. If you start to notice the pain in any other movements you should go get it checked out by a doctor.
I'd suggest dropping the forearm curls that you described, not only because it's giving you some grief but because they're a waste of time as far as MA goes. Think about it, you don't really need to move your wrist backwards and forwards in a fight that much, do you? You much better off working your grip. Some suggestions are holding plate weights at the top with just your fingers and thumb, doing chinups holding onto a towel. There's a few others that are good for grip, but don't worry about your forearms too much, if you just want big forearms, you can do your curls, but generally your forearms will get exercised in most of your weight lifting (holding the bar)
Thanks guys, Yeah, if the pain happens again, Ill find another routine. But as far as not caring about my forarms to much, ...neeaaahh, Ill never stop. I reaaaly dont think inproveing my forarms are a waste for MAs at all.
You could do pushups and biceps curls for your forearm bones and muscles; working the forearm muscles in isolation isn't really necessary. The pain is probably stressed tendons, and could just as easily go away or get worse, depending on how you treat it.
Ahh But you are wrong You are wrong my friends isolating the forearms are a good idea! Forearms are not like other muscles, I agree they get little work when curling and stuff like that but they need isolation many times forearms are disgarded when in reality they should be closely obsevered. Think about this some people say forearms are small muscles eeeeernt wrong forearms are as long as the distance from your shoulder to your wrist if you were to unwrap the muscle. To train forearms for the martial arts keep doing your exercise but increase the amount of reps so you get that real good burn so I would say about 30 sum odd number or reps for 3 sets.( The reasoning behind this is forearms recover quickly just like the abs and should be trained very often, and forearms react to endurance or longevity training trust me on this one.) All the greats have great forearm strength Lee, Ali, Arnold
I don't agree..........at all Isolation is an accessory to a good routine made up of compound lifts How are they not like other muscles? what does length have to do with anything? Why're you looking for a 'burn'? Burn's don't necessarily mean anything, squats don't burn as much as leg extensions, but what's the better exercise? The 30 reps thing is just plain bad advice, way too many reps for ANY exercise; dumb kids go and do lots of reps in search of a pump which is useless except for making you look temporarily big. I'm confused, what does longevity have to do with forearms?
Sorry, what? According to my anatomy text, the brachioradialis originates just below the deltoid tuberosity, about one third of the way up from the distal end of the humerus. The extensor carpi radialis longus originates just before the lateral epicondyle of the humerus. In fact the brachioradialis is the longest forearm muscle I can find, and no unwrapping about it. Many of the muscles that control finger movement are shorter, originating on the radius, ulna, or interosseous membranes.
I disagree with your workout methods caleo14, but as for thinking that forearms play a large role in MAs, there is plenty of reasons why, just search around.
Christ's sake words are meaningless here. To everyone who seems to think that I've said that forearms are useless in MA I didn't say that. I simply said that their are better (being more useful in MA) exercises for your forearms. Wrist curls is not a needing in action, because very rarely do you wrist curl your opponent. However, depending on what kind of MA you do, you may have a lot of grappling, therefore, your finger flexors which are also located in your forearm (that's why their called forearm exercises) are quite important in MA. Basically there are two types of muscles in your forearms, and bear with me, cause I'm simplifying a hell of a lot here. Forearms extensors and flexors which move the wrist back and forth, then there's the finger flexors and extensors, which move your fingers around, in grappling, they're the ones you use. So therefore, exercises like plate pinches, farmer walks, and alot of heavy lifting (oooh yeah ) builds up this part of your forearm. That is a bold statement and you really need to back it up well (better). Bruce Lee did a HELL of a lot of forearm work, but he exercised his finger extensors/flexors so that he could quickly grapple people and to be able to fling them away (maybe he did some forearm flexors/extensors exercises for this, but it would be minority). Arnold Schwarzenegger (spelling, sorry Arny fans) is a Body Builder first of all, NOT a MA, two very different things. Indeed he's stronger than the average ox, but BBers train a lot of isolation, hell, they train a lot full stop. This is why he would of done Forearm curls (if he did, and I'd say he most likely would have). Ali, I know little of him, but the only forearm strenght that would come into play for him being a boxer (no grappling I believe) would be making sure that his wrist stays straight when he lands his blow (forearm curls are not necessary in building up that much strength). So to recap, forearm curls are great if you want big forearms, go ahead. But as a MA I'd much rather spent my time in the gym squatting or working on my core. THE END
Sack the crappy forearm curls and do farmers walks. Pick up the biggest dumbells you can handle, walk around either for time or steps. Keep doing it and watch the improvements in your grip, it will be 10X better than using lame forearm curls. They are for bodybuilders. There are TONS of great gripping exercises, don't neglect them by doing forearm curls. www.ironmind.com is a great gripping resource, check out the grip tip for some more great exercises.
And thus, the mod hath spoken. And you shall obey the mod, or be forever doomed to a life without massively heavy dumbbells and short rep sets.
Yep I agree whole heartedly with Adam. Get rid of that wrist curl crap and hit up the farmers walk (best damn exercise in the world). If you dont believe me, grab your dumbells and go for a 100m walk with them. You could also get a gripping machine (hard to come by), they work your forearms like crazy. Get the fattest bar you can buy and use that, mine is 2inches at the gym, you can even get 3inch ones. After your wrist get stronger, add a layer of sticky tape to your bar or dumbells after eveyworkout. You will still being doing your chinups, dips, barbell row etc, but it was also tax the hell out of your wrists and foreamrs.
Whether that was a joke or not, I liked it I'm not a total freak about low rep sets though, I just did 4 sets of 40 dumbell swings this afternoon!
Do the research DO the research forearms respond to high reps and not short ones and as far as forearm curls go they are helpful for the martials arts Im just telling you what I know I have great forearm and forearm strength Im not here to argue but just state the facts anyone who has studied bodybuilding, weight lifting and martial arts should know this
No dumbells Ok, So im gonna give this farmers walk thing a try, seeing as how im farily open minded. Now, I dont have large dumbells, so im thinking two pails of water or sand? Now, the handles on my pails are really skinny, should i make them thicker by wrapping something around them to better fit my hand and widen my grip?
water or sand-filledbuckets will work fine. You can thicken up the handles if you want, but it's not strictly necessary; just makes a good thing better. Calleo: How about you cite some examples of your own that show you're right, and we'll go from there. Making a claim is one thing, but backing it up with evidence will get all of our attentions.
Good Idea Yea youre right I do need to back my argument so here ya go (We want high reps for endurance right) All sites support forearm training Flex Bodybuilding Article http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KFY/is_7_21/ai_107422294 (note the length of the forearm in this article) Martial Arts And Fitness Information http://www.totalfitnesssolutions.com/wrist.html Just for starters Im not disagreeing with the farmers walk are any of those exercises I'm just saying high reps and pay attention to your forearms
Well this is what WE'RE saying. Don't worry about doing wrist curls. PLEASE give me an example of when you could wrist curl your opponent to the ground, cause i would LOVE to hear of how you did that. :bang:
