Are Your Forearms Failing? Three Common Lifts That Improve Forearm Strength

Are Your Forearms Failing? Three Common Lifts That Improve Forearm Strength

This Article was originally posted on www.FitnessGeared.com ,a Fitness Bodybuilding Discussion Forum on the web.


If you are one of the countless individuals out there that struggle with many exercises due to the grip strength lacking, then it is time to revamp your training habits. Too often it’s those damn forearms that give out before anything when performing forearm intensive exercises. Unfortunately, most exercises use forearms in some way or another. So like tires on a car meet the road, your forearms is what holds on to your iron in the gym.


Exercises To Do Often

Thankfully, these three select exercises are some that everyone should be doing anyway! The techniques explained can help you overcome the forearm problem in your lifts.


1. Deadlifts


Many will argue that deadlifts can be one of the most important exercises for every type of exercise routine, whether your goal is fat burning, muscle building, aesthetics, powerlifting, etc. Deadlifts will be in there somewhere. If the weakest link in this exercise is your forearms giving out, then it can hinder your ability to get the most out of the lift for all the other muscles this exercise works on.

What to do?

A common mistake you will see is that many people will use lifting straps all the time with deadlifts. No, this is absolutely not saying that lifting straps are the worst thing in the world. In order to improve your grip strength though, you do need to challenge them. A good route to take, is to refrain from using your lifting straps as long as you can especially on the lighter warm up sets. Doing so, progressively hold off from using them more and more each time you work this exercise into your routine.


2. Pull-ups


Obviously pull-ups is not 100% doable for every exerciser out there. Be sure to include the exercises that will progress you to a full blown pull-up even if you can or cannot perform one. These may include assisted pull-ups, pull-downs, chin-ups etc. Too often again, you might find yourself letting go, dropping, and resting for a few seconds to get some of that grip strength back and then jumping back up to complete your last few repetitions. First of all, kudos to you for knowing that you are not done until you are done with every last rep. But, it also sucks to know that as you give your forearms a break, you are also giving the rest of your muscles a break.

What to do?

Instead of focusing on the pain in the forearms, train your body and mind to not stop until the pain in your back muscles is un-bearable. Why? Because your forearms just need to get used to this kind of pain. When gripping the bar, instead of grasping it as tight as you possibly can, instead train your forearms as hooks to just keep your body suspended in the air. If the pain in the forearms still continues to arrive first, then a little bit more secure of a grip might go a long way as well. Make sure to use a bar that has the “sticky” rubber feeling to secure your grip. Also in this case with pull-ups, you could also find benefit from using gym chalk. If these methods can prevent you from dropping down for a second to re-enegrize the forearms, the strength gains in the forearms, as well as the back will follow as well.


3. Shrugs


Very similar to deadlifts because you are holding a crap ton of weight, and again your forearms are the little guys keeping it all together. Although the movement of the shrug is not as labor intensive as a deadlift, too often are we taking that short rest to regain that grip strength. This exercise yes does improve grip strength (like many others) but we are looking here to get some solid traps! So we need to find out a way to get those forearms trained in a way that any amount of weight should be no problem.

What to do?

As you may have guessed, first things first is to not use lifting straps as long as you possibly can. Again, doing so will just limit the gains in your forearm strength, and eventually be much weaker than the rest of your muscles. Utilizing gym chalk is a great way to secure that grip as well, and keep your hands grasped as you fight through the pain. You can also find great benefit from using a product out there called Fat Gripz. This little piece of gym equipment basically turn the diameter of whatever bar you are holding into a much fatter one. Overall in order for your hands to keep a hold of these rubber grips, you will use a lot more forearm strength in order to keep a hold for long. This method is very popular, and will train your forearms just like you train any other part in the body to improve its strength.