Most people work religiously on their biceps and triceps but don’t give much attention to their forearms. Without proper development of forearms, you won’t get a balanced physique.
If you want to increase the size and strength of your forearms, you have to train them directly like the other muscle groups. However, forearms don’t need that much stimulus.
In this article, I’ll give you the seven best forearm exercises with dumbbells to build strength and size. But before that, let’s understand the anatomy of forearms.
The Forearm Anatomy
Before understanding how to train and grow a particular muscle, we need to know the anatomy of that muscle. This helps us build a better mind-muscle connection that leads to more growth.
The forearm muscle can be divided into two parts – flexors and extenders. Both have different locations and functions.
1. Flexors (Anterior)
If you place your forearm on a table with your palms up, the muscles from elbow to wrist come under the flexors. These muscles are responsible for the flexion of the wrists and fingers.
Whenever we hold a dumbbell or barbell with our forearms resting on a pad and palms opening upwards, the flexing of the wrists trains these flexor muscles.
Anterior forearm muscles include:
- Flexor carpi ulnaris
- Flexor carpi radialis
- Palmaris longus
- Pronator teres
- Pronator quadratus
- Digitorum superficialis
- Digitorum profundus
- Flexor pollicis longus
2. Extensors (Posterior)
Extensors are located at the posterior side of the forearms (opposite side of the forearms). That means, when we put our forearms with palms facing down, the muscles from elbow to wrist are called extensors.
These muscles are responsible for the extension of the wrists. When we rest the forearm on a pad with the palm facing downward holding a dumbbell, writing the curls would train the extensor muscles.
Like flexors, extensors also consist of a long list of muscles. Posterior forearm muscles include:
- Brachioradialis
- Extensor indicis
- Carpi radialis longus
- Carpi radialis brevis
- Digitorum
- Digiti Minimi
- Extensor carpi ulnaris
- Supinator
- Abductor pollicus longus
- Extensor pollicus longus
- Extensor pollicus brevis
Here we don’t need to remember the name and position of these muscles. Just focus on the two different groups – flexors and extensors, their functions, and how we can train them.
Summary: Forearms consist of flexors and extensors:
- Flexors – Anterior forearm muscles, trained by flexing the wrists with palm facing up.
- Extensors – Posterior forearm muscles, trained by curling the wrists with palm facing down.
Why Dumbbells Are Good For Forearm Exercises?
Well, if you want to increase the strength and size of your forearms, then some dumbbell exercises are good enough. You don’t need any fancy machines or any other equipment.
In fact, dumbbells have their own benefits over barbells for training forearms. Here are some of them:
More Range of Motion
While exercising with dumbbells, we are not bound to move both hands in coordination. We can move each hand separately and stand the joint independently as far as we can. But with a barbell, our range of motion Is limited.
Helps In Correcting Muscle Imbalance
Muscle imbalance means one limb or one side of muscles is stronger than the other. This often happens with forearms. The forearm muscles of our dominant hand become stronger than the other forearm.
Forearm exercises with dumbbells are very helpful in correcting muscle imbalance. Unlike barbells, dumbbells allow us to do unilateral movements (one hand at a time). So we can do one or two extra sets with the weaker arm to fix this imbalance.
Gives More Variations
Dumbbells provide the luxury of exercising with multiple wrist positions. Different wrist positions hit different forearm muscles that help in the complete development of forearms.
As our wrists are free to rotate individually, we can do any exercise with a pronated, supinated, or neutral grip. We can go heavy or light. So overall, forearm exercises with dumbbells are good for increasing the strength and size of forearms.
Summary: Forearm dumbbell exercise helps in:
- Providing a better range of motion than a barbell.
- Eliminating muscle imbalance by allowing unilateral movements.
- Training with a variety of grip styles.
Forearm Exercises With Dumbbells
As we understand the basic anatomy of forearms, let’s look forward to training them. Here are the 7 best exercises that are enough to train forearms with just a pair of dumbbells.
1. Dumbbell Wrist Curls
Dumbbell wrist curls is my personal favorite when it comes to doing forearm workout. I add this dumbbell exercise to every client’s forearm workout routine.
How to do dumbbell wrist curls:
- Put a flat bench in front of you and kneel on your knees.
- Take a moderate to lightweight dumbbell in your hand.
- Place your forearm on the bench with your palm facing upwards. Make sure your wrist is in the air.
- Now start with the dumbbell at the lowest position. Squeeze your hand and curl the dumbbell using the wrist as a hinge joint.
- Now slowly rotate the dumbbell back down and repeat for 15-30 reps.
I recommend you to do this exercise unilaterally, which means one hand at a time. In this way, you can build better mind-muscle connections and it also helps in fixing muscle imbalance.
It is one of the best exercise for flexors. Add at least 2 sets of this in your workout and for better focus, do one hand at a time.
2. Wrist Curls (Reverse Grip)
This exercise is a different version of wrist curls. Here we are doing it to train our forearm extensor muscles. The setup of this exercise is similar to that of the wrist curls.
How to do reverse grip wrist curls:
- Put a flat bench in front of you and kneel on your knees.
- Hold a lightweight dumbbell in your hand.
- Place your forearm on the bench with your palm facing downwards. Make sure your wrist is in the air.
- Starting with the lowest position, curl the dumbbell up.
- Slowly lower the dumbbell to the starting position and repeat for 15-30 reps.
The position of this exercise is such that the range of motion is less than the normal wrist curls.
Also, it is slightly difficult to maintain the posture for this exercise. Feel free to skip this exercise if you feel any pain in your wrists while doing this. There are other alternatives too.
Normal wrist curls are for flexors and reverse grip wrist curls are for extensors. You can do both of them in supersets.
3. Hammer Curls
The hammer curl is very effective for the development of forearms and biceps. This is one of the most important forearm exercises with dumbbells that you can not miss for the complete development of your arms.
The primary target of this exercise is the brachioradialis muscle of the forearm extensors and the brachialis muscle of the upper arms. Development of these muscles gives a massive and wider look to your forearms and upper arms.
How to do hammer curls:
- Hold moderate to heavy dumbells dumbbells in your hands, in such a way that your palms face each other.
- Start curling the dumbbell alternately, curl up one dumbbell, take it down, then curl up the other dumbbell, and put it down. This completes your one rep.
- While curling, make sure your shoulders do not move, as it might lead to injury.
Repeat this for required repetitions.
Hammer curls targets brachioradialis and brachialis muscle which makes it a must do exercise for bigger arms.
4. Dumbbell Reverse Curls
As with hammer curls, reverse curls target your brachioradialis muscle. This exercise is better than hammer curls when it comes to training the brachioradialis muscle.
Studies show that the primary target of this exercise is the brachioradialis muscle. However, it also includes biceps but the involvement of biceps is very low due to the pronated grip.
How to do dumbbell reverse curls:
- Take light dumbbells in both hands.
- Hold them near your thighs with an overhand grip.
- Keep your hands in a pronated fashion.
- Start curling with both hands simultaneously and do the required reps.
- Make sure to keep your shoulder stable and elbows tucked in.
Maintaining correct form is not easy in this exercise as your elbows tend to move away from your body. For proper involvement of forearms, keep your elbows close to your body as much as possible.
Reverse curls are a slightly difficult exercise but probably the best for the development of the brachioradialis muscle.
5. Finger Curls
The movement of our fingers is controlled by the muscles and tendons of our forearm. So by curling our fingers with some additional weight, we can train our forearms. Finger curls are based on this principle only.
In this exercise, we hold a lightweight dumbbell and curl it up with our fingers. This works on the flexor muscles of our forearm.
How to do finger curls:
- Start by putting a straight bench in front and kneeling on your knees.
- Put your forearms on the bench as in wrist curls.
- Hold the dumbbell in the cradle of your fingers and fully extend your wrists.
- Now curl your fingers up until the dumbbell comes to your palm.
- Extend it back to the starting position and repeat this for required reps.
Finger curls are good for training flexor muscles. In addition, it improves your grip strength also.
6. Finger Curls (Reverse Grip)
This exercise is one of the most underrated forearm exercises with dumbbells.
Unlike the standard finger curls, you perform this exercise in a standing position with a dumbbell holding behind your back. Hence, it is also called “dumbbell finger curls behind the back”.
The primary target of this exercise is forearm extensors. Along with that, it builds our finger and grip strength. Further, this strong grip can help you in your deadlifts.
How to finger curls (reverse grip):
- Stand straight with feet shoulder-width apart.
- Hold light dumbbells in your hands and put your hands behind the back with palms facing behind you.
- Start with dumbbells in the cradle of your fingers.
- Curl up your fingers until the dumbbell reaches your palm.
- Roll it back to the starting position and repeat for required reps.
Reverse grip finger curls are a great exercise for the extensor muscles. It also builds your finger and grip strength which helps in deadlifts.
7. Isometric Holds
This exercise is not specific to forearm flexors or extensors. Instead, it includes almost all the forearm muscles and also improves your overall grip strength.
Unlike other forearm exercises, you can lift very heavy weights while doing isometric holds. As you need to control this weight, isometric holds also train your stabilizer muscles.
Due to heavy weight, this exercise can cause fatigue in your forearms and grip strength which can hamper your performance in other forearm exercises. For this reason, it is better to add this as a finisher exercise.
How to do isometric holds:
- Stand straight with your chest out and feet shoulder-width apart.
- Grab heavy dumbbells in both hands.
- Make sure you hold the dumbbell exactly from the middle to distribute the load uniformly.
- Don’t let your body move or bend while holding the weight.
- Keep standing for about a minute and do 2-4 sets.
Add this as a finisher exercise. It’s good for overall forearm development and grip strength.
Forearm Dumbbells Exercises: SUMMARY
So dumbbells are good enough to train each and every muscle of the forearm. Whether your goal is to build strength or increase size, forearm exercises with dumbbells are suitable in both cases.
The forearm consists of two major parts – flexors and extensors. Let’s see a recap of all the forearm exercises with dumbbells and which exercise affects which muscle dominantly.
| Exercise (grip) | Muscle affected |
|---|---|
| 1. Wrist curls (supinated) | Flexors |
| 2. Wrist curls (pronated) | Extensors |
| 3. Hammer curls (neutral) | Extensors (brachioradialis) |
| 4. Reverse curls (pronated) | Brachioradialis |
| 5. Finger curls (supinated) | Flexors |
| 6. Finger curls (pronated) | Extensors (grip strength) |
| 7. Isometric holds | Complete forearms |
So this is the exercise distribution regarding the primary muscle affected.
For complete development of forearms, pick two exercises for flexors and two for extensors. In the end, you can do isometric holds as a finisher. Two to three sets for each exercise is enough in the beginning and later on, you can increase as you progress.
Make sure that the exercises you are choosing must impact the targetted muscle. If you are unable to hit the target muscle or you are feeling uncomfortable, then change the exercise as there is no one-size-fits-all in training.
