--- title: "Forearm exercises" description: "Wrist curls and wrist extensions with a barbell, dumbbells and bands, plus farmer's walks and forearm stretches. Form on video, matched to your gear." locale: en url: "https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/forearms" count: 23 type: muscles code: FOREARMS --- # Forearm exercises Your forearms have two jobs: they flex and extend the wrist, and they hold on to everything you pick up. The second job matters more in practice. Deadlifts, rows and pull-ups load your forearms harder than most of the exercises on this list, it is just that nobody writes that work into the plan on its own. The list itself is short, and it should be. It is really two movements, the wrist curl and the wrist extension, in a handful of setups: on a bench, kneeling, seated with your forearms on your thighs, with the barbell held behind your back. Plus farmer's walks, which do not move the wrist at all, and a set of stretches. ## What actually builds forearms? Grip. Your forearm fires on every deadlift, every row and every hang from the pull-up bar, and it is usually those sets, not wrist curls, that decide how it looks. The exercises on this list add to that work, they do not replace it. Training forearms on their own is worth it in two cases: when your grip gives out before your back does on a pull, and when you care about how the forearm looks. In the first case, farmer's walks will do more than curls on a bench - carrying a load for the whole distance taxes the grip in a completely different way than a set of wrist reps. Worth remembering that the farmer's walk is a whole-torso exercise: the instructions say it plainly, tall posture and shoulders pulled back. If your back rounds, it stops being a grip exercise and turns into an endurance test for your lower back. ## Flexors or extensors? The inside of the forearm, the flexors, works every time you hold anything, which is why it is usually much stronger. The back of the forearm gets almost nothing in normal training, because wrist extension does not show up in any big movement. That is why the list carries both versions, the curl and the extension, with a barbell and with dumbbells. The practical consequence is that the weight from one side does not carry over to the other. Dumbbells you curl comfortably can be too heavy by half once you turn your hands over. That is not a mistake in picking the load, it is the normal strength difference between the two groups. If your wrist does not like a straight bar, the catalog has an EZ bar version and a cable version. Both let you set your hand at a different angle in the same movement, and the cable also keeps the resistance on at the point where a barbell starts to unload itself. ## Common mistakes - **Forearm lifting off the bench** - Every variation says the same thing: keep the forearms pinned to the bench or to your thigh. If they rise with the weight, the biceps and the shoulder take over and the wrist barely works. - **The same weight both ways** - The wrist extensors are clearly weaker than the flexors. A load you curl without trouble turns into a whole-arm heave once you flip your hands over and extend. - **A rep cut down to a twitch** - The wrist has a small range to begin with, so it is easy to shrink it to nothing. Let the weight down until the wrist opens all the way, then come back without any swing. ## By equipment - [Dumbbell](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/forearms/dumbbell) - 9 exercises - [Other](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/forearms/other) - 9 exercises - [Barbell](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/forearms/barbell) - 7 exercises - [Bench](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/forearms/bench) - 7 exercises - [Bodyweight](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/forearms/bodyweight) - 2 exercises - [Cable](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/forearms/cable) - 1 exercises - [EZ bar](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/forearms/ez-bar) - 1 exercises - [Mat](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/forearms/mat) - 1 exercises - [Resistance band](https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/forearms/resistance-band) - 1 exercises ## All Forearm exercises - [Wrist Curl Barbell](https://hi.fitness/exercises/wrist-curl-barbell) - Forearms · Barbell - [Wrist Curl Dumbbell](https://hi.fitness/exercises/wrist-curl-dumbbell) - Forearms · Dumbbell - [Wrist Extension Barbell](https://hi.fitness/exercises/wrist-extension-barbell) - Forearms · Barbell - [Wrist Extension Dumbbell](https://hi.fitness/exercises/wrist-extension-dumbbell) - Forearms · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell Farmer Walks](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-farmer-walks) - Forearms · Dumbbell - [Barbell Palm Down Wrist Curl Over a Bench](https://hi.fitness/exercises/barbell-palm-down-wrist-curl-over-a-bench) - Forearms · Barbell - [EZ Bar Seated Wrist Curl](https://hi.fitness/exercises/ez-bar-seated-wrist-curl) - Forearms · EZ bar - [Barbell Standing Back Wrist Curl](https://hi.fitness/exercises/barbell-standing-back-wrist-curl) - Forearms · Barbell - [Cable Wrist Curl](https://hi.fitness/exercises/cable-wrist-curl) - Forearms · Cable - [Dumbbell One Arm Wrist Curl](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-one-arm-wrist-curl) - Forearms · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell One Arm Reverse Wrist Curl](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-one-arm-reverse-wrist-curl) - Forearms · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell Seated Neutral Wrist Curl](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-seated-neutral-wrist-curl) - Forearms · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell One Arm Seated Neutral Wrist Curl](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-one-arm-seated-neutral-wrist-curl) - Forearms · Dumbbell - [Dumbbell Standing Wrist Curl](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-standing-wrist-curl) - Forearms · Dumbbell - [Band Wrist Curl](https://hi.fitness/exercises/band-wrist-curl) - Forearms · Resistance band - [Barbell Wrist Curl on Knees](https://hi.fitness/exercises/barbell-wrist-curl-on-knees) - Forearms · Barbell - [Barbell Wrist Extension on Knees](https://hi.fitness/exercises/barbell-wrist-extension-on-knees) - Forearms · Barbell - [Barbell Wrist Curl Wide Legs](https://hi.fitness/exercises/barbell-wrist-curl-wide-legs) - Forearms · Barbell - [Dumbbell Lying Pronation Rotation on Floor](https://hi.fitness/exercises/dumbbell-lying-pronation-rotation-on-floor) - Forearms · Dumbbell - [Side Wrist Pull Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/side-wrist-pull-stretch) - Forearms · Bodyweight - [Kneeling Wrist Flexor Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/kneeling-wrist-flexor-stretch) - Forearms · Mat - [Elbow Flexor Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/elbow-flexor-stretch) - Forearms · Other - [Elbow Extension and Supination Pronation Forearm Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/elbow-extension-and-supination-pronation-forearm-stretch) - Forearms · Bodyweight