How To Develop Weak Wrists And Forearms

Question

How do I deal with weak wrists?

When I do barbell and dumbbell curls, and reverse wrist curls, I feel like my wrists are really weak and can hardly support the weight. Sometimes my muscle simply give out on me, and I can't do anymore even if the main muscle group hasn't had enough.

I don't have this problems for any other exercises even wrist curls(except for reverse). How do I develop my wrists naturally.

- AV

Answer

Thanks for the question.

AV this is something a lot of weight trainers go through, including me.

When I first started out, I had the weakest wrists out of my whole crew.

I found it so hard and awkward to do reverse barbell and wrist curls. Using just the empty barbell, I could barely do 12 repetitions - This was how I weak I was in that exercise.

My wrists are naturally small so they were very weak.

My suggestion, AV, is to approach this problem in a different manner. That is, your going to have to really concentrate on improving this particular muscle group.

You see, for some reason, most weight trainer's and other strength athletes treat forearms, calves, and ab as an afterthought when it comes to developing these muscle groups. Let me ask you a question, when do you train your forearms, calves, and abs? You see, most times, these muscle groups are trained last and with maybe 1 to 2 exercise with 3 sets each using low intensity levels. Also, these muscle groups get worked once a week.

Your going to have to change the way you train forearms. If this has become a priority for you, than your going to have to train them as a priority. This is the only way there going to grow. You will have to rearrange your routine a bit and train them first and foremost in your routine. For example, let's say you have the following weight training schedule:

Day 1:
Chest and triceps

Day 2:
Legs and calves

Day 3:
Shoulders

Day 4: Back and biceps
What you need to do is change your schedule so that your training forearms first and foremost in your cycle.

Sort of like this:

Day 1
Forearms, chest, and triceps

Day 2
Leg and calves

Day 3
Shoulders

Day 4
Back and biceps

You see where I’m going with this? You need to prioritize your forearms if you want them to grow. You also need to add the proper exercises in your forearm routine to get them to grow. You might want to try the following forearm routine here.

Now, this is very important. You need to start doing some heavy gripping movements in your routine. Cut out the wrist straps and use your natural grip strength. For back, start doing some heavy barbell and dumbbell rows a long with heavy shrugs. You may be wondering why your only training forearms once. Well, your not because your going to be doing some heavy gripping and forearm work on day 4 with back and biceps so your actually training twice per week which is plenty. You should have plenty of time to rest your forearms between your workouts on day 1 and day 4.

Prioritize your forearms and train them hard for about 3 to 4 weeks and you should start seeing some results. Keep at it until you start seeing the results you want.

I hope this helps,

Blake