12 Best Forearm Workouts at Home

Since the forearms are involved in exercises that target other body parts, it’s natural to think that a forearm workout at home is pointless. Surprisingly, dedicating just a few minutes of your regular home workout to focused forearm training can benefit your brain, nervous system, circulatory strength, and especially grip strength. Whether you’re lifting weights or doing calisthenics, strong forearms make everything more efficient. Want to learn the best forearm workouts to add to your routine? Keep reading.

Why Should You Train Forearms Separately?

When You Train Forearms, You Improve Grip Strength

Grip strength improves the functionality of your hands and wrists. This boost is material to the performance of everyday functions like typing, carrying groceries, opening jars, etc. It also helps you build muscular forearms. Besides massive forearms, other forearm gains that result from having a stronger gripping power include higher forearm muscle control and endurance.

Forearm Training Increases Forearm Strength 

Participants in a six-week dedicated forearm training experiment improved the maximal strength of their arms. This study goes a long way to prove that training your forearms maximally makes your forearm muscles more efficient and capable of performing its functions. 

Why should you care about strengthening your forearms? You should care because any activity that places pressure on your hands and wrists, such as pulling, pushing, and lifting, will engage your forearms. Compound exercises such as bench presses, deadlifts, and pull-ups depend on forearm strength for effective execution. If your forearms are weak, you won’t be able to do these things as well as you should. You’ll also get tired quickly when exercising other parts of your body. 

Besides, sports that rely on arm strength for gripping or fighting resistance, such as kickboxing and wrestling, require you to have strong forearms. In arm-wrestling, for example, forearm strength is critical for flexion, extension, pronation, supination, and other basic movements involved in the sport. In this study on forearm muscular strength, arm-wrestlers had more forearm strength than non arm-wrestlers. 

Finally, the best forearm muscle exercises will help  improve grip strength. Try anyone of the forearm dumbbell exercises below. You’ll discover that throughout the exercise, you’ll engage your fingers in a full range of motion. As your fingers get stronger, you’ll have a stronger grip. 

Forearm Workouts at Home Support Overall Health

The results of a study on forearm exercise duration suggest that a forearm workout routine (consisting mainly of the handgrip exercise) also stimulates the circulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BNDF) in your bloodstream. BDNF is a protein that supports brain plasticity and neuron growth. Thus, it plays a key role in cognitive functions. When exercising your forearm, BDNF levels increase. A rise in BNDF is considered supportive for brain health. 

In the study cited above, performance of the handgrip exercise also resulted in an increase in platelet levels. Platelets are small blood cells that play a role in clotting and are involved in storing and releasing BDNF. 

Furthermore, when you perform handgrip exercises, the sympathetic outflow causes the spleen to release more platelets, which boosts circulating BDNF. This means that forearm exercises, even though they focus on a small muscle group, can trigger important physiological responses related to blood flow, platelet function, and general cardiovascular health. 

12 Best Forearm Workouts at Home 

Here’s a list of 12 effective forearm workouts to gain muscle and strength. 

Bodyweight Home Forearm Workouts 

1) Inner Wrist Curls

• Stand with your arms at your sides. Position your hands near your hips.
• Make fists with your hands.
• Flex your wrists inward. Squeeze and contract the inner forearm muscles (specifically the wrist flexors).
• Move only your wrists while the rest of your arms stay in place.
• At the peak of the movement, hold the contraction for a brief moment to maximize tension on your forearm muscles.
• Extending your wrists downward, slowly return to the starting position.

2) Forward Reverse Wrist Curls 

• Stand upright and place your forearms in front of you. 
• Lower your hands and let your knuckles face forward.
• Use a pronated grip (palms facing down).
• Flex your wrists upward by contracting your extensor muscles in the forearm. This is the reverse of a standard wrist curl.
• Ensure that your elbows remain stable and that only your wrists are moving to fully target the forearms.
• Slowly lower your wrists back down to the starting position. 

3) 180° Rotations 

• Stand upright. Lower your arms to stomach level. The angle between your upper arms and your stomach should be between 30 and 45 degrees.
• Make fists with your palms. Keep your fists in line with your forearms.
• Slowly rotate your forearms outward so that your palms are facing up.
• Rotate your forearms inward so that your palms are facing down.
• Continue rotating back and forth in the manner described above.

You can catch the inner wrist curl at 1:34, the forward reverse wrist curl at 2:49, and the 180° rotation three beginning at 4:09 in this video:

4) Palm Flicks

Watch this exercise program unfold from the 1:27 mark:

• Stand with your arms raised in front of you. Your arms should be around chest level. 
• Spread your fingers wide apart with palms facing down.
• Rapidly flick your hands downward by extending your wrists, as if trying to “flick” water off your fingertips. Doing this will activate your forearm extensors.
• Keep your arms and shoulders stable. Let your wrists and forearms work. 

Forearm Exercises With Dumbbells 

1) Finger Wrist Curls

• Stand or sit and extend your forearms in front of you, holding dumbbells in both hands with a neutral grip.
• Allow the weights to rest at the base of your fingers.
• Slowly curl your fingers up, gripping the weights and rolling them back into your palm by flexing your fingers.
• Once the weights are securely back in your palms, curl your wrists upward to fully engage the forearm flexors.
• Reverse the motion by performing a wrist extension and letting the dumbbells roll back down to your fingertips. 

2) Speed 180° Side Rotations 

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Let your arms hang straight down by your sides.
• Use a neutral grip (palms facing inward) to hold the dumbbells or weights.
• Rotate your forearms 180 degrees, turning your palms upward, then quickly rotate them back downward.
• Gradually increase your speed as you get the hang of it.

3) Fronted Rear Rotations 

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. With a neutral grip, hold one dumbbell in each hand.
• Your arms should hang down in front of you.
• Straighten your hands but don’t lock them. Allow for flexibility in movement .
• Rotate the dumbbells or weights outward so that your palms face forward. 
• Then rotate the dumbbells inward, turning your palms to face backward.

In this video, the finger wrist curl begins at 0:00, the speed 180° side rotation at 2:42, and the fronted rear rotation at 1:49.

4) Side Wrist Curls 

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a pair of dumbbells..
• Your arms should be at your sides with a neutral grip (palms facing inward, as shown in the image).
• Keep your wrists hanging down naturally at your sides.
• Slowly curl your wrists inward, towards your torso.
• Keep your elbows locked at your sides. Only your wrists should be moving during the curl.
• Once your wrists are fully curled, pause for a moment to fully engage the forearm flexors.
• Slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.

5) Behind-the-back Wrist Curls 

• Stand with a dumbbell in each hand and position your arms behind your back, as shown in the video above. 
• Your palms should face away from your body, and the dumbbells should rest at the ends of your fingers.
• Place your feet shoulder-width apart, and straighten your back.
• Curl your wrists upward, bringing the dumbbells towards your forearms.
• Keep your arms and elbows stationary behind your back throughout the movement. Make sure only your wrists are moving.
• At the top of the curl, pause for a brief moment to fully engage the forearm flexors.
• Slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position by extending your wrists and letting the dumbbells roll back toward your fingertips.

The side wrist curl kicks off at 2:31 while the behind-the-back wrist curl rolls at 4:34 in this video.

Forearm Workouts at Home With Resistance Bands 

1) Alternating Wrist Curl

• Attach resistance bands to a high anchor point in front of you. The anchor point could be a door anchor, pull-up bar, balcony, tree, or outdoor post.
• Grab the handles with your arms extended straight out in front of you. Pull the bands till they’re taut. 
• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Curling your right wrist downward while squeezing your forearm muscles.
• Hold for a brief moment before you lift your right wrist back to the starting position.
• Repeat the curling motion with your left hand.

2) Middle Wrist Circles 

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Hold the handles of the resistance with both hands and extend your arms straight out in front of you.
• Move your wrists in small circular clockwise and anticlockwise motions, maintaining tension in the resistance bands throughout the movement.

3) Downward Rear Rotations 

• Attach resistance bands to a high anchor point.
• Stand facing the anchor point and grab the handles with your arms extended in front of you, palms facing downward.
• Rotate your wrists downward and inward (toward your body) while keeping the resistance bands tense.
• Your wrists should move in a circular, rotational motion.
• After completing the downward rotation, rotate your wrists back to the starting position.

This video features the alternating wrist curl kicking off at 1:55, middle wrist circles following at 4:22, and the downward rear rotation starting at 3:14.

Forearm Workout at Home: Final Thoughts 

The best exercises to build strength and endurance in your forearms have been listed above. Incorporating them into your fitness routine will help you develop your forearms to your desired level. Make sure to do as many repetitions as you can handle, but don’t overwork your muscles while at it.