FOREARMED IS FOREWARNED

You could hide your potbelly by sucking it in, those two pimple-like-formations you call chest under a shirt, your scrawny legs with your pants and biceps behind your shirt sleeves, but you have to show your forearms sometime and they’d better look good, lest you be taken for a wimp. Good, strong forearms give you that man-of-action look and if you have good forearms, it also means that you have a good physique.  And do not mess with a guy with good forearms ‘cause he not only has a good physique, but is probably as strong as a bull too.

The forearms and the calf muscles usually come last in the workout routine and unless you are a competitive bodybuilder, the chances are that you will neglect or ignore their development and so, are the most neglected muscles.

The exercise that I mention here is a forgotten exercise. I do not see any of the modern gyms having this facility. But then, this happens to be one of the toughest forearm exercises and unless you like your workout routine to be tough and challenging, do not ever bother to try it out.

Starting from this feature on, there will be explained an exercise routine which you can do at home,  for every single muscle. No single muscle can be worked in isolation and requires help and support of other muscles in its action. So it goes without saying that there is such a thing as strength proportion between muscles and naturally the weights you choose to use should be based and built, with this particular point in mind.

Try this exercise for size [no pun intended]

1. Tie a thin but strong rope around the middle part of a small rounded rod and attach a light weight to the other end.

2. The length of the rope should be such that, when you hold your arms parallel to the ground from the shoulder, the rope should just about touch the floor.

3. Hold the hands parallel to the ground and slowly roll up the weight attached to the rope by rolling the bar forward with each hand taking turns, alternatively, to do the forward rolling action.

4. Once the entire rope has been wound round the bar, start the downward movement, by rolling the palm of the hand backwards. The movements of wrists are very similar to revving the accelerator of a bike.

5. Never relax the grip on the bar to let the weight roll down on its own downward pull, but the idea is to slow down the downward slide by applying a brake to the movement.

For most people, a weight of 4-6 kg is good enough. You could choose to do two non stop rounds to bring more intensity to your workout. There are exercises for the flexor muscle of the forearms called the wrist curl and reverse wrist curl for the extensor group of muscles, but wrist roll works both the muscle groups at one go and so saves a lot of time. Moreover, the pump it brings with it gives an awesome feeling that can last one or two days.

A word of caution to all the fans of weight training

Do not ever hold the view that doing more will bring more benefit. On the contrary, an exercise routine should leave you pleasantly tired, not out cold.