Get a grip! (part 2 of 2)
Last week we discussed the essentials of three useful forearm-blasters: Forearm-rolls with barbell behind the back, Nautilus forearm machine, and Forearm rolls machine. They all have one thing in common--actually, two things: They hurt, and they're effective.
This week we'll look into another three exercises, starting with:
Reverse forearm rolls on a Scott-board
Just like forearm rolls with a barbell behind the back is mean to your "bottom side" forearms, this one is sure to 100% target your "upper" forearms. The muscles we're talking about arepretty small and very much overlooked by most bodybuilders. If you have great forearms by nature - good for you! But if you have skinny, pencil-shaped forearms that look completely out of proportion to your upper-arms, this will help correct the problem.
Execution: Sit down in front of a Scott-board, as if you were just about to do bicep-curls. Grab a LIGHT, straight barbell with an overhand grip (thumbs down), and rest the middle of your forearms on the top of the Scott-board. Angle your forearms to an approximate 45-degree slant downwards, and try to disconnect everything but your forearms. To achieve this, I usually bend my elbows just slightly while consciously relaxing the upper-arms. Your starting position is with the barbell as far back as it'll go, i.e. trying to touch the forearms on the same side as the palms. From there, you simply extend your hand, and pull up and back as far as you can towards the ceiling. By necessity, you will have to use light weights, so make up for that by executing the movement in a slow, exact flow. Shortly, you will find lactic acid and fatigue where you thought it'd never be.
TIP: If you have a spotter, have him/her assist you by ROLLING the bar rather than LIFTING it the last inch.
Supination/Pronation machine
This machine is admittedly rare out there, but since I have yet to see a single soul USE it when it IS, I thought I'd mention it: It's pretty similar to the Forearm rolls machine - except for that instead of holding on to a bar and rolling it, you grasp a handle and simply rotate it. Your entire body - including the upper-arms, are pretty much still, but you rotate your hands first in one direction, then the other. This targets a whole bunch of small muscles that you don't normally train with barbell curls, and actually even involves the Biceps to some degree (even though this shouldn't be considered a bicep-exercise by any stretch of the imagination).
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