Weak forearms limiting my Bicep curls?

[Ivankannan]

I confess that I have forearms like a 15 yr old guy. And I feel that my bicep curls are being limited by my forearms. I am not experiencing the pump I used to experience in my biceps when working out biceps. When lifting up, the strength and the pain in the forearms is what I think is limiting me to go fully up (without compromising the form).
My question is
1. Does this reasoning even sound right?
2. If so, what to do now? Should I train my forearms more frequently (many people seem to be against that)?
3. So if the width is limited by the bone size, I can't increase the size of my forearms especially near the wrists?

[derekk1]

no offense, but at 135 lbs, i dont believe you should be worrying about your bicep curls. you need to eat and worry about the major lifts: bench, squat, deadlift.

not sure what your experience level, but i dont believe its too high. i would recommend a program like madcow's 5x5.


if none of what i just said gets absorbed, then ill put in a couple cents about your actual question. i used to get forearm pain occasionally too, mostly when going low reps/high weight on chest press with DB, but eventually it went away. mind you, it wasnt excruciating pain.
if youre feeling real pain, then you jsut need to stop until the pain stops. training forearms isnt a bad idea. throw in hammer curls, they are great for your forearms. also, im not sure what its called, but the rope attached to a stick with a weight at the bottom that you ummm...wrap up? yea...maybe someone will know what im talking about. i like that one too for forearms.

[Goleteral]

I confess that I have forearms like a 15 yr old guy. And I feel that my bicep curls are being limited by my forearms. I am not experiencing the pump I used to experience in my biceps when working out biceps. When lifting up, the strength and the pain in the forearms is what I think is limiting me to go fully up (without compromising the form).
My question is
1. Does this reasoning even sound right?
2. If so, what to do now? Should I train my forearms more frequently (many people seem to be against that)?
3. So if the width is limited by the bone size, I can't increase the size of my forearms especially near the wrists?

Do you do deadlifts? If you do deadlifts regulary you don't really need direct forearm work - BUT it doesn't hurt.

Start doing gripping exercises(Hanging with weights, snapping plates etc) as they will come in handy + they will strenghten the wrist and forearms more then doing wrist curls

[Ivankannan]

Thanks, but yes I am doing bench, squats and recently started deadlifts.
And no its not excruciating pain, its a 'good' pain.

no offense, but at 135 lbs, i dont believe you should be worrying about your bicep curls. you need to eat and worry about the major lifts: bench, squat, deadlift.

not sure what your experience level, but i dont believe its too high. i would recommend a program like madcow's 5x5.


if none of what i just said gets absorbed, then ill put in a couple cents about your actual question. i used to get forearm pain occasionally too, mostly when going low reps/high weight on chest press with DB, but eventually it went away. mind you, it wasnt excruciating pain.
if youre feeling real pain, then you jsut need to stop until the pain stops. training forearms isnt a bad idea. throw in hammer curls, they are great for your forearms. also, im not sure what its called, but the rope attached to a stick with a weight at the bottom that you ummm...wrap up? yea...maybe someone will know what im talking about. i like that one too for forearms.

[derekk1]

Thanks, but yes I am doing bench, squats and recently started deadlifts.
And no its not excruciating pain, its a 'good' pain.

well like i said, bicep curls shouldnt be your priority, but just throw in some forearm exercises if theyre really lagging. i dont see a problem with that at all.

the reason i mentioned the pain was because, to me, it sounded like you were saying the pain was in your bone. if its just a burning in your muscle, then dont really worry. just strengthen it with some forearm exercises like i mentioned before.

[Karaim]

well like i said, bicep curls shouldnt be your priority, but just throw in some forearm exercises if theyre really lagging. i dont see a problem with that at all.

the reason i mentioned the pain was because, to me, it sounded like you were saying the pain was in your bone. if its just a burning in your muscle, then dont really worry. just strengthen it with some forearm exercises like i mentioned before.

The OP should determine what his priorities are by himself. Just because those wouldn't be your priorities, doesn't mean they can't be his. There's nothing wrong with curls even early on in the game.

[jgreystoke]

I confess that I have forearms like a 15 yr old guy. And I feel that my bicep curls are being limited by my forearms. I am not experiencing the pump I used to experience in my biceps when working out biceps. When lifting up, the strength and the pain in the forearms is what I think is limiting me to go fully up (without compromising the form).
My question is
1. Does this reasoning even sound right?
2. If so, what to do now? Should I train my forearms more frequently (many people seem to be against that)?
3. So if the width is limited by the bone size, I can't increase the size of my forearms especially near the wrists?

1. Yes. Your forearms are too weak to comfortably handle your curling poundage.

2. Yes, since it IS a problem.

3. No. Lots of great bodybuilders have slim wrist joints and huge powerful forearms. Makes them look even more freaky. I used to be smaller than you for years, with thin weak wrists under 7". My forearms are now bigger than my neck and arms used to be. Don't accept these "limitations".

Train different aspects of your forearms involved in different types of grip and wrist strength:

A. Crush grip

Heavy grippers from ironmind:
http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/ope...nsofcrush.html

or

Grip machine(I had one made for about 100bucks).

That will help you hold onto a bigger deadlift, or more chins, but won't do anything for your wrist strength when the bar is horizontal during curls, so:

B. Wrist strength:

Wrist curls or lever bar(dumbell loaded on one side, hold the other end)

That should help your curls, but won't do anything for your hand strength.

Train progressively, with low reps, like you were trying to up your squat or dead.

Best of luck.

[The Gasman UK]

Right I might get flamed for quoting possibly out of date material. But anyway.

At one point Arnie was training his forearms everyday (under the assumption that you use the forearms everday therefore you can train them everyday). Regardless of whether or not you agree with this, it does kinda make a point.

Anyway I digress. I had weaker forearms so I started hitting them every weights session, at the end of the session. Nothing complex, just 4 sets of wrist curls, using 20kg barbell, for up to 20 reps each set, or as many as it could till i dropped it. After two weeks my forearms were rock hard, not a lot bigger,but much stronger, and this has translated in to helping my Deadlift grip, bench grip, curl, basically its helped with everything.

So perhaps try hitting your forearms for 4 solid sets at the end of each session, and see if it helps.

[Popcorn_fart]

pullups/wrist curls/hammer curls/seated row after doing that my forearms look huge