Forearm development and proportionality

celestial

Looking for some opinions and some instruction from the more knowledgeable lifters round these parts.

So, there I was sitting at home relaxing over the weekend. I was wearing a sleeveless top as it was feckin scorchin, as you know. Sat there minding my own business and a family member comments - 'you know, I think you should give up those weights'. With an inward sigh I turn round and he explains 'you're looking out of proportion - your upper arm compared to your lower arm', etc..

I had been thinking lately that I have put on a nice bit of size. There could be some truth to what he said though - I do actually have pretty short, thin forearms so I prob wouldn't want to build up my upper arms to much more (looks-wise I don't think I want them much bigger anyway).

Just wondering what your opinions/thoughts are from the two pics attached - and on what I should be doing to build up my forearms as I haven't given them any direct work - I know reverse curls hit the forearms...

celestial

One more (prob better) flexed pic..

Hanley

Forearms are one of those sh!tty little groups that are real hard to train. I've been lucky, I've always had good forearms. My dad's forearms are jacked, and my mum has a pretty solid set too, so that's where my head start came from (incidentally my mum has whopper calves, but I don't seem to have gotten those ).

I really don't know what to suggest other than ditching your straps, doing lots of high rep rows, reverse curls and the likes.... My forearms were really pumped after my 100 rep chin ups last week...

Al_Fernz

celestial wrote: »

Just wondering what your opinions/thoughts are from the two pics attached - and on what I should be doing to build up my forearms as I haven't given them any direct work - I know reverse curls hit the forearms...

IMO I don't think there's any wild proportion issues from them two pics and I don't see any difference between the flexed and unlflexed.

Deadlift FTW

Degsy

They're like calves..either you have em early on or you can get them by working them hard..i recomend high rep wrist curls,alternate between palm up and palm down to hit the forarm in different directions.

celestial

Hanley wrote: »

Forearms are one of those sh!tty little groups that are real hard to train. I've been lucky, I've always had good forearms. My dad's forearms are jacked, and my mum has a pretty solid set too, so that's where my head start came from (incidentally my mum has whopper calves, but I don't seem to have gotten those ).

I really don't know what to suggest other than ditching your straps, doing lots of high rep rows, reverse curls and the likes.... My forearms were really pumped after my 100 rep chin ups last week...

Hanley, I'll thank you not to mention your mother's whopper calves while I'm finishing off my lunch...:D:D

Yeah, they are very hard to target, v small muscles! Over the years I've only ever seen marginal growth there. Unusual that my forearms aren't bigger as my da's are fairly big and we have the same body type. Hmm. I figure I'm not gonna go for getting much bigger in the upper arm - they are pretty big already I feel...have put on nice bit of size there doing dbell rows in particular..

dave80

celestial wrote: »

I figure I'm not gonna go for getting much bigger in the upper arm - they are pretty big already I feel

your not exactly in the the best shape theres plent of room for growth how long have you been training?

crotalus667

Degsy wrote: »

..i recomend high rep wrist curls,alternate between palm up and palm down to hit the forarm in different directions.

that Japanese bodybuilder does them in sets of 50 , he said that he cant get them to grow unless he feels the burn at those high reps ,I’d consider my forearms ok I think that’s mainly due to the fact I do a lot of pulling excises without straps , also I tend to get a decent pump in them from doing crossover hammer curls (its where you bring the dumbbell across and too your chin) also try reverse grip barbell curls a lot of bb’s consider them essential in building mass in the belie of the fore arm,

Ps don’t listen to sad family member Id rather have out of proportion arms than no arms

celestial

dave80 wrote: »

your not exactly in the the best shape theres plent of room for growth how long have you been training?

Do you think? About a year.

aye

Al_Fernz wrote: »

IMO I don't think there's any wild proportion issues from them two pics and I don't see any difference between the flexed and unlflexed.

Deadlift FTW

i dont really see any proportion issues either.

shrug with a reverse grip.
do chin up with a towel wrapped around the bar.
barbell curls.

celestial

aye wrote: »

i dont really see any proportion issues either.

shrug with a reverse grip.
do chin up with a towel wrapped around the bar.
barbell curls.

Just to clarify, I don't think I have proportion issues either. I do think I would have though if I was to build up my upper arms much more (because my forearms will likely not be able to keep up with them)

dave80

celestial wrote: »

Do you think? About a year.

Ye a year is nothing your only really getting to know how to hit the muscles correctly (mind muscle connection), i didnt really make any gains in my first year of training because of lack of knowledge, i just read everything i could about training and diet and the muscle piled on after that

aye

oh i know you dont, i just mean i dont see what your relative is seeing.

you obviously still want o work your biceps, so try the barbell curls.
barbell curls work your forearms more than dumbell curls due to the thickness of the bar.

as said deadlifting is good as the sheer weight the arms have to hold helps development.

Al_Fernz

celestial wrote: »

Just to clarify, I don't think I have proportion issues either. I do think I would have though if I was to build up my upper arms much more (because my forearms will likely not be able to keep up with them)

TBH I wouldn't know if you lifted weights at all from those pics.

IMO you should just concentrate on training and building muscle for your whole body rather than worry about potential symmetry issues.

celestial

Al_Fernz wrote: »

TBH I wouldn't know if you lifted weights at all from those pics.

IMO you should just concentrate on training and building muscle for your whole body rather than worry about potential symmetry issues.

You wouldn't know, not even from the 2nd flexed pic? Hmm...would you just think I had big arms?! I figure when I bring down bodyfat levels a bit more there'll be more 'definition'.

#Smokey#

you should try get ur bf% down and then you might see a difference also try to flex like this guy as it would be easier to see the muscle.

http://bp3.blogger.com/_mjB43M_ie2Q/RgHt_ct7GWI/AAAAAAAAADc/7Ehz4zZR8Q8/s1600-h/Flex05.jpg

Al_Fernz

celestial wrote: »

You wouldn't know, not even from the 2nd flexed pic? Hmm...would you just think I had big arms?! I figure when I bring down bodyfat levels a bit more there'll be more 'definition'.

I'm not trying to be uber-critical but yeah I wouldn't be able tell if you worked out. I know a lot of people with similar BF levels that don't workout and would have similar sized guns.

thirdmantackle

a full year?

weight training all the time?

surely you'd have seen some more defined muscle and sharper muscles along the arms?

take up some sport that involves using both your arms - hitting a sliotar off a wall or something. Boxing? Martial art?

J.S. Pill

thirdmantackle wrote: »

a full year?

weight training all the time?

surely you'd have seen some more defined muscle and sharper muscles along the arms?

take up some sport that involves using both your arms - hitting a sliotar off a wall or something. Boxing? Martial art?

Come on guys, its going to be very hard to look 'defined' with high levels of BF.

Hanley

Jesus Christ guys. Everyone's being so fluppin critical. You all need to post your pics for criticism if that's how you're gonna act.

Celestial, don't mind them. Some of the comments have been ridiculous "defined" muscle with even moderately high levels of bodyfat doesn't happen. Even at 16ish% bodyfat and 17 inches around, my arms don't have visible seperation. So don't let them get to you.

As for being out of proportion... you're not. You're only lifting a year, you've no idea what rate the individual muscle groups are going to grow at. You don't have "weak points" you're weak all over (I mean that in the nicest possible way btw!!). After 3 or 4 years you'll start to get an idea of what bodyparts grow at what rate and can begin to adjusted exercise selection accordingly. Right now you just need to plough all your energy into getting bigger and stronger, and not start neglecting or over emphasising "lagging" muscle groups. Hell if your forearms are 11 inches now and you spend a year training and gaining weigh they might grow to 12.5 or 13 without even having to specialise. Simply gain weight and get stronger and you'll grow bigger all over.

BrokenArrows

have been looking on the net for forearm workouts. i also suffer from skinny wrist syndrome.
imwondering about those gripper things. are they any good?

estebancambias

Hanley you hero.

Al_Fernz

BrokenArrows wrote: »

have been looking on the net for forearm workouts. i also suffer from skinny wrist syndrome.
imwondering about those gripper things. are they any good?

Wrists are part of your bone stucture. There is no way to increase their size.

However, you can increase the size of your forearms. In fact I would argue that larger forearms coupled with smaller wrists look physically more impressive.

If you are going for hand-grippers - go for captains of crush. You get what you pay for with grippers and the cheap ones are just sh1te. I know the captains of crush are effective when it comes to increasing grip strength - but I'm not sure of their effectiveness when it comes to hypertrophy. Perhaps you could achieve the same/better results concentrating on deadlifts, rows, farmers walks, reverse curls etc. as already discussed in this thread.

celestial

Ah Hanley I knew it was only a matter of time before you chipped in there! Cheers mate:)

Al Fernz et al, you know you're gonna have to come up with some pics now!!

I do think the criticism has been a bit over the top - I don't think that anyone could say I haven't developed muscle or that I don't look strong - what is true though is that I would need to lose quite a bit more bodyfat before I see any real shape to my arms. I reckon I can pinch about an inch of fat on there.

I've lost around 2-3 inches of fat just from round my belly since I started training seriously and am happy with that, I think I'm at the stage now that I can wear t-shirts without any visible gut, my jeans are much looser, but to bring it down even further I'd have to make a real effort with my diet. I'm gonna be heading on hols to Oz in early autumn - 6-8 weeks before then I plan to really low-carb and up the training - an Aussie beach will mean I'll have an incentive to get the bodyfat way down!!

BossArky

celestial, fair play for throwing up pictures. It is harder to do that than sit on the fence and cut people apart... (I think people are trying to be constructive).

Anywayz, I would usually get DOMS in the forearms after lots of pull ups or deadlifting so perhaps concentrate on those.

What ever happened to your fitness log? You could still loose a fair bit of bodyfat, but you seem to know that based upon your comments here. I would forget about curls (if you do them) and just do deadlifts, pull ups, squats and probably bench... the whole time, heavy. Day1 deadlifts and pull ups, Day 2 squats and bench, and finish off with some gentle treadmill trotting or bike. My 2c for burning yourself down to a lean machine.

Al_Fernz

celestial wrote: »

Ah Hanley I knew it was only a matter of time before you chipped in there! Cheers mate:)

Al Fernz et al, you know you're gonna have to come up with some pics now!!

I do think the criticism has been a bit over the top - I don't think that anyone could say I haven't developed muscle or that I don't look strong - what is true though is that I would need to lose quite a bit more bodyfat before I see any real shape to my arms. I reckon I can pinch about an inch of fat on there.

I've lost around 2-3 inches of fat just from round my belly since I started training seriously and am happy with that, I think I'm at the stage now that I can wear t-shirts without any visible gut, my jeans are much looser, but to bring it down even further I'd have to make a real effort with my diet. I'm gonna be heading on hols to Oz in early autumn - 6-8 weeks before then I plan to really low-carb and up the training - an Aussie beach will mean I'll have an incentive to get the bodyfat way down!!

Its good to hear you've made and continue to make proress. I like hearing success stories and wouldn't begrudge anybody that by trying to knock them down.

However, to use a cliche, I was calling a spade a spade and I stand by what I said. You asked a question and I gave my honest opinion. You do not need to concentrate on ironing out any potential symmetry issues at this stage.

I have no idea what you looked like before you started lifting, so I can't deny/agree that you have made progress. However - its clear that you are content with your development, which is the main thing. I was only commenting on your pictures - not on your progress.

It certainly wasn't my intention to cause offence.

celestial

Al_Fernz wrote: »

Its good to hear you've made and continue to make proress. I like hearing success stories and wouldn't begrudge anybody that by trying to knock them down.

However, to use a cliche, I was calling a spade a spade and I stand by what I said. You asked a question and I gave my honest opinion. You do not need to concentrate on ironing out any potential symmetry issues at this stage.

I have no idea what you looked like before you started lifting, so I can't deny/agree that you have made progress. However - its clear that you are content with your development, which is the main thing. I was only commenting on your pictures - not on your progress.

It certainly wasn't my intension to cause offence.

Ah no dude - no offense caused whatsoever! I was looking for honest opinions. Glad you gave them - the main thing was getting people's opinion's on the symmetry issue - I didn't think there was a problem but I wanted to hear from others too. I think that not having a context is the key - I know what I looked like before, but you don't, so that's cool.

As Bossarky mentioned, I still have quite a bit of fat to lose - but what you don't know is that I was defo quite a bit fatter this time last year!

Next step - lean out more!! I feel that diet is going to be key here. I can exercise til the cows come home - no motivation problems there right now. Diet however is where I fall down - my love of carbs damn it! One way of sorting myself there is vanity - I know I'm gonna be on the beach over the summer so I'm thinking of putting together a 6-8 week low carb plan that should get results.

celestial

BossArky wrote: »

celestial, fair play for throwing up pictures. It is harder to do that than sit on the fence and cut people apart... (I think people are trying to be constructive).

Anywayz, I would usually get DOMS in the forearms after lots of pull ups or deadlifting so perhaps concentrate on those.

What ever happened to your fitness log? You could still loose a fair bit of bodyfat, but you seem to know that based upon your comments here. I would forget about curls (if you do them) and just do deadlifts, pull ups, squats and probably bench... the whole time, heavy. Day1 deadlifts and pull ups, Day 2 squats and bench, and finish off with some gentle treadmill trotting or bike. My 2c for burning yourself down to a lean machine.

Cheers BossArky, I generally only do compound exercises - dbell bench, rows, push-ups, squats - would throw a few bicep curls in maybe once a week at end of workout, but that's it.

Diet is what's holding me back really...

Al_Fernz

celestial wrote: »

Ah no dude - no offense caused whatsoever! I was looking for honest opinions.

Good stuff. You seem fairly clued in regarding training and diet info so I would bet that you'll have no problems hitting your goals.

JJ6000

Foerarms, for most, appear to be something you really need to be genetically blessed with in order to get them huge. Calves are similar IMO.

I have relatively small forearms also and no matter what I do I can never get them to grow any appreciable amount. My triceps are massive however and despite training my calves very little, they are quite developed. I would love a big pair of forearms though as it gives a real powerful look. On the plus side tough, with small forearms my biceps look much bigger :-)

You could try pinch grip work, reverse curls, forearm curls, thors hammer, gripper exercises, snatch grip deadlifts, towel pull ups, training with a fat bar or fat bar attachment etc etc. The list is endless. Fat Bar training is fantastic for forearms by the way and gives a lot of functional carryover. The absolute best in my opinion.

Either way though, If someone who has never trained seriously a day in their lives came up to me and told me I looked disproportional I wouldnt give half a f*ck what they thought.

I've been called disproportional countless times, and literally every time it comes from someone who has never trained a day in their lives. Believe me, they are only making such a comment because they are trying to justify the fact that they are out of shape themselves and too damn lazy to pick up a weight. Usually when they make such a comment I will just point at their flabby stomach and say "what would you call that then?".

You'll get used to it. You'll also notice that when people say your dirproportional they are just trying to make themselves feel better about the way they look (which is usually not very impressive) Actually, now when some fat ass who has never trained a day in their lives tries to take a sly dig at me by saying I look disproportional, I take it as a compliment.

Degsy

And take "are you using steroids?" as a compliment too,it means you look like you're lifting weights.

Judo and rock climbing are great for your forearms. Of course taking up a new sport to increase the size of your forearms would be a bit odd.

#Smokey#

just tell your relative to hop on a bench and then bench his max weight multiplied by two that'll show em and have you been taking celltech?

Degsy

Deleted User wrote: »

Judo and rock climbing are great for your forearms. Of course taking up a new sport to increase the size of your forearms would be a bit odd.

So is tennis oddly enough!

Degsy

Degsy wrote: »

So is tennis oddly enough!

Not sure about darts though..