“How do I get my forearms bigger!?!” is a question I hear a lot at the gym and when I talk to clients who are unhappy with the size of their lower arms. What is the answer to the mysteriously huge forearms of the pros? The wrist roller! This is the easiest, most effective (in my opinion) exercises for building forearms like Popeye without all of that crazy canned spinach business (no disrespect towards Popeye of course!).
“But where do I get one and won’t it be expensive?” is the next question that follows my first comment immediately. You can buy a wrist roller from a fitness equipment distributor, order one off of a website or you can simply head over to Home Depot, pick up some cheap materials and build your own. If you have the money for a high quality made wrist roller, I would highly recommend it but if you are living on a limited budget then the home made version is for you. All you will need is a few cheap materials to complete your wrist roller build :
- 25″ PVC pipe with a diameter of your choice (I would go with 2 or 2.5″ though)
- 5′ strap or rope
That is all you need to get started! After you pick up your materials, take a drill and drill a hole using a 5/8″ bit to allow for your strap or rope to fit through. Push the strap/rope through the hole and tie a large stopper type knot that will keep the material from slipping out through the hole (the knot I used is called a figure 8 and it has held great for a good amount of time {over a year}). Now that you have your rope attached, you can now use this implement free standing or you can offset the hole you drill to allow for it to be placed on the end of an Olympic bar placed at shoulder height. By doing so, you relieve a lot of stress that can be placed on the shoulder and increase the weight being used; by overloading the movement you can in fact see huge changes in forearm strength and size.
A quick video tutorial :
Not really keen on carrying around a wrist roller? Well you can still reap the benefits of a wrist roller by simply looping a large jump stretch band (or any other brand) around a dumbbell and then over the end of an Olympic bar. Now simply pull the rear piece of band as you begin to roll so it is overlapped by the front piece of the band.
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