FULL PLATEAU BREAKING FOREARMS ROUTINE!

If you’re looking to grow your forearms and increase your grip strength, you came to the right place! By utilizing a technique called GIANT SETS, we’re not only going to be able to maximize all three muscle building mechanisms for a complete workout, but this change of pace is going to be EXACTLY what you need to bring a bit more intensity and excitement to your training!

Giant sets are a super high intensity technique of overloading where you perform 4 or more exercises in a row with no rest, and with varying rep ranges, to take advantage of overloading and metabolic stress at the same time.

To perform this workout, you’re going to crush 2 – 3 giant sets of 4 exercises, resting only 1 – 3 minutes between sets (remember there is no rest between exercises, that’s very important). You’re going to utilize the first two movements to lift as much weight as possible for 8 repetitions, then you’re going to lift as heavy as you can for the last two exercises for a total of 30 seconds per set, because they are grip focused movements.

Exercise #1: Seated Barbell Wrist Extension (8 Reps)

To perform this movement sit upright on a bench while holding a barbell with your palms facing down, resting your forearms on your quads with your hands hanging over your knees. Once in place begin to extend your wrists up as high as you can and then repeat for reps. Really focus lifting heavy with control. This isn’t an exercise where you can lift a lot of weight, but you want to make sure it’s heavy enough that you fail at around 7 – 8 repetitions. Don’t just flail your hands up and down throughout the entire set, that’s not how you do this movement.

Seated Barbell Wrist Extension

Exercise #2: Seated Barbell Wrist Curl (8 Reps)

For this movement you are going to sit hunched over on a bench with your forearms together on the bench and your wrists hanging over the edge. Once in place you are going to wrist curl the barbell as high as you can, again repeating for reps with as heavy as you can go while being in control of the movement for those 8 repetitions. You have to maintain control, you don’t want to just flail your wrists up and down because you will not get all the benefits of the exercise.

Seated Barbell Wrist Curl

Exercise #3: Dumbbell Twist (Until Failure, 30 Seconds Per Set)

This is going to set your forearms on FIRE! Begin by grabbing a light pair of dumbbells and stand straight up with your arms down by your sides. Once in place, squeeze the dumbbells as hard as you can and start rotating your wrists from left to right as fast as you can while maintaining control. If you’re using the right amount of weight your grip should give out around 30 seconds of performing this movement. So if that doesn’t happen, try to change your weights on your next set. If you can go for longer than 30 seconds, the weight you have is too light!

Dumbbell Twist

Exercise #4: Plate Holds (Until Failure, 30 Seconds Per Set)

This exercise looks A LOT easier than it is! The focus here is increasing grip strength by pushing through FATIGUE and you will need a few plates to get started.  Depending on your strength you might start with 5s, 10s, or 25s, and once you have your weight you are going to hold two of each in each hand. Once in place, squeeze the plates together as hard as you can for 30 seconds. And you’re not making a fist, you’re squeezing the plates together with your fingers and thumbs straight out. Again, if you don’t fail by around 30 seconds, change your weight on the next set because if you can go for longer than 30 seconds, the weight is too light again!

Plate Holds

As soon as you finish the Plate Holds, that completes the 1st set of your giant sets. Then you’re then going to rest 1 – 3 minutes, and complete 2 – 3 more GIANT SETS.

Conclusion

Remember, the forearms are generally a resilient muscle group that require a lot of attention to see gains, so you will want to add this routine to your current workout program 2 – 3 times a week. Just make sure you give 36 – 48 hours rest between workouts and I suggest you do this at the END of your routine, because the goal here is to absolutely obliterate your forearms and you won’t be doing much of anything else once your lifting is done. I’ve actually already made a video for BICEPS utilizing GIANT SETS as well, so you can check out that article HERE.