Written by Patrick Dale, PT, ex-Marine

There ain’t nothing dumb about dumbbells! In fact, armed with nothing but your trusty hand weights, you can train every muscle group in your body, and that includes your forearms.

The forearms are one of the hardest working muscles in most bodybuilding workouts. After all, they’re indirectly involved in almost every upper body and many lower body exercises.

And yet, despite this, a lot of lifters have woefully underdeveloped forearms and a puny grip. That’s a shame because your forearms are one of the most visible muscle groups, especially when you wear a T-shirt or have your sleeves rolled up.

Also, if you want to deadlift, curl, or row heavy weights, muscular forearms are a must.

In this article, we reveal the nine best forearm exercises using nothing but a pair of dumbbells and provide you with a couple of great workouts to try.

Unlike your upper arms, which are mainly made up of your biceps and triceps, your forearms are much more complex. That’s because they control all of your fingers as well as your wrists. Some forearm muscles cross your elbows, too.

Broadly speaking, the muscles of the forearms can be categorized as flexors or extensors. The flexors are responsible for closing your fingers into a fist and curling your wrist downward. In contrast, the extensors open your fingers and pull your wrist upward.

The muscles that make up the forearm are (1):

Flexors: Flexor carpi ulnaris, palmaris longus, flexor carpi radialis, pronator teres, flexor digitorum superficialis, flexor digitorum profundus, flexor pollicis longus, and pronator quadratus.

Extensors: Brachioradialis, extensor carpi radialis longus, extensor carpi radialis brevis, extensor digitorum, extensor digiti minimi, extensor carpi ulnaris, anconeus, supinator, abductor pollicis longus, extensor pollicis brevis, extensor pollicis longus, and extensor indicis.

Do you need to know all these names? Definitely not! But it does serve to illustrate how the forearms are a complicated body part, and you can’t just hope they’ll get bigger and stronger. Instead, you need to choose the best forearm exercises and train them hard and often – just like any other muscle group.

Not sure how to go about building your forearms with nothing but dumbbells? Here are nine of the best exercises for beefing up your lower arms.

Dumbbell wrist curls work your forearm flexor muscles and will also improve your grip. If you are serious about bulking up your forearms, this exercise is a MUST! Do it with one dumbbell or train both forearms at the same time as preferred.

This exercise hits your forearm and wrist extensor muscles. While not as big as the forearm flexors, these muscles are no less important. In fact, in most people, the forearm extensors are very underdeveloped and need some extra attention.

Most exercisers think of hammer curls as being a biceps exercise. While that’s pretty much true, hammer curls are also an excellent forearm exercise. That’s because, as well as working your biceps, they also hit your brachioradialis and brachialis muscles, both of which are forearm muscles. So, bigger biceps AND forearms? What’s not to like?!

Like hammer curls, reverse dumbbell curls work your forearms and your biceps. While you won’t be able to use heavy weights for this exercise, it’s still an effective upper and lower arm builder. Use a thumbless “suicide” grip to increase forearm activation during reverse curls.

Zottman curls are an old-school forearm and biceps exercise. They combine regular biceps curls with reverse curls to hit your upper and lower arms simultaneously. This exercise is much harder than it looks and sounds, so don’t go too heavy too soon. Expect a wicked burn and pump in your biceps and forearms.

This exercise is also known as dumbbell radial deviation, which refers to the movement of the wrist. If possible, do it with a dumbbell with just one weight attached. If you only have fixed-weight dumbbells to work with, get a similar effect by holding the handle with your little finger pressed up against the weight plate.

This exercise is the opposite of #6 and is also known as dumbbell ulnar deviation, referring to the action of the wrist. Use a dumbbell with just one weight attached. If you only have fixed-weight dumbbells to work with, get a similar effect by holding the handle with your thumb pressed up against the weight plate.

Lifting and then carrying heavy weights is one of the most functional exercises you can do. The dumbbell farmer’s walk is a full-body exercise that also happens to be great for building bigger forearms and an unbreakable grip. Try it; you’re going to love it!

This exercise is similar to farmer’s walks, but the weights are much harder to hold. You’ll need to really use your forearms to maintain your grip, so don’t go too heavy too soon. However, you will need hex-type dumbbells for this exercise.

While you COULD just add a couple of dumbbell forearm exercises onto your biceps workout, you’ll get much better results if you follow a more structured plan for your lower arms.

Here are three different workouts to try. Pick one and do it for a few weeks before switching or all three in rotation to keep your forearm workouts fresh and productive – it’s up to you!

While the forearms aren’t the most exciting muscle group to train, they can be one of the most impressive when properly developed. They’re also the muscle that people are most likely to notice when you are wearing a T-shirt.

In addition to looking good, muscular forearms will add a lot to your workouts, especially during exercises like deadlifts, pull-ups, pulldowns, and rows. The more unbreakable your grip is, the more weight you’ll be able to lift, the more reps you’ll be able to perform, and the better your results will be.

So, don’t leave your forearm development to chance. Instead, train them hard and often using these nine excellent dumbbell forearm exercises and our tried-and-tested forearm workouts.

1 – PubMed: Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Forearm Muscles https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

Patrick Dale is an ex-British Royal Marine, gym owner, and fitness qualifications tutor and assessor. In addition, Patrick is a freelance writer who has authored three fitness and exercise books, dozens of e-books, thousands of articles, and several fitness videos. He’s not just an armchair fitness expert; Patrick practices what he preaches! He has competed at a high level in numerous sports, including rugby, triathlon, rock climbing, trampolining, powerlifting, and, most recently, stand up paddleboarding. When not lecturing, training, researching, or writing, Patrick is busy enjoying the sunny climate of Cyprus, where he has lived for the last 20-years.

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