Forearm vs Bicep

[Hercfeend]

Forearm pump!!! Currently my forearms are 'burning' out before my Biceps. I'm getting a pretty good pump and burn on my Biceps but feel they've got more in them however I can't max them out cos my forearms are so pumped and burning.

How can I ensure I work my Biceps to the max before my forearms give out??

[mr natural]

limit your rom to the upper half of the movement for more of your bicep work. i find 5 short half pumps followed by a full rep works well for me given my forearms seem to take more of the load than my biceps for alot of bicep exercises. you can apply this to alot of bicep exercises.

keep away from hammer curls or preacher curls at the start of your work out as they tend to exhuast the forearms quickly.

[Mr_Krabs]

Try not to squeeze the bar, this is easier with an ezi-curl (squigly) bar as you can loosen your grip right off and still keep hold of it. This prevents accidental forearm curls durring the ROM 8)

[Gym rat]

I normaly do hammer curls or machine preachers last when I fishing training biceps

[musclenz]

limit your rom to the upper half of the movement for more of your bicep work. i find 5 short half pumps followed by a full rep works well for me given my forearms seem to take more of the load than my biceps for alot of bicep exercises. you can apply this to alot of bicep exercises.

keep away from hammer curls or preacher curls at the start of your work out as they tend to exhuast the forearms quickly.

Good points mn. The bicep does not really start taking the load till until the elbow is at 90deg. Top half work can be really good to stimulate growth & its hard as you will find & forces good form to take out the shoulder & of course the forearm. Aim to keep tension on the bicep in both positive & negative parts of the shortened lift.

[Ordy]

Do you guys train your forearms separately as well?

My biceps always fail first.

I do a few forearm exercises.

[Hercfeend]

Thanks for the input and tips. I'll definitely give the half ROM curls a try out next time.

Cheers

[musclenz]

Do you guys train your forearms separately as well?

My biceps always fail first.

I do a few forearm exercises.

I train forearms with biceps normally

[Beef]

yeah i dont train forearms separately.. i dont want big forearms cus it makes ur upper arms look smaller :pfft:

[nemesis]

which forearm muscle do you mean?

I always get my inside one (don't know the proper name) burning doing palms up BB curls. I have to go to DB curls and supernate afterwards as that inside forearm muscle gets fried doing BB.

[GHOSTN]

you can try wrist wraps too, will stop the forearm working as hard.

[Hercfeend]

you can try wrist wraps too, will stop the forearm working as hard.

Yeah agreed. I've got some....maybe I should dig them out

[Hercfeend]

which forearm muscle do you mean?

I always get my inside one (don't know the proper name) burning doing palms up BB curls. I have to go to DB curls and supernate afterwards as that inside forearm muscle gets fried doing BB.

I would say - looking at a diagram - that it's the Palmaris longus / Flexor Carpi Ulnaris.

[ThePman]

The important thing is to make sure to keep your wrist supinated (palms facing upwards) throughout the movement, as that's what activates the actual biceps muscle. Pronation of the wrist will tend to bring more of the forearm muscles into it, to the point that a reverse curl is almost entirely forearm with little to no bicep involvement.

You might also consider limiting the ROM to either the top or bottom half of the movement, as mentioned already, since the biceps tend to show best activation at extreme ends of the movement (away from 90 degrees).

Interestingly a slower tempo may be useful as well, since the faster you flex the arm, the more the forearm muscles tend to come into it. Something like a slow-tempo preacher curl (palms facing upwards) done for the top and/or bottom half of the movement would be about perfect.

[Beef]

hold for 3 seconds at the top of the movement, or you can go real slow on the downward movement ( i do a 5 second downward movement) . ur always guna work ur forearms a lil bit when ur doing bicep exercises so jst make sure uv got the technique right n ul be sweet

[nemesis]

The important thing is to make sure to keep your wrist supinated (palms facing upwards) throughout the movement, as that's what activates the actual biceps muscle. Pronation of the wrist will tend to bring more of the forearm muscles into it, to the point that a reverse curl is almost entirely forearm with little to no bicep involvement.

I have been getting a good workout from loading the db's up lobsided towards the inside of the grip, holding as close as possible to the outside plate and starting the curl from a hammer fist type position and supernating on the upward movement. loading up the weight to be moved by supernating really works for me.