I am working on building my forearms. I have used a number of exercises, but, the two following seem to have the exact effect, and I was wondering if I was being redundant or if there were small differences that I haven’t noticed.
The exercises that I do are
the wrist curls, i.e., putting arms on knees and by letting the weights hang over my knee, and curling them up. Both supinated and pronated, and
Using a bar approximately 1 inch in diameter, I tie a cord to it and attach a weight at the other end of the cord. I turn the bar (kind of like throttling a motorcycle) until the weight reaches the bar, reverse the process to lower the weight, and continue in that direction to bring the weight up to the bar again. Rinse, repeat…
Are exercises 1 and 2 just a different way of getting the same workout, or, as mentioned earlier, are there small muscles that aren’t being utilized in one that are being used in the other exercise?
They are similar exercises, at least to me. When I did the 2 option the bar did not remain level with the ground all the time, especially near the end, and I assumed that this would use other areas of the muscles.
Whereas the arms over the knee kept my forearms and hands more stady, which I hoped would isolate the same muscle area.
I’m not a trainer and neither was the person I worked out with, so I could have been fudging just a bit on the motorcycle bit.
I think they are pretty much the same exercise. I suspect excercise no.2 may be slightly better than excercise no.1, but don’t quote me on that. A lot depends on how strict your movements are.
It may be worth pointing, if you dont know this already that is, that it’s best not to overdo these types of exercises(they are called isolation excercises). That generally the best bang for your buck is to do a mixture of compound(lifts that work more than one body part at a time) and isolation excercises, the main emphasis being on compounds. This last paragraph is not meant as a criticism, just a piece of advice IF you are relatively new at working out.
I’m sure there are minor differences but practically speaking they are the same.
Also note that no. 2 uses a lot more delts. If you are trying to isolate your forearms, that’s not good. Save your energy and concentrate on exercise 1.
And don’t use straps. A chain is as strong as its weakest link, so you are as strong (in pulls) as your grip.
If you have access to a larger diameter bar, that helps develop the grip. If you don’t, wrap a towel around the bar and use that. Be careful you don’t slip.
There are also all kinds of grip developers, like the Captains of Crush grippers. Or just squeeze a tennis ball.
Or do judo. I startled the physical therapist during some shoulder rehab by maxing out the dynamometer she gave me to test my grip strength.