Bodyweight Help with forearm hypertrophy!

[Neagu George]

Hello guys. I started on my journey to 30 pull-ups and I'm doing GTG with weighted pull-ups, however, I got really skinny forearms and I kinda need some help to beef them up. Will weighted pull-ups alone help me to add some mass?

Sometimes I did barbell wrist rolls and farmer's carry at home, I got a barbell, dumbbells and a heavy gripper (I can get 10 reps on my left arm and 15-20 on my right arm). Should I do 10 sets of 5 reps and 5-10 minutes rest with my grippers? Any advice? I am really confused since it's not a topic Pavel really got into.

 

[Neagu George]

Also, sorry if I posted in the wrong place, but since I'm doing weighted pull-ups and asked about how will they help forearms I think it kinda makes sense....

 

[mikhael]

If I were you I would do Hanging.

 

[Anna C]

Some aspects that help with hypertropy: full range of motion, going to near failure, and accumulating a lot of volume without fatiguing yourself. But you want to accumulate a lot of volume without overstressing your tendons. (I'm probably stating the obvious.) Anyway, my thoughts would be the wrist rolls and finger extensions for full range of motion + grippers instead of 10 sets of 5 reps, which would be best for strength building, go closer to your max reps so go with 10 reps per set (or the max you can do with your left arm), to be best for hypertrophy + hanging, which would be better than farmer's carries because it lets you accumulate volume for the foreams without fatiguing the rest of your body as farmer's carries would. And don't forget to eat plenty of protein and a slight caloric surplus so your body has something to build that muscle with.

 

[Maine-ah KB]

Fat Grips (for pull ups, hangs and or dead) no experience but people say great things about rolling handles, like the rolling thunder.

 

[Neagu George]

Some aspects that help with hypertropy: full range of motion, going to near failure, and accumulating a lot of volume without fatiguing yourself. But you want to accumulate a lot of volume without overstressing your tendons. (I'm probably stating the obvious.) Anyway, my thoughts would be the wrist rolls and finger extensions for full range of motion + grippers instead of 10 sets of 5 reps, which would be best for strength building, go closer to your max reps so go with 10 reps per set (or the max you can do with your left arm), to be best for hypertrophy + hanging, which would be better than farmer's carries because it lets you accumulate volume for the foreams without fatiguing the rest of your body as farmer's carries would. And don't forget to eat plenty of protein and a slight caloric surplus so your body has something to build that muscle with.

I guess the rest should remain 5-10 minutes to get rid of hydrogen ions as quickly as possible as Pavel stated in a podcast? Because if I were to take 30-90 seconds of rest (like bodybuilders do), it would be almost impossible to get in that much volume of work without stressing my tendons and accumulating fatigue. Am I correct?

 

[offwidth]

Fat Grips (for pull ups, hangs and or dead) no experience but people say great things about rolling handles, like the rolling thunder.

+1 to fat grips and rolling thunder to develop crushing style grip strength. I can't vouch for any hypertrophic benefits. I think forearms are fairly slow to respond to size increases.

 

[Anna C]

I guess the rest should remain 5-10 minutes to get rid of hydrogen ions as quickly as possible as Pavel stated in a podcast? Because if I were to take 30-90 seconds of rest (like bodybuilders do), it would be almost impossible to get in that much volume of work without stressing my tendons and accumulating fatigue. Am I correct?

I'm theorizing here, not talking from direct experience, so take this with a grain of salt. Others feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. ("I am a student of strength.")

The stress on the tendons has less to do with rest/recovery and more to do with overall volume being tolerable. Therefore you want to increase your volume at a reasonable amount per week -- don't jump it way up at one time.

Accumulating fatigue is a good thing in the target muscle groups, if you're going for hypertrophy. You just don't want to do it in the overall body if it can be avoided to keep the focus on your objective. Therefore, bodybuilders fatigue the target muscle group, then another, with isolation exercises, as opposed to big compound exercises that fatigue the whole body. These big compound exercises (squat, press, bench press, deadlift) are GREAT for strength building, but not really the best for hypertrophy, unless they are programmed differently; i.e. 60% 1RM instead of 70-80% 1RM, and more reps and sets. That said, if you're doing enough heavy compound exercises, and recovering and eating appropriately, you WILL put on muscle.

Less rest (30-90 sec) is good for recruiting more motor units, which is good for hypertrophy. Going to failure is also good for hypertrophy for the same reason. (Obviously you only want to go to failure on a safe exercise, not one that puts weight over your head, etc.)

Long rests (5-10 minutes) is good for building maximum strength, so that ATP is almost fully restored and you are fresh for each set. And yes, getting rid of hydrogen ions, for all the benefits of anti-glycolytic training. But as Pavel states, acid is not all bad. A certain amount is good to trigger target adaptations. It just depends on your objectives.

 

[Neagu George]

+1 to fat grips and rolling thunder to develop crushing style grip strength. I can't vouch for any hypertrophic benefits. I think forearms are fairly slow to respond to size increases.

I got fat gripz. I already made good progress with the heavy grippers and since then, the grip strength is no longer a goal for me or a weak point. The only thing I care about is forearm hypertrophy. Yeah, I know, they are stubborn, aren't they? Thank you all for the responses. So it seems that a bodybuilder-ish type of training is still the best for hypertophy.

 

[offwidth]

I got fat gripz. I already made good progress with the heavy grippers and since then, the grip strength is no longer a goal for me or a weak point. The only thing I care about is forearm hypertrophy. Yeah, I know, they are stubborn, aren't they? Thank you all for the responses. So it seems that a bodybuilder-ish type of training is still the best for hypertophy.

Age plays a role as well. You sound young, so it should be less of an issue, but adding that type of mass becomes increasingly difficult as we age.
I speculate that a 60year old person is not going to build Popeye forearms from scratch no matter what they eat or how much grip work they do.

My old man had massive forearms... a life of farming and being a heavy duty equipment mechanic....

My son also has serious forearms.... serious bouldering.

Me.... must've skipped a generation. Grip is 'decent'... forearm size ... 'normal'

 

[Tarzan]

Pronated curls and Zottman curls with dumbbells are good for adding mass to the forearms. If your aiming for 30 pullups the accessory work could get a bit much when you start getting close to the goal. Your elbows will let you know when to back off.

 

[North Coast Miller]

I am unconvinced it makes for functional strength, but nothing is going to make those forearms pop more than the old 'weight on a cord wrapped around a stick'.

Hit a burn with that every day and they'll get pretty big.

 

[ThorsFavoriteGoat]

Heavy one arm swings have beefed up my forearms and hands.

 

[Neagu George]

Age plays a role as well. You sound young, so it should be less of an issue, but adding that type of mass becomes increasingly difficult as we age.
I speculate that a 60year old person is not going to build Popeye forearms from scratch no matter what they eat or how much grip work they do.

My old man had massive forearms... a life of farming and being a heavy duty equipment mechanic....

My son also has serious forearms.... serious bouldering.

Me.... must've skipped a generation. Grip is 'decent'... forearm size ... 'normal'

I am 22 years old and I plan to get at least 30 pull-ups and 50 push-ups before starting serious calisthenics like I did in the past (muscle-ups and so on and so forth). Now I really want a serious strong foundation before moving on to other exercises. So pretty much calisthenics + big forearms are my goals.

I know a guy that was with me in highschool and was able to do 30 pull-ups and he is a pro calisthenics guy that can do tricks and he is strong and I thought :"Well, I wanna do that" and when I looked at his forearms compared to the other guys that he trained with, his forearms were bigger and impressive. It's the guy with the BLACK tank top and he is 1 year younger than me.

 

[Neagu George]

I am unconvinced it makes for functional strength, but nothing is going to make those forearms pop more than the old 'weight on a cord wrapped around a stick'.

Hit a burn with that every day and they'll get pretty big.

So I can work them everyday, huh? I know that many mechanics and boat builders, etc have big forearms and they do hard forearm work everyday because it's their job, so I guess you can "overtrain" them?

 

[ThorsFavoriteGoat]

So I can work them everyday, huh? I know that many mechanics and boat builders, etc have big forearms and they do hard forearm work everyday because it's their job, so I guess you can "overtrain" them?

Tendinitis is a real risk with high volume pull-ups/grip work. At 22, it would probably take a while for you to get to that point, but I'd recommend lots of wrist/elbow/shoulder mobility and recovery work.

I am 44 now and did A LOT of pull-ups during my military career, now I have chronic tendinitis that gives me fits if I train them more than once a week or so.

 

[Neagu George]

Tendinitis is a real risk with high volume pull-ups/grip work. At 22, it would probably take a while for you to get to that point, but I'd recommend lots of wrist/elbow/shoulder mobility and recovery work.

I am 44 now and did A LOT of pull-ups during my military career, now I have chronic tendinitis that gives me fits if I train them more than once a week or so.

Yes, I also do plan to get in the military and stay as long as possible before retiring (maximum allowed age is 55 years). I am extremely passionate about military since I was a kid and I know guys that are there right now and they told me what's like being a soldier.

Next time I'll pass the physical test, I failed at first attempt because of running endurance but let's not deviate from the discussion with forearms and pull-ups. It's good that you told me this because I will be in a similar environment like you were and the last thing I want is a serious tendinitis. In our military they don't focus that much on pull-ups, but since I will go to a mountain unit I will do lots of climbing and I might as well do many pull-ups, who knows.

Even tho, I don't think that from heavy gripper and wrist rolls with the barbell I'll get tendinitis. I mean, that's why I chose the wrist rolls with the barbell, to simulate seated wrist curls and reverse wrist curls without having wrist problems and getting a bad tendinitis...EVEN THO if I do them standing I don't have those problems but I got hooked to the wrist rolls. Thank you for the tips.

 

[Neagu George]

Pronated curls and Zottman curls with dumbbells are good for adding mass to the forearms. If your aiming for 30 pullups the accessory work could get a bit much when you start getting close to the goal. Your elbows will let you know when to back off.

Pronated curls, you mean reverse curls? Love them for brachioradialis muscles... I did 5 sets of reverse curls with partial reps to completely isolate brachioradialis muscles...all sets to failure.

 

[offwidth]

Pronated curls, you mean reverse curls? Love them for brachioradialis muscles... I did 5 sets of reverse curls with partial reps to completely isolate brachioradialis muscles...all sets to failure.

No. Pronation is when you twist your forearm radially along its long axis. Hold a small sledge hammer, or a DB with a weight on one end, even a frying pan...
It's a great proactive drill for healthy elbows.

Also +1 to @North Coast Miller for remembering the stick roll-ups ...

 

[Tarzan]

I wouldn't get too caught up with comparisons, I'm seeing people with different body types in that pic and it's like comparing apples to oranges. The skinny guy probably won't fill out until his metabolism slows down some time in his 30's no matter what he does. Sure he'll add quite a bit of muscle but he could probably eat twice as much as the shorter guy and not gain much weight or appear to have bulked up much.

@Baker Gave you some great advice, he's been through a large part of his life in the military and knows first hand what happens from high volume pullups in the long term. The more volume you do the more the mobility and recovery work becomes important.

Tendon injuries come in two ways for the most part, either they happen from one overload incident or they accumulate for long periods. The type that accumulate can be the worst because you often don't know it's happening until it's too late and by then you can have a chronic problem.

Look after your elbows.