Best Barbell Exercises for Forearms — Top 10
Barbell training is heavy compound lifts (squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press). Here are the best barbell exercises for targeting your forearms, ranked by effectiveness. The barbell is the gold standard for heavy compound lifting.
Ranked by forearms muscle activation percentage, range of motion quality with barbell, and progressive overload potential.
Wrist curls isolate the forearm flexors. Rest your forearms on your thighs or a bench with wrists hanging over the edge, and curl the weight by flexing your wrists.
Key Form Cue
Rest your forearms on your thighs or a bench with wrists hanging over the edge.
The behind-the-back wrist curl targets the forearm flexors from a stretched position by curling a barbell held behind your glutes. It allows heavier loads than traditional wrist curls because of the more natural wrist angle.
Key Form Cue
Stand with a barbell held behind you, palms facing backward, arms fully extended.
Reverse wrist curls target the forearm extensors — the muscles on top of the forearm. They balance the forearm flexors and help prevent wrist injuries and tennis elbow.
Key Form Cue
Rest your forearms on your thighs or a bench with wrists hanging over, palms facing down.
Plate pinches build crushing grip strength and thumb strength. Hold two weight plates together smooth-side-out between your thumb and fingers for time.
Key Form Cue
Place two plates together with the smooth sides facing out.
The barbell finger roll isolates the finger flexors and forearm flexors by rolling the bar down to the fingertips and curling it back into the palm. This builds crushing grip strength and forearm size.
Key Form Cue
Hold a barbell with an overhand grip at waist height.
Reverse curls use a pronated (overhand) grip to shift emphasis from the biceps to the brachioradialis and forearm extensors. They build the thick outer forearm sweep.
Key Form Cue
Grip a barbell or dumbbells with palms facing down (overhand grip).
The barbell reverse curl uses a pronated (overhand) grip to shift emphasis to the brachialis and brachioradialis while still training the biceps. It builds the muscles that make arms look thicker from the side.
Key Form Cue
Grip a barbell with a shoulder-width overhand (pronated) grip, arms fully extended.
Rack pulls are a partial-range deadlift performed from pins set at or above knee height. They allow extremely heavy loading that builds massive traps and upper back thickness.
Key Form Cue
Set the safety pins at knee height or slightly above.
The conventional deadlift is the ultimate full-body strength exercise. It trains every muscle from your hands to your feet and builds raw pulling power that transfers to everything else you do.
Key Form Cue
Stand with feet hip-width apart, bar over mid-foot, shins touching the bar.
The barbell rack pull shrug combines a rack pull with a heavy shrug at the top, allowing you to overload the traps with supramaximal weights. Set pins at knee height, pull to lockout, and shrug at the top of each rep.
Key Form Cue
Set the barbell on rack pins at or just below knee height.
Put these exercises into a real program
Revy's AI combines the best exercises for your goals into a personalized training program with progressive overload built in.