Best Bodyweight Exercises for Forearms — Top 6
Bodyweight training is training anywhere with no equipment. Here are the best bodyweight exercises for targeting your forearms, ranked by effectiveness. Bodyweight training builds relative strength, body control, and joint resilience with zero equipment.
Ranked by forearms muscle activation percentage, range of motion quality with bodyweight, and progressive overload potential.
The towel hang drapes a towel over a pull-up bar and hangs from the towel ends, forcing the fingers and forearms to work much harder than a standard dead hang. It is one of the best grip builders available.
Key Form Cue
Drape a thick towel over a pull-up bar so both ends hang down evenly.
Dead hangs build crushing grip endurance while decompressing the spine. Simply hang from a pull-up bar with arms fully extended for as long as possible.
Key Form Cue
Grip a pull-up bar with an overhand grip, shoulder-width apart.
The bodyweight chin-up curl modifies the chin-up to emphasize the biceps by keeping the body very close to the bar and focusing on elbow flexion over shoulder extension. It builds serious biceps strength with bodyweight alone.
Key Form Cue
Grab a pull-up bar with a narrow supinated (chin-up) grip, hands six inches apart.
The pull-up is the king of upper-back exercises. Hang from a bar with an overhand grip and pull your chin above the bar using your lats and biceps. Mastering pull-ups is a milestone in any training journey.
Key Form Cue
Grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width with palms facing away.
The chin-up uses a supinated (underhand) grip that increases bicep involvement while still hammering the lats. Many lifters find chin-ups easier than pull-ups, making them a great stepping stone.
Key Form Cue
Grip the bar at shoulder-width with palms facing you.
The hanging leg raise is one of the most effective ab exercises. Hanging from a bar, you raise your legs by flexing your hips and curling your pelvis, targeting the entire rectus abdominis with emphasis on the lower portion.
Key Form Cue
Hang from a pull-up bar with a shoulder-width grip.
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.