I have a confession to make: I HATE BICEPS.

I hate the way they look, I hate training them, I hate seeing people training them, I hate it when people talk about them, the whole 9 yards!

The main reason why I never liked them was because I have a rebellious personality where if something is popular and “mainstream” then it just makes me hate it even more because it is popular, common, predictable, the norm and it just makes you look like everybody else.

Honestly speaking, how many people have big biceps? EVERYBODY does and all you need for proof of this is to go to any commercial gym in the world and you will see tons of people rocking big bi’s.

Its the douche-bag/showoff muscle in my opinion and its the gym bro muscle that is universally trained world wide and its annoying. Its glorified by all of hollywood and people always argue “what do people ask to feel when they ask you to flex”?

Yes it is the biceps that people will ask you to flex, but that is partially why they are such a douche-bag muscle because they are like a cry out for attention and respect for the most part.

Now don’t get me wrong, I will still train my biceps once per week with direct work, but never more than that because I don’t care about getting huge biceps and quite frankly if you want big upper arms then its really the long head of the triceps that should be the bulk of your focus.

Not only are biceps the most overrated muscle group, but they honestly don’t even look that cool and they don’t make you look that big either. The reason why they don’t look that big is because they aren’t a big muscle group and the fact that they are being covered by your t-shirt sleeves doesn’t help that much either.

Today I want to talk about a different muscle group that most people don’t even train that often, but if you develop it then it will have a bigger impact on your appearance than big biceps alone will.

 

FOREARMS

I am talking big juicy hairy and veiny forearms that look like you are related to Popeye. I am talking about the kind of forearms that make people scared to shake your hands and that have the strength to rip phone books in half.

If you don’t have big forearms then your arms will look like garbage and you will ALWAYS look small in a t-shirt.

As a drug-free lifter it is very hard to develop some very big forearms because we have fewer androgen receptors in this region, but this should be a reason for you to want to grow them even more because they are hard to get and not many people have forearms that deserve a second glance.

I want what most people don’t have, don’t you?

Look at the 2 photos below and tell me what looks more impressive?

I’ve said it a million times before that if you have small forearms then you have small arms, period. I’ve stood by this, I stand by it and I will always stand by it. The funny thing about all of this too is that arms and legs are very similar in the sense that when people say that you have “chicken legs” they are basically saying that because you have skinny calves. The same thing applies to arms because when people say you have small arms, they are basically saying that because you have small forearms and that’s mostly what they could see

(MORE: The Biggest Mistake People Make When Trying to Build Massive Forearms).

Nobody cares about your bicep peak, for now on if you want to look like you have big arms then your main goal should be to try to get 16 inch forearms, that’s impressive!

WHY DO FOREARMS MAKE PEOPLE LOOK SO BIG?

When we are talking about getting a bigger upper body, you have to understand that it is always the muscles in the outer extremities of the body that create the size. Your traps, neck, shoulders all stick out, but when we are talking about the arms it is really the forearms that are in the outer extremities of the arms which makes it essential to develop this muscle group.

As a bonus, if you have big forearms (with the muscles I listed above) then you could get could get away with wearing a bigger t-shirt because nobody is going to say that your t-shit is too small for your arms if you have 16+ inch forearms because subconsciously when they look at them it will look like you are carrying a lot more muscle mass.

Remember that when people see you, the only 2 muscles groups that will be revealed in most cases will be your neck and your forearms. I’ve already discussed how the neck is extremely important because it is a peripheral vision muscle, but the forearms are the second thing that people look at when they are scanning for all of your imperfections and if you have these toothpick forearms then it just makes you look small.

You would be surprised, but people actually look a lot at your hands and forearms subconsciously without even knowing it because humans tend to talk with their hands a lot too. When people are really getting into a conversation it is very hard to keep your hands by your sides.

It doesn’t matter how big your biceps are because the biceps are getting covered by your t-shirt sleeves (unless if you are walking around with a tank top all of the time but that really unlikely). So in other words, the person with 16 inch forearms and 16 inch upper arms will ALWAYS look bigger than the person with 18 inch upper arms and 14 inch forearms, that’s a fact.

COMMON QUESTIONS

I want big forearms, but I also want my biceps to grow (just to a lesser degree), are there any forearm exercises that will build the forearms well but will also build my biceps so that way I can kill two birds with one stone?

If growing bigger forearms is your main goal and you still want to build your biceps a bit but you just don’t want to put to much emphasis on them in your program then make sure that you do a lot of EZ-Bar Reverse Curls, Hammer Curls and Hammer Cable Rope Curls. These are all great forearm builders, but they will also hit your biceps pretty hard as well. On the other hand, if you were to only do supinated bicep work then you wouldn’t really be developing your forearms that much.

Do I have to do wrist curls/extensions if I want to maximize forearm development?

Yes you do because if you only do curling variations then you aren’t truly isolating the forearms so its important to have some direct forearm work in your program especially if your priority is to bring them up as much as humanly possible. The behind the back barbell wrist curl is a great lift for working the forearm flexors and the DB wrist extension is good for working the forearm extensor muscles.

What if I have extremely skinny wrists, can my forearms still look big?

Well if somebody has 9 inch wrists then chances are that their forearms will look bigger than somebody with 7 inch wrists (granted that they both have the same insertion points). On the same token, if you do have small wrists then some bodybuilders actually consider it a blessing to have small wrists because some believe that the fact that the wrists are so small will make the forearms appear bigger. Chris Jones from POG is a perfect example of this because he has big forearms, but he also has small wrists.

At the end of the day, who cares about your wrist size because there is nothing that you could really do about it so just try to make the best of your genetics. Just because you have small wrists it doesn’t mean that you can’t train for hypertrophy and you could still go from 12 inch forearms to 15.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, there really isn’t much left to say. Train your forearms and make them a priority in your training or else be doomed to looking goofy for the rest of your lifting career.