Is it necessary to do wrist curls?

[RBTrucking]

I have heard that its not really necessary because alot of other weightlifting exercises strengthen the wrist. What is your opinion on it and what other exercises strengthen the forearm?

[.V.]

If your wrists and forearms are progressing with everything else...don't bother to do them. If not...then do them.

Unless you are gifted I believe it is necessary to do forearm work from the outset. By the time you realize there is an imbalance you are that much further behind in the training of that muscle group.

[Klinger]

My 2 cents: Work them if they feel like they're a weak link.

I feel mine get plenty of work from moves like heavy deadlifts, DB hammer curls and pullups.

[.V.]

One hint to help without having to do extra sets of arm exercises just for forearms - and perhaps to clarify my reasoning from my previous post.

When I do dumbell curls, I do them standing - bring the DB up like a hammer curl, rotate it into a full regular curl at the top - then twist the wrist out at the very top of the movement and curl it down toward the forearm. This works the bicep for width, heigth, and peak. It also gets the forearm.

When I do skullcrushers, when I bring the bar down to the top of my head, I then "reverse curl" my wrists at the bottom of the movement. Then at the top, I curl them forward.

On my arm day, my forearms get well worked while doing my regular arm work. Of course deadlifts, pullups, lat pulls, etc... also hit them too.

My left forearm is slightly behind the right since I'm a right handed person (left bicep too). I correct this by loading and unloading the bars left handed. When I load my dumbells, I hold the dumbell out in front of me with the elbow resting on my thigh...again more forearm work without having to add extra exercises.

However, if you need them or have the time - do more.

[Dan C]

Originally Posted by IronMan

Unless you are gifted I believe it is necessary to do forearm work from the outset. By the time you realize there is an imbalance you are that much further behind in the training of that muscle group.

I agree, especially when it comes to the wrist extensors.

In fact that is something I'm dealing with now. Barbell/Dumbbell wrist curls have never been comfortable for me so I've somewhat neglected my wrists over the years. However, I recently bought a Formulator from www.functionalhandstrength.com and I really look forward to wrist work now, and I can see the carry-over into certain exercises as well.