Reverse wrist curls are an important exercise to develop good grip strength. The reverse position, which means palm faces downwards, is much weaker than the palm up wrist curl, and if wanting to develop grip strength – or build up the forearms, a few weeks of reverse wrist curls will get the training programme off to a flying start. Main points:
- Do start this exercise one arm at a time so you can really concentrate. The non-dominant, or weaker, hand should go first. Then repeat with the same reps and weight with the dominant hand – and for most of us, the stronger hand will be going, ‘la la la – is this the warm up?’ Whilst the weaker arm was generally sobbing and wobbling about and generally complaining about being exercised at all.
- You choose a depressingly light weight, sit on a bench and place your forearm, palm down, on your thigh. Just as in the video, get as much of your forearm on your thigh, not leaving the poor wrist dangling unsupported in the air.
- Lean towards the working forearm. This helps anchor the elbow. It will want to flap gently up and down, assisting the movement. If this happens, it just delays the best result.
- Make sure your little finger is beside the end of the dumbbell and not in the middle of the grip.
- A nice 4 0 2 0 tempo will work here. Raise the dumbbell up for 2 secs, immediately lower it for 4 secs.
- Higher rep ranges good, especially at first.
The most important thing to develop a good grip is shoulder position. To have strong arms, biceps, triceps and forearms, the shoulders should be sitting naturally low and broad, with shoulder blades flat on the back and the upper back nice and straight. If this is not the case, then be very careful working the forearms to avoid injury.