You may be asking yourself why you need wrist exercises after seeing the title of this article. Wrist exercises are very important to your total arm exercise program. After all, your body is only as strong as its weakest link. Your wrists do get some exercise when you are doing your other arm exercises but that alone is not enough.
If you have weak wrists and forearms, you will be limited in how much weight you can use and how hard you can perform your upper arm exercises. If you want to improve your grip strength or build your forearms, then wrist strengthening exercises are what you need.
In sports, your wrists and forearms must be strong. If the sport involves throwing, your wrists are involved. Setting and spiking a volleyball, swinging golf clubs and swinging a baseball bat all require strong wrists and forearms.
You will also need strong wrists for activities such as water skiing, rock climbing, tennis, badminton and yes, weight training. I like to add wrist strengthening exercises at the end of my workout routines. It will only take you 10-12 minutes more and you will be so glad you did.
In my experience, skipping rope exercises are great for building strong wrists and forearms. I used skipping rope exercises as a major part of my aerobic program for so many years that my wrists and forearms became very strong and defined. The way you hold the rope and use your wrists to spin the rope is what gives your wrists and forearms their workout.
Even if you do nothing more than some wrist stretching exercises or hand strengthening exercises such as squeezing a ball or hand grips, your wrists and forearms will get stronger. With stronger wrists, daily activities such as carrying groceries, typing, etc will be easier.
Should you get your doctors OK?
The last thing you want to do is to injure your wrist or to aggravate any pre-existing condition that you may have. Always consult your doctor to make sure you are fit enough to exercise. An injury can slow down or stop your exercise program.
Exercising should be fun and not painful if you are to continue your weekly exercise routine. Remember with wrist exercises, a little and often is much better. Do like 3 sets of 10 for each exercise and they should be pain free. If you are having pain, cut back and consult your doctor.
Four Wrist Strengthening Exercises that I use
I use these four wrist and arm toning exercises regularly because they do not require any special wrist exercise equipment. I add them at the end of my workout routine just before the cool down.
1. Wrist Curls
This wrist exercise can be performed with barbells, dumbbells, weight machines or even a can of soup. Use light weights and make sure it is pain free. I use light weight dumbbells.
You can stand but sitting is better resting your forearms on a table or your knees. Hold the weight with an underhand grip with your palms facing up. Do not move anything but your wrists in this exercise.
Let your wrists relax so your hands drop slowly towards the floor as far as possible. Now raise the weight back up slowly and toward your body using only your wrist. Keep the rest of your arms still while doing this exercise. Now lower the weight again to the bottom position. This is one repetition.
Do 3 sets of 12 repetitions. This exercise does not have a big range of motion but is great for your wrist and forearms.
2. Reverse Wrist Curls
This wrist exercise can also be performed with barbells, dumbbells, weight machines or even a can of soup. It is preformed the same as the wrist curls except for the grip.
You can stand but sitting is better resting your forearms on a table or your knees. Hold the weight with an overhand grip with your palms facing down. Do not move anything but your wrists in this exercise.
Let your wrists relax so your hands drop slowly towards the floor as far as possible. Now raise the weight back up slowly and toward your body using only your wrist. Keep the rest of your arms still while doing this exercise. Now lower the weight again to the bottom position. This is one repetition.
Do 3 sets of 10 repetitions. You will feel this one a little more in your wrists so start out light.
3. Wrist Rotations
You can use dumbbells, a weight machine or the old can of soup for this exercise.
Sit on a chair or bench while resting your forearms on your knees or on a table. Start with holding the weight with an underhand grip with your palms facing up. Make sure to keep your forearms stationary.
Now slowly rotate the weight until your palms are facing down and hold for 5 seconds. Rotate back to the starting position with your palms facing up and hold for 5 seconds. This will complete one repetition. Keep your wrist straight throughout this exercise. Do 3 sets of 12 repetitions.
4. Wrist Rolls
I may have exaggerated a little when I said these exercises do not require any special wrist exercise equipment. This one does, however, it can be easily made at home.
You will need a stick (something like a broomstick, about 2 feet long), a piece of strong rope and a weight of some sort. Attach one end of the rope firmly to the middle of the stick. Firmly attach the other end of the rope to the weight. The rope should be long enough to reach the ground if you are holding the stick out at shoulder height.
Grip the stick with both hands in an overhand grip at shoulder width apart. Extend your arms straight out in front of your body. The weight should be on the floor at this point.
Now using only your wrists and forearms, slowly roll the rope up around the stick until it reaches the stick. Keep your arms straight out in front of your body at all times.
Now reverse the procedure and slowly unroll the rope until the weight reaches the floor. Again, keep your arms straight out in front of you. This is one repetition. Repeat 3-4 times. You will feel this one so start out with a very light weight. If you are having pain, stop.
To Sum It Up
In the beginning, you might want to start these wrist and forearm exercises with no weights (except for the wrist rolls) or very light weights. Slowly increase weight and repetitions as your wrists and forearms become stronger.
If you are in sports that require lots of wrist and forearm work, I would recommend not doing wrist exercises on the day before your sports event.
When working wrist and hand strengthening exercises into your weekly exercise routine, always do them at the end of the exercise workout. Intensive wrist and forearm exercises will temporarily reduce your grip strength. You don’t want to weaken your grip before doing your other weight training exercises.
Don’t allow your wrists and forearms to be your weak link. Add them to your regular exercise routine today. You will be thankful you did.
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