The wrists aren’t exactly on top of anyone’s list of muscles to work on as they are more interested in developing their abs, chest, biceps, quads, calves, and so on. However, the wrists play an important role in your day to day life plus they can help you perform better with your exercises such as lifting, curls, and the like.
What can you do to make your wrists stronger? Here are some exercises that can help you out.
- Wrist curls. One of the best exercises that can help you strengthen your wrists is the wrist curl. For this exercise, you will need a dumbbell or a barbell so you can exercise both wrists at the same time. Start by sitting on a bicep curl rack or bench. Hold the dumbbell so that your palm will be facing upward. Curl dumbbell towards your wrist as far as you can using your forearm only. Your elbow shouldn’t bend. Return the dumbbell back to its first position and repeat. Try and do 3 sets of 15 reps or until your wrists are reasonably fatigued.
- Dumbbell seated supination and pronation. Here you will need to follow the same pose as that of wrist curls where your palm is facing towards the ceiling and your wrist is positioned a bit of the edge of your knee. Hold the dumbbell in your palm while keeping right forearm on your right thigh. Make sure that they are parallel to the floor. Pronate your forearm slowly by rotating your palm towards the floor. Supinate forearm by flipping palm up. Do three sets of 12 repetitions for this exercise before switching sides.
- Finger curls. Here’s another variant of the wrist curl where you can work on a wider range of motion than you normally would. However, you need to be extra careful with this exercise as you might drop your weight. Again, you will need a weighted dumbbell or barbell for this one. Stand with arms hanging down. Hold a dumbbell in your hand and just let it hang at your waist. You should have a relaxed grip so the dumbbell will be at the end of your fingers. Curl fingers upwards to grip the dumbbell and raise the hand as high as you can with your forearm. Let the weight roll back down to your fingertips as you lower your hand and repeat.
- Dumbbell reverse wrist curl. This exercise targets the wrist extensors. To start, you should go into the same position as the wrist curls but this time, your palms will be facing downwards. Your forearm should be positioned on your thigh and running parallel to the floor. Your wrist should be positioned just a bit off the knee. Lift the dumbbell by extending wrist then pulling back your hand and up and moving towards your forearm. Lower the weight slowly. Do three sets of 12 reps. Switch sides. Make sure that you start with a lighter weight then gradually add more pounds until you can manage.
