Forearm and grip...
Forearms are the only body part that you can almost always show off when in a t-shirt or something (I mean you don't need to take take your clothes off). And ofcourse, reasonably heavy and chiseled forearms always attract attention beside ensuring good chances at any arm-wrestling competition. I personally rate forearms higher than even biceps/triceps and chest etc as the latter act more as showpieces with little aid in strength. But forearms help you in daily chores etc too, so they are more useful then all the biceps in the world. Forearms constitute small muscles quite easy to develope and equally easy to maintain. Every time you lift a heavy weight gripping hard and keeping your wrist straight, you work your forearms and grip. But that is generally not enough if your goal is having huge fore arms. Unlike most of the other body parts, there are some really good exercises that give results within an month or two. The reason behind improper forearm developement is that being small muscles, they need very less exercise. And they get most of the exercise, when people work other body parts. So, if you try something like 5-10 sets of 5-10 reps each with no or little rest in between all other body parts, you simply overdo it. Just re-evaluate your schedule for such things.
A complete list is :
For complete forearm developement, you may do forearm curls (both over and under grip) and overgrip biceps curls. If you want bulk and strength and especially flexors, you may choose grippers. If you like good back, bulging arms with lots of veins and still lots of strength, you may choose to do pullups only. But as many of the experts suggest, if you are doing other exercises hard, you may never need to do them as whever you grip hard you work your forearms too. Foxed!!!!! Well, I suggest pullups. Do them and stay cool.
Pull-ups : If ever a drug free way to quick growth resulting in really heavy muscles existed, this is it. I mean it. I've seen tons of guys with hammer like forearms, with grip like you see in movies and with herculean strength especially in arms wrestling doing nothing more than one or two sets of pull-ups daily. I don't know about the professionals but for commoners (students etc) this really works. Just do pullups with a shoulder wide underhand grip daily. Your one effective (effective means the actual set when you've done your warms ups etc, if you do) set should be done to failure, I mean when you've done the partial reps too and can no longer pull yourself even a centimeter and even after you can't even hang there. Initially you won't be able to do more then 3-4 full reps. When you reach 15-20 reps, you'll surpass all your friends in strength and bulk when it comes to forearms and partially in back. I'm so sure of the routine because I've seen dozens of examples, but still at then end of one month if you don't see reasonably progress (preferably in strength), the option of 3-5 sets at 2-3 days intervals is always there. But if you are a normal guy (no bodybuilder), I hope it'll work.
Wrist rotation : The basic idea behind these exercises is having your fists tightly closed while rotating them (wrists) for a long long time. This is what karate students (may be others too) do (for much less time, about 10-15 rotations) for stretching. These are not mainstream bodybuilding exercises and for me are quite boring but if you are an ordinary person (again!!) they are sure to tighten up your grip a little bit. Back in school a guy with huge and strong forearms (There was no one to beat him in arm-wrestling that time and I suppose no one still is, not-professionals) told me about them. He didn't have a huge body and looked quite ordinary in other respects except in forearms. He never went to gym and didn't have even dumbells at his home, and according to him he solely did these rotaion exercises (until failure, takes real strength and endurance). I hoped he did some sort of pullups too, so now you can see that if you need strong and bulky (no enlarged veins, no cuts, pure mass and strength) forearms, you just need to do pull-ups and rotations will enhance your grip besides giving you a really cool stretch. If you ever do these rotaions and have good results, please let me know.
Curls : Here we come into the realms of weightlifting. Curls are the primary exercises for forearms and with some variations work almost all the forearms and wrist. Ofcourse the procedure is quite obvious. Keep your forearms at some bench etc while holding the weight, keep them parallel and do the curls. If you are doing them overgrip, your forearm extensors will get the workout. Doing them undergrip, will work the forearm flexors. And always do them in a narrow grip. I've seen tons of stupids who do them with hands shoulder width (or more) apart. This will never do. You MUST keep your forearms close and parallel to each other. Also, do the negatives slowely and steadily. Also, when doing them overgrip, don't make your fingers into a lock sort of thing and let the weight hang there. This is the primary cause of improper results. Always grip the bar hard to the point of squeezing it and maintain your grip for the full set (especially for overgrip curls). If you do them correctly, you'll feel an instant rush of blood and pump in the forearms.
Overgrip Barbell (Biceps) curls : Although this is not generally regarded as an exercise for forearms, but its side effect is very important. It works branchii (the muscles on the right of forearms at the elbows) in a superb way and its only because of overgrip curls that your forearms look wide. The procedure is ofcourse that of biceps curls. Hold the weight in an underhand grip and keeping your elbows pressed against your sides, curl it up and down steadily. There should be no upper arm movements for best results. Again grip the weight hard throughout the set. Its gripping hard that moulds the forearm muscles.
Grippers : They are V-shaped things and your job is to grip them hard and touch the two sided (one rep). Many variations of these are available and still more equipments ranging from loose to proper pulley oriented ones. The pulley versions are much better as in those one of the side is rigid and your job is to move the other one with your fingers. They are good both for bulk and strength developement.
