Q: I get an unusual kind of soreness and I don’t know how to avoid it. It’s happened for years, but now that I’m going heavier in all movements, it’s getting too painful to keep training on a regular schedule throughout the week. The day after doing legs, I have an incapacitating soreness in my forearms. How can I stop this?

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When in the arena of competitive bodybuilding, the illusion of size usually matters more than the true size. Bodybuilders have often decided to neglect the training of specific muscle areas so that other muscle groups seem bigger. A lot of bodybuilders will not train their abs as much so that the shoulders can look bigger and wider. Another way bodybuilders use this illusion is by reducing the training of their quadriceps, which allows their calves to appear much larger than they would usually would look.

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The forearms, or the hand grip more specifically, are often the most likely single point of failure on back exercises. Many bodybuilders find themselves reaching the point of failure on exercises like barbell rows, chin-ups, and deadlifts not because the back muscles are exhausted, but because their hands are no longer able to hold onto the bar or barbell. After all, the back is a large and complex network of muscles, while the hands and forearms are much smaller.

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Recently, a bodybuilding fan met Phil Heath and described his forearm/biceps connection in a unique way. He stated “it looked like there was another biceps stacked on top where the biceps and forearms meet.” This is fairly accurate for many bodybuilders when you see them up close, but applies to Phil Heath in particular. He probably does possess the best brachioradialis in the business since Ronnie Coleman has retired. The brachioradialis is the muscle group that ties the biceps and brachialis (the two heads of the biceps muscle group) to the forearms. When the brachioradialis muscle is fully developed, the arm takes on more of a complete look. The biceps and triceps flow directly into the forearms, delivering a very aesthetic and graceful visual fluidity.

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Many bodybuilders train religiously, 4 to 6 days a week. They plan every meal, and measure every gram of protein, carbohydrate, and fat. They set their alarm clock and never miss a minute of sleep. They take their supplement like clockwork. They stay on top of every new bodybuilding innovation. Yet despite this meticulous planning, research, and hard work, they often overlook the third-tier body parts.

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Many decades ago in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, bodybuilders often trained the entire body two to three times per week. Obviously this involved fewer sets than the one-body part-per-week routines used by most bodybuilders today. However, in an era where the drug regimens amounted to “a handful of Deca per day” and pre-contest diets were composed of “a can of tuna for lunch”, the athletes managed to achieve a very high level of physique development. While the trainers of today employ drug regimens, which allow for recovery from 30+ set days per body part, the training they used decades ago (hitting each body part twice per week) was effective then, and is effective now. Let’s look at a good 3-day per week split.

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In the world of competitive bodybuilding, the illusion of size often trumps actual size. Bodybuilders will choose to under-develop certain muscle groups in order to make other body parts appear larger. For example, some bodybuilders will avoid abdominal training in order to make the shoulders appear larger and wider. Or, another example is the new pros that have had to reduce their quadriceps training in order to let their genetically challenged calves appear larger.

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Q:I’ve always struggled to produce decent results with my forearms, they’re the body part I’m most ashamed of. The rest of my physique is top-notch, and I’ve worked very hard for it, but I always thought that be focusing on the upper body’s most commonly worked areas, the forearms would more or less just get big on their own, sort of weaning off the major exercises. What gives? How do I address this directly?

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Q:  I’ve got decent looking biceps (17 inches) but my forearms and wrists are out of proportion – in fact they’re down right wimpy. What can I do to bring them up?

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