WHAT KIND OF SHAPE ARE YOU IN? GRIP STRENGTH IS AN INDICATOR!

 The Forearm Training Experiment

For years, YouTuber and trainer Jeremy Ethier assumed his forearms would take care of themselves through heavy compound lifts.

They didn’t.

After more than a decade of consistent training, Ethier realized his forearms had quietly become a weak point. Despite years under the bar, grip strength and forearm size lagged behind the rest of his physique. This wasn’t just an aesthetic issue. Weak forearms can limit performance across nearly every lift that involves pulling, holding, or carrying load.

Grip strength is strongly associated with overall strength, work capacity, and long-term physical resilience. If your grip fails early, the rest of your body never gets the stimulus it’s capable of handling.

The Training Plan

To identify what actually builds forearm size and usable strength, Ethier ran a 30-day experiment comparing three different approaches. All participants trained only their left arm. The untrained right arm acted as a control.

Measurements were taken at the lower, middle, and upper forearm to determine whether different methods emphasized different regions.

Ethier followed a structured gym-based routine targeting all three primary forearm muscle groups.

Flexors were trained using wrist curls with dumbbells and cables.
Extensors were trained using wrist extensions with dumbbells and cables.
The brachioradialis was trained using hammer-style and reverse curls.

Each movement was performed for three hard sets taken close to failure and repeated daily. Joint stress quickly became a factor. When dumbbells irritated the wrists and elbows, exercise angles and cable resistance were adjusted to reduce strain.

Two beginners tested simpler methods.

One followed a rice bucket protocol involving repetitive gripping, twisting, and rotational work designed to build endurance and tissue tolerance.
The other completed 100 hand-gripper repetitions per day, gradually increasing resistance over the month.

By the second session, extreme soreness made one thing clear. Most lifters dramatically undertrain their forearms.

The Results

After 30 days, each method produced distinct adaptations rather than one clear winner.

The gym-based routine produced the greatest improvements in crushing grip strength and upper forearm size, but required careful joint management.

The rice bucket protocol produced modest size gains while significantly improving dead-hang endurance with minimal joint irritation.

The hand gripper protocol delivered the strongest improvements in pinch strength and lower forearm development but showed limited transfer to hanging strength.

An unexpected benefit appeared across all methods. Improved grip strength carried over to stronger biceps curls despite no direct biceps focus.

The Verdict

There is no single best forearm method. The optimal approach depends on the outcome you care about most.

Gym-based training is best for maximizing crushing grip and upper forearm thickness.
Rice bucket training excels at endurance and joint-friendly volume.
Hand grippers are highly effective for pinch strength and lower forearm development.

Daily training can work, but only when exercise selection and joint feedback guide progression. Adjusting angles, resistance tools, and movement patterns mattered far more than brute-force consistency.

Targeted forearm training is worth including, even for experienced lifters.

The exercises Ethier favored most after the experiment were dumbbell wrist curls for the flexors, sideways dumbbell wrist extensions for the extensors, and cable reverse curls for the brachioradialis. Farmer carries were added periodically for grip endurance.

His ongoing routine is simple and efficient.

Dumbbell wrist curls for three sets of ten to fifteen reps.
Sideways wrist extensions for three sets of ten to fifteen reps.
Cable reverse curls for three sets of ten to fifteen reps.

Short sessions. Direct stimulus. No wasted effort.
That’s ISOQUICK Strength forearm training done right.