One part of the body that gets overlooked for exercising is the wrist. Wrists aren’t necessarily high on the list of muscles that people like to show off. People are more focused on their biceps, chest, abs, and so on. Your upper body won’t be effective unless you have strong wrists. Having strong wrists can be a great asset in manual work, sports, and everyday life. Exercising your wrist has lots of advantages, including strengthening your grip and forearms, as well as helping to prevent injuries. If you lift extremely heavy weights, play baseball or softball, of fish for a living, you might want to participate in more wrist-strengthening exercises. Building strength and thickness in your wrists is a matter of finding the right exercises that will build strength and flexibility. Start working out today to strength your wrists needed to assist in these exercises.
Wrist Curls -The wrist curl is a weight training exercise for developing just the wrist flexor muscles of the forearm. Wrist curls can be performed with a dumbbell or with both hands holding a barbell.
1. Take a seat on the edge of a chair or bench.
2. Hold dumbbells in both hands with your palms facing up.
3. Bend your elbows to 90 degrees and rest them on your thighs, with your wrists hanging over the ends of your knees.
4. Curl the dumbbells only using your wrists. Slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position. Repeat.
Reverse Wrist Curls -Reverse wrist curls help build more than just your wrist flexors. The movement engages muscles in your forearms as well, which also helps improve your grip strength.
1. Sit on a flat bench, and lean forward.
2. Grasp a dumbbell with an overhand grip (i.e. palms down) and rest your forearms on either the bench or your knees.
3. Using your wrists alone, curl the weight upward, exhaling throughout the movement.
4. Slowly lower the weight as low as is comfortable, inhaling throughout the movement. Repeat steps 3-4 for as many repetitions as are desired
Wrist Rotation-Grab a dumbbell (using an overhand grip) securely in each hand and bring them up to the sides
Raise the dumbbells to a point where the forearms are parallel to the ground and the elbows form a 90 degree angle
While holding this arm position, rotate the wrists away from the body so the palms are facing up (inhale throughout this motion)
Slowly rotate the wrists toward the body until the palms face down. Repeat steps 2-4.
Upward resistance-Upward resistance is also another exercise that strengthens your wrist.
1. using a resistance band, wrap it around your fingers with your palm facing up.
2. Hold the band with your feet. Slowly flex your wrist up, tightening the arm muscles.
3. Repeat this 10 times each for 3 sets of repetitions.
Wrist Rolls– The wrist roller is a device designed for strengthening the forearm muscles together in a rolling-pulling motion.
1. Stand straight up grabbing a wrist roller using a pronated grip (palms facing down). Your feet should be shoulder width apart.
2. Make sure the rope is not wrapped around the roller. Your entire body should be stationary except for the forearms.
3. With palms facing down, start rolling the rod to pull the weight up toward you. Continue until the weight has reached the rod.
4. Once the weight has reached the bar, slowly begin to lower the weight back down by rotating the wrist in a downward motion until the weight reaches the starting position. Repeat for the prescribed amount of repetitions in your program.