Pullups are common body weight exercises that most people try at some point in their lives, often during physical education classes or strength tests. Performing pullups will strengthen your arms, but pullups alone are unlikely to make you look like Popeye the Sailor, with bulging forearms, even if you eat your spinach.
Standard Pullup Technique
Grasp a horizontal bar with a wide, overhand grip -- with your hands a bit more than shoulder-width apart -- so your palms face away from your body. Exhale as you pull your body up until your chin rises above the bar. Inhale as you lower yourself slowly until your arms are completely extended. Increase the exercise’s difficulty by bending your lower legs back until they’re parallel with the floor, or by holding a weight with your lower legs.
Standard body weight pullups mainly work your back, chest and upper arms. The primary targeted muscle is the latissimus dorsi, or lats, in your back. Pullups also work the biceps, triceps and pectorals, plus various shoulder and back muscles. The main forearm muscle strengthened by pullups is the brachioradialis, which runs from the upper arm to your wrist.
To work your way up to standard pullups, have a training partner help you clear the bar, or sit beneath a bar that is 3 or 4 feet high and leave your feet on the floor as you pull yourself up. For variety, perform a rear pullup in the same manner as a standard pullup, but pass your head on the opposite side of the bar. You can also perform pullups on various machines. Some exercise machines will partially support your body weight, making the exercise less strenuous, while others add resistance, making the pullups more challenging.
Other Forearm Exercises
Pulling your body weight over a bar will tax many of your muscles, including your forearms. But pullups aren’t the best exercises for developing bigger forearms. Wrist curls, reverse wrist curls and reverse barbell curls are classic exercises to build your forearms. Chin-ups, performed with an underhand grip, are better for your forearms than pullups. You can also squeeze a tennis ball, push your hand into a bucketful of sand and squeeze the sand, or hang from a horizontal bar until your arms or hands refuse to hang on any longer.
M.L. Rose has worked as a print and online journalist for more than 20 years. He has contributed to a variety of national and local publications, specializing in sports writing. Rose holds a B.A. in communications.