Unfortunately, forearms are widely overlooked when it comes to having an overall good physique. However the importance of good strong forearms carries into the adult years of our lives. It is important to place some strong focus on the proper development of forearms. Besides the fact that for your biceps to look proportional to the rest of your arm, your forearms must be built accordingly, there’s also some functional benefits to it.
Improve Functional Strength and Movements
Another good reason to work on forearm strength is to develop overall better functional strength. As we get older one of the problems which we are faced with is the inability to effectively use our hands strength, probably because such strength is not there due to us ignoring proper development of our forearms.
A series of nerves flow through the forearm, leading from our fingers through our elbows and to our shoulders that play an important role later in life. These nerves are the Median Nerve, the Ulnar Nerve and the Radial Nerve.
The Median Nerve, colloquially known as the “eye of the hand,” is one of the three major nerves of the forearm and hand and supplies the muscles that help bend the wrist and fingers and it’s the main nerve for the muscles that bend the thumb. The Median Nerve also gives feeling to the skin, much of the hand around the palm, the thumb, the index and middle fingers. The compression of this nerve leads to carpal tunnel syndrome.
The Ulnar Nerve supplies muscles that help bend the wrist and fingers, and that move fingers side to side. It also gives feeling to the skin of the outer part of the hand, including the little finger, the ring finger and the outer half of the back of the hand, palm, and ring finger. When this nerve gets bumped, we often refer to it as “the funny bone.”
The Radial Nerve supplies muscles that straighten elbow and lift and straighten the wrist, thumb, and fingers. It gives feeling to the skin on the outside of the thumb and of the back of the hand and the index finger, middle finger, and half of the ring finger.
The reason why I’m giving you all the boring details on what those nerves do is because if our forearm muscles are not built enough to support our body during daily activity and sleep, these nerves get compressed and weaken the hands and arms. So the inability to open jars and carrying somewhat heavy objects, that were easily handled in our youth, become an impossibility. To strengthen the grip and avoid some issues with numbness in the hands while sleeping, building the forearms is essential.
©Copyright – Hector Sectzer
