Barbell Reverse Wrist Curl
Trains the Forearm Extensors.
- Equipment
- A barbell and either a flat bench or an adjustable bench
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Sit on the end of a flat bench with a light barbell, feet flat on the floor.
- Take an overhand grip about shoulder-width apart and rest your forearms along your thighs, wrists just past your knees, palms facing down.
- Let your wrists drop so the backs of your hands travel toward the floor.
- Raise the backs of your hands upward as far as they will go by extending your wrists.
- Pause briefly at the top, then lower under control.
Common mistakes
- Using anything like the weight of a palm-up wrist curl. The extensors are considerably weaker than the flexors, and that is normal rather than an imbalance to fix with load.
- Letting the forearms lift off the thighs to help.
- Skipping the extensor side entirely. Pulling, carrying and gripping all load the flexors constantly and nothing in a typical program loads the extensors on purpose — this is the side of the forearm that actually needs the work.
- Expecting it to feel like a substantial exercise. It works at loads that look trivial, over a short range, and that is what it is.