Best forearm training with dumbbells?

The best training is functional training. Mimic the smash motion, for example (but be careful only to use light weights!).

Yvette Yun Luo, England national women's singles coach, recommends elastic resistance band training for increasing racket head speed. Just fix a theraband (or similar) to a door or wall, then carry out rapid forearm rotations as used in a clear/smash.

Other coaches suggest racket head cover training, or squash racket training. Some even recommend tennis racket training! But be careful: using the more extreme training methods may cause you injury (and, unless used under expert guidance, they might not offer any benefit over the gentler, safer methods).

 

Bicep curls

Be sure to do your biceps curls with a twist -- supinate the forearm. This can help some of your backhand shots.

You should also be working your triceps to balance out your bicep work since these are complementary muscle groups. You should never do one group w/o doing the other -- doing so would lead to muscle imbalance. If you perform a lot of bicep training & ignore the triceps, your arm may become too tight & could hinder your ability to smash and hit some other shots effectively.

 

The whole "functional" training thing is a tricky issue -> do it "wrong" and you end up wasting a lot of valuable training time.

Typically, most sports performance coaches give their clients a fairly general training program, which is converted into better performance once they resume specific technical work. With this more conventional approach, it is easier to gain strength easily, simply and safely.

Once you have the basic strength, work capacity, etc. in place, then special functional exercises can help if you understand which ones to use, and when. It's all about optimizing the relationship between strength and speed, as well as programming your nervous system to fire the right sequence at a high rate. Choosing the wrong exercise... likely won't give you too much of a training benefit.

Another way to think of functional training is to think of it as special exercises used to fix the underlying physical/nervous system problems that lead to poor technique. What happens is you have one training session doing conventional technical work, followed by a companion session doing special exercises selected to fix your technique problems.

 

Do you have heavier weights? If you do compound movements like rows or pullups, you'll work your biceps in addition to your lats, grip, etc. It saves time!

If you do do stuff like curls and extensions, be sure to do them with an offset grip to give more stress to your forearm rotators.

 

One more thing: be careful about entering a weight training programme if you are younger than about 17, especially if you use heavy weights.

While incorrect weight training can harm anyone, it is especially damaging to people whose growth plates have not yet hardened into bone (i.e. children and teenagers).

 

Biceps are not useless in badminton... you need them to bend your arm (at the elbow). However, as far as performing quick, powerful (racket accelerating) movements, the biceps really only come into play in backhand shots where supination is employed for power generation.

To see the bicep in action, bend your arm at a right angle (90 degrees) and then supinate the forearm (this is the rotation that is opposite of pronation). Notice that the bicep muscles contract with a supination (but relax with a pronation).

Do the forearm muscles come into play when performing bicep curls? It really depends on how they are performed. If you also flex (curl) your wrist when executing bicep curls, some forearm muscles come into play. Also, if you add the twist (supination), more forearm muscles will come into play.


Again, if you are doing bicep work do not neglect the triceps.

 

Just as SystemicAnomaly stated about biceps contracting upon supination, triceps contract on pronation, and I'm assuming most shots that you play are forehand shots, so triceps are very important.

 

You're currently at an important stage of bone growth. It's crucial not to damage your bones by putting too much stress on them.

Whatever you do, avoid heavy weight training. Light weights and body resistance exercises are okay, but if you have any doubts consult a doctor before embarking on a weight training programme.

 

Haha, haven't you ever been to a gym. The only exercise that rivals teh bicep curl in popularity is the bench press -> the triceps get plenty of stimulation there!

However, do keep in mind that bench pressing has the forearms in a pronated position. So, to balance thing out you need to perform a movement with the forearms supinated. Supinated rows are actually an excellent antagonist movement to the bench press.

 

The risks involved are a little bit overstated. Consider, for example, that American football players might start training at the start of grade nine (age 14). Sure, they may take 1-2 years to work on their basic capacity before they start lifting heavy, but it is certainly possible for them to be moving some serious weight by senior year.

A second point -> consider what happens in a sprint. At each foot contact, the sprinter can experience 2 to 4 (or more) times their bodyweight through one leg. That force greatly exceeds any loads that might be used in traditional weight training.

So, training with weights isn't really the problem that can cause injury. It is doing stupid stuff in training that leads to injury.... and of course kids can sometimes be rather....

 

As well as twisting curls, I use dumbbell twists for my "badminton muscles".

Hold your forearms out in front of you with a dumbbell in each hand, with your upper arms by your sides - like the position you end up in at the top of a bicep curl. Keeping your forearms level, just twist the dumbbells over from one side to the other. Use reasonably light weight and emphasise the power of the movement (i.e. the snap). You can even do this with a broomstick, or your racket with the head cover on.

Wrist curls will build your forearms up, but they are useless for badminton strokes in general. To see this, hold a racket in your hand and perform the wrist-curl movement; I defy you to find a shot that looks like that!

 

Good point, Mark. There is a great deal of forearm rotation & wrist extension (laying the wrist back) in badminton (as well as tennis), but only a limited amount of wrist flexion (curling the wrist).

Many ppl, particularly beginners & low intermediates, have heard that badminton is a "wristy" sport and mistakenly conclude that an extreme wrist flexion is the key to hitting many shots in the game.

 

Well, you can always build up your arm by practising badminton strokes with a squash or tennis racquet. That'll help your badminton muscles for sure

 

Reverse wrist curls (wrist extensions) or the hammer action that you suggest can be of some benefit. Both of these variations are undoubtedly a bit more useful for badminton than the conventional (flexion) curls.

 

There's much more to how well a training movement will help a sport skill than just the movement.

For example there's:
A. elastic vs muscular force
B. tension recruitment pattern (fast on-off vs sustained tension)
C. energy system
D. speed and load
E. type of progression used
F. training frequency/volume

 

hand grips and powerball

This may have been said before but if you want to feel the burn, i have the secret. Its what i do and i feel the burn always. Dumbells are kinda useless for the forearms, they work them a bit but they are mainly working the upper arms.

Buy a hand grips, they have to foam handles connected to a big coil. Any sports shop should have them. Press and hold for about 30 sec or so and you will feel the burn and work that up. I was up to 2 mins, my arms felt really tired and sore. It felt goooooooodddddddddddd!!!!!!!)

(If you dont no what im chatting about, this is any example)
http://www.powerhouse-fitness.co.uk/store/product.asp?dept_id=11&pf_id=Powerhouse_Hand_Grip

Also press and release, press and release about 50 times and up and that also helps.

Another device i found was a thing called a powerball, its brilliant. Once it gets going, the forearm gets really tight and starts to get sore. It can be hard to keep it going for a minute especially if your doing it as fast as you can. I have only ever seen these on online sports shops or ebay. Ebay has good deals.

http://www.powerball-gyros.com/powerballs.htm