This Strength Is The Key To Winning An Armwrestling Match
Armwrestlers focus on maxing their real-life RPG stats into one tech tree: pronation.
Pronation is the overhand grip that you would use to grip a bar for a pullup, or the static grip you would have on a bucket to raise it in front of you.
An immense amount of pronation strength allows you to execute a god-tier toproll technique.
What Does Pronation Look Like?
There are two primary muscles you can visually see on your forearm for pronation: The pronator teres and the pronator quadratus. These two, potent forearm muscles work in tandem to rotate the palm downward into an overhand grip.
Pronator Teres In Motion: Works with the pronator quadratus to pull the muscles attached to the radius (one of the forearm bones), which then rotate around the ulna to put the palm in a face-down position.
Pronator Quadratus In Motion: This is the primary, stronger muscle that acts as the truest pronator, especially when the elbow is in a fixed position (like at an armwrestling table).
If you hold your fist out in front of you like you were about to do a hammer curl or swing a hammer, and while keeping your arm locked, rotate just that raised fist inward, toward your body’s center, and you will see these muscles begin to bulge on the side of your forearm.
Three Exceptional Exercises For Building The Pronator Muscles In The Forearm
Here are my top exercises for building pronation, how to perform them, and why they are great tools for training armwrestling pronation:
Monkey Grip EZ Bar Curls
What: The EZ bar is a unique bar you will see at the gym that has indents within the middle of the bar to give the two positions to place your hand a “U” shape. This build of the bar is 1) easier on the wrists and 2) the natural positioning for armwrestling via an overhand grip.
How: With your arms gripping the bar in an overhand grip, focus on squeezing your forearms and biceps up towards your chest. It is almost going to feel like you have T-Rex arms.
Why: With an EZ bar and monkey grip, you put your forearms and wrists into a safer position that reduces injury and allows you to copy the movement of a professional armwrestling grip at a competition table.
Cable Rope Pronated Curls
What: This exercise uses the rope attachment traditionally used for tricep extensions. However, the pulley for the cable machine is moved to the bottom of the apparatus so you can pull upward on the rope for a bicep movement.
How: Grip the rope so that your hand’s top sides are facing each other. It is almost as if you are swimming and performing the breaststroke hand movement between the rope’s v-shape center. This allows you to grip the rope as if it were an EZ curl bar (your hands should be in the same position as the exercise above).
Why: Rope attachments in the gym allow for a consistent amount of tension on the positive and negative of the movement. This constant tension helps to emulate the conditions of a real armwrestling match. Plus, the squeeze you produce is exceptional and the pump is great for building forearm pronator muscles.
Wrist Rolls
What: Using dumbbells or barbells, you roll the weights in various directions using your forearms and wrists.
How: Grip a barbell in front of you and roll it like you are revving the engine on a motorcycle. I like to do this for timed sets. Try rolling barbells in front of you or dumbells at your sides for 30-45 seconds.
Please Note: Perform this exercise as a finisher at the end of your workout as the pump is outrageous, and it tends to fully exhaust your forearms and wrists.
Why: This is more of an accessory exercise than an exercise to develop a vast amount of strength. The goal here is to develop the tendon strength and stabilizer muscles that surround the pronator teres and the pronator quadratus in your forearms. This way, you can reduce injuries from armwrestling and continue to develop your pronation strength further.
You Have To Develop Your Armwrestling Pronation
Most matches are won within the first few seconds. Stronger pronation allows you to execute the toproll, where your fist moves in an arc, rolling over the opponent’s hand. In order to be one of the best at the table, you absolutely need to develop a toproll that rivals your opponent by drawing upon strict pronation strength.
Pronation is everything in armwrestling.