Best Forearm and Leg Exercises

These are some of the best forearm exercises out there to help boost and develop your leg and shoulder muscles.

Push Ups

Get down on all fours. Extend your legs behind you and place your arms under your shoulders. See to it that your body forms a straight line from your head to your heels. Keeping your toes fixed, lower your body by bending your elbows. Once you are close to the ground, push your body up to get back to the initial position. Do 2 sets of 15 reps each.

Chair Ups

Keep a chair in front of you and lie down in front of it. Your torso needs to be on the floor. Extend your arms in front of you and grip one leg of the chair in each hand. Your elbows need to be firmly placed on the ground. Without raising your elbows, lift the chair just by using your wrists and forearms. Hold this position for 45-60 seconds. Lower the chair and repeat. Do 3 reps of this exercise and place weights on the chair to increase the difficulty level.

Crab Walk

Sit on the floor. Keep your palms next to your body and let your fingers point sideways. Now slowly push your hips off the floor and bend your knees at a 90-degree angle, such that your feet are placed firmly on the ground, your thighs are parallel to the floor and your body is forming a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Start walking forward without changing the posture. Do this exercise for 2 minutes and relax.

Fingertips Push Ups

Get in the regular push up position with your palms under your shoulders and your body perfectly aligned. Now slowly, lift your palms and place your fingertips on the floor. Your body must be supported on your fingertips and your toes. Perform a push up by lowering your body and getting back up to the initial position. Repeat. Do as many reps as you can. Master the regular push up first and then try out the fingertip pushup.

Pull Ups

Hold the upper edge of the door and maintain a firm grip. Use a towel in case of rough edges. Pull your body up as much as you can. Lower your self down and repeat. Do 2 sets of 10-15 reps each. 

Squat

Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Keeping your chest up and back straight throughout, bend your knees and lower, pushing your hips back until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Then drive through your heels to return to standing.

Lunge

From standing, take a big step forwards with your right foot and lower until both your knees are bent at 90°. Push back up through your right foot to standing. Do all your reps on one leg, then switch to the other.

Pistol squat

The pistol squat is perhaps the toughest bodyweight variation of the squat. Stand on one leg and drop into a deep squat, pointing the raised leg out straight out in front of you. Instead do a single-leg box squat. Stand close to but facing away from a box or any surface that’s around 40cm off the ground and can take your weight. Lift one leg in front of you and slowly sit back into a squat until you’re sitting on the box, then stand back up. Do all your reps on one leg, then switch to the other.

Good morning

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your hands behind your head. Bend forwards, hinging at the hips, until you feel a slight stretch in your hamstrings, then reverse the movement to stand back up.

Donkey kick

Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees on the floor under your hips. Engage your core and lift one leg behind you, keeping your knee bent so the sole of your foot ends up facing the ceiling. Bring your leg back down slowly. Do all your reps on one leg, then switch.

Stiff-leg deadlift

You’ll need some kind of weight for this one, whether that’s a set of dumbbells or a DIY alternative. Stand holding a weight in each hand with your knees slightly bent. Keep this slight bend in your knees throughout. Bend at the hips to lower the weights, keeping them close to your legs and your back straight. When you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, slowly straighten back up.