Wrist roller article with a picture of Bruce Lee? It’s not a coincidence. Besides being an overall health and fitness and martial arts fanatic, he put priority in training his abs and his forearms. The reason for this was that in martial arts power originates in the core or stomach muscles, but is transmitted through the hands.

Bruce Lee was not a “fitness freak” just for the sake of it. He had a definite major purpose –an idea he got from Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich. His supreme physical shape is a manifestation of his pursuit of excellence in order to achieve the life he wanted for himself and his family. He actually achieved his dream goal of being the biggest Chinese Star in the world.

The Wrist Roller – Fantastic for Forearm Strength

I believe using wrist roller because is one of the best ways to train your forearms. First, you get to train with a fatter grip which always makes the exercise harder and allows for more work to be done by the gripping muscles in the forearm.

Second, both the extensors and the flexors of the wrist get to be worked in a single exercise. But the best part is that you are not simply flexing a muscle and trying to keep tension on it. You are doing real work so your muscles can’t help but work at full capacity.

What Is a Wrist Roller

The wrist roller is a simple device that you can create yourself very cheaply. It’s basically a piece of PVC piping to which you attach a rope. At the end of the rope hangs a weight plate.

You can attach the rope to the pipe by drilling a small hole, guiding it through and tying it. A karabiner at the other end of the rope allows you to slide it and clip it to secure the weights. In this way adding more weight is fast and easy.

How to Train With the Wrist Roller

Take a look at this video we shot at the awesome terrace of our gym. The exercise is simple – you hold the wrist roller in front of you and roll under control up and down. Make sure to roll in both directions – to work both the flexors and extensors of the wrist.

Also control the lowering portion of the move. Generally beginners don’t need direct forearm training. Once you are past beginner stage however, and especially for folks with skinny forearms like me, it’s forearm workout time.

The forearms can be trained very heavily. Work them out with the wrist roller at least 3 times per week with at least 3 sets of flexion and extension. The weight and reps depend on your choice – both high and low reps work – just make sure to work at your limits in order to make the forearms grow.

How to Create Your Own Wrist Roller

It is actually very easy to create your own wrist roller. All you need is a thick PVC pipe, a rope and some weight. Here are a few tutorials on how to create a sturdy axle mounted wrist roller so you are not limited in the weight you can use: