Badminton

Badminton: Train Your Forearms the Right Way

Having strong forearms is very beneficial, especially when you are playing a racket sport like badminton. Having strong forearms means you can send the shuttle back to the baseline of your opponent’s court without hesitation.

Training your forearms should be something you start to do as a beginner and it shouldn’t stop even if you are a professional or expert. Of course, overtraining isn’t good, but regularly training your forearms will be so helpful that you will see the increase in the power of your shots.

Strong forearms mean having good grip and control over the shuttle. Forearms are crucial in generating power while playing shots. Hence stronger forearm muscles mean more power.

How to train your forearms?

#1. Dumbbell wrist curls-

For this exercise, you need to take a very light dumbbell. Place your arm on a flat surface like a bench, hold the dumbbell in a manner where your palm is facing upwards.

Keep your arm in such a way that just your wrist is off the bench but your full arm is resting on the bench. Use your other palm to keep your forearm secured.

Now start by moving your wrist upwards and downwards. After doing 10-15 repetitions, switch the hand.

At least 3 sets are recommended in each arm.

#2. Use a hand gripper-

Hand grippers are devices that you can use anywhere and everywhere to strengthen your forearms.

The objective is to squeeze and hold the gripper as many times you can. Use this in both hands alternately. Every 2-3 days try and increase the repetitions.

This is very easy to do and no other equipment is required and can be done anywhere

#3. Wall practice:

Wall practice is one of the most useful things a player (right from the beginner to the professional level) can do. It helps in so many different ways. But it most definitely helps in strengthening your forearms.

Since you are playing with the wall, the resistance offered by the wall is quite great, which requires you to put in more effort to send the shuttle back to the wall.

Doing wall practice will help your game improve in many ways.

Here is how to do wall practice:

#4. Use a training racket:

A training racket is a heavier than usual racket that weights about 150-190gms whereas a normal racket weighs about 75-88gms.

This weight difference will help you to use more force and train your forearms to become stronger in order to help you to maintain using that same force.

You can either use the training racket by actually hitting shots or you can even pretend like you’re hitting shots. Alternate between forehand and backhand to make the best use of the training racket.

#5. Gripping weight plates:

This is a very simple exercise where you take weight plates in your hand and grip them only using your fingers (while standing). You will find that the forearms get loaded. This is also quite useful when you want to strengthen your forearm and grips.

The wrist flexors (wrist muscles) are small in nature. It is wise not to take heavy weights while trying to load them. This is because a lot of injuries occur due to excess loading.

Conclusion:

You can incorporate these exercises during your session or even after. Make sure you do it regularly and even stretch your wrist and forearm after playing to avoid soreness.

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Nidhi Patel