What Ratio For Reverse To Normal Wrist Curl?

[hab34buy]

Okay, I do grip and wrist stuff 3 days a week (and other weightlifting), and last month I started doing wrist curls again for the first time coming back from an unrelated wrist re-injury (never healed, but thanks to the powerball and other stuff feeling great now). My concern is that my "reverse" wrist curl is lower then the normal one. Now, I know that this is the way that it is with everyone... but I worry that I may be setting myself up for an imbalance injury (which takes a long time to come back from) if my reverse curl is too low compared to my normal wrist curl. My reverse curl numbers just don't really want to go up, yet my normal wrist curls seem to still have alot of room for expansion (i.e. I don't think I'm anywhere near leveling off any time soon assuming I work very hard at it), but I don't want to walk myself right into an injury I could have prevented .

On top of the fact that I only own standard plates (except for 5x10lb oly's I'm trying to give air) and standard barbell, my numbers are not very high , but I'll include them so that I can be critiqued on what I do :

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rep x set x lbs (For the sake of assumptions, rep#1 isn't very good, don't have anyone to hand me the weight... form starts on the second )

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Normal:

3x1x50

5x1-2x170

8x1-2x150

Reverse:

8x1x50

5-8x1x70

10x2x50

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Soooo, should my reverse be higher? Is there some kind of magic or imaginary ratio of reverse to normal I should keep to prevent injury? Any suggestions for forcing the "reverse muscles" to get stronger? Listening to my body really doesn't work on this one, because with me, by the time I hurt it's toooo late .

Any input would be appreciated, as I want to stay as far away from injuries as possible since I'm now coming back from one .

Thanks to all those who read and/or input!!!

~Jw

P.S. any rep or set critique or anything else people can think of would also be appreciated!

Edited August 7, 2007 by jw7

[climber511]

I'm not sure there is an answer to your question. Strength ratios between opposing muscle groups has been argued by all the "experts" for years with no good answer. In general the goal is to make each as strong as possible but one rep max stuff on reverse wrist curls seems to result in injuries too often. I think as long as you are doing a reasonable number of repetitions and adding weight slowly, it should work out fine and not result in any imbalances - one thing is to be sure and strengthen the back of the hand and fingers as well as just the back of the forearm. Consider microloading with washers or something on extensor work, it seems to work well in this case. Good Luck

[hab34buy]

Thanks Climber. Do you think I'm on target in terms of reps and stuff?

[thearm95]

Reverse wrist curls using an EZ bar are a bit easier on the wrists.

[TelegraphKey]

To compare, over on a thread about Formulator workouts it's said that about a 3:1 ratio is good -- Flex (wrist curl) ought to be about 3 times the weight of Extension (reverse wrist curl). I find that's about true for me on the Formulator, but a barbell seems a bit different. IMO your extension (reverse wrist curl) numbers seem a tad low in comparison to your flexion.

[hab34buy]

Thanks thearm95 for the tip... I'll have to see if that helps.

Thanks Telegraphkey for the info. Having some kind of a marker to aim for always makes training easier for me, and I didn't want to just assume that the ratio/percent of the extension was good enough in terms of how it's keeping up with the flexion. Do you think it's low enough that I should hold off on upping the numbers for flexion in order to have the extension increase? Or do you think just focusing on increasing it while moving ahead with the flexion would be fine? I don't want to cause problems down the road, but at the same time, I really want to progress in all areas that I can.

[TelegraphKey]

IMO I don't see why it'd be a problem just to continue working hard at both of them and letting the chips fall where they may. At least you're working them so I think you won't be cheating your body.

[hab34buy]

Well, sounds like keep up what I'm doing. Sooooo... thanks for the input folks