15-Minute Forearms/Abs/Calves Workout

The Workout

Download This Workout

The Explanation

If you counted up all the major muscle groups that you should train regularly, there'd be about 13: 1) chest, 2) back, 3) shoulders, 4) traps, 5) biceps, 6) triceps, 7) quads, 8) hams and glutes, 9) abs/obliques/core, 10) forearms, and 11) calves.

Never mind the rotator cuff, tibialis anterior and neck. With so many muscle groups to train every week, if not twice or even three times a week, it's no wonder that many people focus on those first eight, and some guys just focus on the first six. I can uderstand their dilemna. With the busy work schedules we have to keep – heck, I spend many hours every day answering questions on Twitter, never mind writing and creating programs for jimstoppani.com as well as working on eBooks, print books, and consulting for numerous companies and a few exclusive clients – it's a wonder that anyone with a fulltime career can get in his or her own training every single day.

Busy people often have no choice but to let the smaller and, dare I say, less important muscle groups go. That's why you see so many guys with big upper arms and no forearms, or big quads and small calves. Of course, that's bad for numerous reasons. Not only does it lead to strength imbalances, but there's also aesthetic drawbacks – the forearms and calves are the most visible parts of the body during the warm months of the year when you're wearing a T-shirt and shorts. You want these areas to look good, right?

The good news for those of you who lack the time to regularly train your forearms, abs and calves is that I created this 15-minute workout just for you. If you can find 15 extra minutes at the end of one or two workouts per week, you can target these muscle groups for better balanced strength and muscle development. And you also won't look silly wearing a T-shirt and shorts!

This workout utilizes a training technique known as staggered sets. It's very similar to supersets – or in the case of training three muscle groups, tri-sets. The major difference is that tri-sets are typically done for one muscle group with the goal of resting as little as possible between exercises. Supersets are also typically done in this fashion for either two exercises for the same muscle group or two exercises for antagonist (opposing) muscle groups.

The main difference with staggered sets is that the time you take between exercises is not critical, unless of course you want to finish the workout in 15 minutes. Another difference is that staggered sets are often used with one big major muscle group and one smaller muscle group that has no impact on the larger muscle group. For example, chest and calves. Or you can use it as I have here and stagger three small (but I won't say insignificant) muscle groups. The faster you go between sets the faster you're done and the more intense the workout, as well as the calorie burn during and after the workout is over. Since each muscle group has little impact on the other two, each one gets a rest while you train the other muscle groups. So you won't need much rest, if any, between exercises.

The workout is quite simple: You do three exercises – barbell wrist curls, crunches and standing calf raises, in that order. Keep cycling the exercises in this order until you've completed four sets of each, there you have it, in 15 minutes you've just trained forearms, abs and calves. Consider changing up the exercises from time to time to hit other areas of each muscle group. For example, barbell reverse wrist cursl to hit the forearm extensors, hanging leg raises or reverse crunches to hit the lower abs, and seated calf raises to focus more on the soleus muscle of the calves.

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