What Muscles Are Used in Armwrestling?
What muscles do you use in armwrestling? Most people guess the biceps. In reality the match is decided from the fingertips up. Coach Ray's rule: "Everything starts from the fingertips, and this is where we should be starting." Here are the muscles in order of how armwrestlers think about them, and what each one does on the table.
| Area | Muscles | What it does in a match |
|---|---|---|
| Fingers | Finger flexors | Hold your opponent's hand. If you can't hold on to anything, train these first. |
| Wrist | Wrist flexors and extensors | Cupping (curling the wrist in), rising (lifting it to the thumb side) and stopping your wrist being bent back. |
| Forearm rotation | Pronator teres, pronator quadratus, supinator | Pronation (turning your palm down) is in almost every technique: toproll, hook and even press. Supination holds a deep hook. |
| Elbow | Brachialis, brachioradialis, biceps | Keep the elbow angle closed. Brachialis and brachioradialis work most in the neutral start position; the biceps takes over when your palm faces up, as in a hook. |
| Shoulder and back | Rotator cuff, lats, rear shoulder | Internal rotation and pulling your opponent towards you. Keep the shoulder healthy and balanced. |
| Triceps | Triceps | Stabilises the elbow and helps the press and side pressure. Less important than people think. |
The pronator: the king
If there is one muscle armwrestlers love to talk about, it's the pronator teres. Your ability to keep your palm turned down is what stops your hand from being opened. Unless you are a deep hook puller, losing pronation usually means losing the match.
Biceps vs forearms
The biceps matters, but mostly in the hook, when your palm is turned up. If you build big biceps but always pull in a neutral position, Ray says you're "kind of wasting your time training something you don't really do". Toproll and back pressure lean more on the brachialis and brachioradialis.
What about side pressure?
Side pressure has no single muscle. Coach Ray sees it as your conditioning to keep moving sideways while everything else is getting pulled over, and that comes from being in a good position with your opponent pulled close.
Which muscle should you train?
The one that fails first. Watch your matches: if you lose your hand, train fingers and wrist. If you lose your elbow angle, train elbow flexors. Read more in is armwrestling technique or strength?