After suffering with wrist pain, golfers elbow and tennis elbow at various times, I've come to appreciate the need to add some dedicated forearm training to my weightlifting routine. I've been doing it for about 3 years with dumbbells, grippers and a short bar with plates on the end (for pronation/supination), but it was starting to become more time consuming and cumbersome as the weights got heavier. I no longer enjoyed the workout and was starting to skip the odd session.
I didn't want to stop my forearm training, as I'd seen the clear benefits of doing so, but I knew something had to change. I was on the verge of buying the Forearm Finisher and a few other bits and pieces from Golden Grip when I came across the Forearm Station and I knew that was the solution I was looking for.
Now that I've received and assembled it, I can safely say it's exactly what I was looking for. I can now completely isolate my forearm muscles without involving my biceps and shoulders and it's made my workout so much more efficient too. I can get through the entire forearm workout in a 3rd of the time I was doing before, which is worth a lot to me as a time-poor dad.
The station was easy to assemble and is very robust without being overly heavy. I need to move it out from where I store it within my squat rack to use it and carrying it isn't difficult. The bearings are super smooth too and the whole thing oozes quality.
I must admit I was a little worried about the earlier review that stated that the pronation/supination handle would slip under load, but now that I have mine I'm somewhat baffled by that comment. The handle has a rectangular slot cut in it which slides over a piece of metal with a matching shape, so there is literally no way it can slip. The screw and washer are just there to secure the handle so that it doesn't slide back off, it's not a load bearing part at all and doesn't need excessive tightening.
Do I have any criticisms? Well, a few very small ones I suppose:
1. The knurling on the bar and handle is a too mild for my tastes, like a well used barbell at the local gym. As a result, it isn't quite as grippy as I'd like. Liquid chalk helps, but some more aggressive knurling is what it really needs in my opinion, just to give it some satisfying bite! I've wrapped mine in Hockey tape for extra grip and along with the chalk it's now closer to how I'd like it.
2. Every picture I've seen of someone using this has a folded towel on the wooden baseplate to protect it from getting wrecked by the plates dropping on it. I've done the same! I'd suggest either changing the baseplate to something more robust, or adding a nice Golden Grip branded rubber mat to the package to place on the baseplate as protection.
3. Being able to spec it with a either an 25mm or 50mm loading pin would be nice. I've got a stock of 25mm weights that I wanted to use with this, so I had to get myself a 25mm pin to go with it.
4. It is a expensive at full price, but is often discounted so try and hold on for a sale if you can. Whatever you pay for it though, it will likely last you a lifetime if you look after it and if you use it regularly you'll be glad you spent the money in the long run.
The above are just minor points though, I am still very happy with my purchase and definitely consider it a 5 star product!
