Train Around It
Palms In — Wrist & Elbow-Friendly Upper Body
Eight weeks of neutral-grip upper/lower muscle building for lifters whose wrists or elbows complain. Four sessions a week on dumbbells and a bench, cables optional. A forearm loading track runs in every session and never deloads — that continuity is the whole idea.
- Category
- Train Around It
- Length
- 8 weeks
- Frequency
- 4 days/week
- Est. session
- 50–70 min
Last updated: June 2026
About this program
A real hypertrophy block whose entire movement roster is chosen so the forearm stays neutral and the wrist stays stacked over the elbow, paired with a forearm loading track that runs on its own clock from week one to week eight.
It is for intermediates who already train, who picked wrists or elbows in onboarding, and whose symptoms are stable and predictable — the outer elbow that flares on wide pressing, the inner elbow that objects to straight-bar curls, the wrist that will not tolerate a front-rack hold. It is not for you if you have pain that wakes you at night, numbness or tingling in the hand, or a recent traumatic wrist injury. This is a training program, not medical care: if symptoms are new, worsening or unfamiliar, see a qualified clinician before running it, and stop and seek one if any of the above appear mid-block.
Selection follows our Exercise Selection framework and inverts the usual advice: rather than removing the irritated tissue from the plan, the program removes the provocative positions — wide pronated pressing, straight-bar curling, forced wrist extension under load — and then deliberately loads the forearm on a schedule of its own. That track is heavy slow resistance: three sets of fifteen at a three-second-down, three-second-up tempo, in every session, stepped every second week and never cut when the training block deloads. Volume follows our Volume Management framework, and progression is the double progression described in our Progressive Overload framework.
Weeks 1-2 calibrate pain-free grip positions and reference loads, weeks 3-5 add a fourth set one pattern at a time, weeks 6-7 push a top set to RPE 9, and week 8 halves the hypertrophy volume while the forearm track runs untouched — closing on a pain-free load retest, never a one-rep max.
Train Around It · 8 weeks · 4 days/week
Start to finish
- Frequency
- 4 days/week
- Per session
- 50–70 min
Who it's for
Four ways to tell at a glance whether this block belongs in your week.
- 01The goal
- Eight weeks of neutral-grip upper/lower muscle building for lifters whose wrists or elbows complain.
- 02The commitment
- A steady four-plus days a week
- 03The arc
- 8 weeks, 4 phases that build and reset
- 04The coaching
- Your coach drives the plan forward — it reads each session and moves you up the moment the work gets easier, so you keep progressing
How it progresses
8 weeks across 4 phases — your coach watches the effort in your logged sets and moves the weight up the moment a load starts getting easier, so you keep climbing instead of waiting on the calendar.
- Weeks 1–260Intensity
Phase 1 · Standard
Calibration
Two weeks to find the grip positions and depths that do not provoke, and to set the loads everything else is measured against. Nothing gets heavier yet.
- Weeks 3–562Intensity
Phase 2 · Accumulation
Neutral Accumulation
Volume climbs one pattern at a time — pressing, then pulling, then overhead — while loads move only when every set finishes inside the effort cap.
- Weeks 6–782Intensity
Phase 3 · Intensification
Top-Set Intensification
Sets come back down and effort goes up: one hard top set per pattern with a lighter back-off behind it. The forearm work keeps its own schedule.
- Weeks 8–830Intensity
Phase 4 · Deload
Deload & Retest
Muscle-building volume halves and effort drops, but the forearm work runs at full volume. The one hard thing this week is the retest.
Sessions in this program
The individual workouts this program schedules through the week — open any session for its full exercise list, sets, and coaching notes.
Why your coach builds it this way
A real hypertrophy block whose entire movement roster is chosen so the forearm stays neutral and the wrist stays stacked over the elbow, paired with a forearm loading track that runs on its own clock from week one to week eight.
It is for intermediates who already train, who picked wrists or elbows in onboarding, and whose symptoms are stable and predictable — the outer elbow that flares on wide pressing, the inner elbow that objects to straight-bar curls, the wrist that will not tolerate a front-rack hold. It is not for you if you have pain that wakes you at night, numbness or tingling in the hand, or a recent traumatic wrist injury. This is a training program, not medical care: if symptoms are new, worsening or unfamiliar, see a qualified clinician before running it, and stop and seek one if any of the above appear mid-block.
Selection follows our Exercise Selection framework and inverts the usual advice: rather than removing the irritated tissue from the plan, the program removes the provocative positions — wide pronated pressing, straight-bar curling, forced wrist extension under load — and then deliberately loads the forearm on a schedule of its own. That track is heavy slow resistance: three sets of fifteen at a three-second-down, three-second-up tempo, in every session, stepped every second week and never cut when the training block deloads. Volume follows our Volume Management framework, and progression is the double progression described in our Progressive Overload framework.
Weeks 1-2 calibrate pain-free grip positions and reference loads, weeks 3-5 add a fourth set one pattern at a time, weeks 6-7 push a top set to RPE 9, and week 8 halves the hypertrophy volume while the forearm track runs untouched — closing on a pain-free load retest, never a one-rep max.
Common questions
The facts most people check before they commit a block to it.
01How long is the Palms In — Wrist & Elbow-Friendly Upper Body program?
Palms In — Wrist & Elbow-Friendly Upper Body runs 8 weeks at 4 days a week, structured into 4 phases so the load builds and resets on schedule. In Squatly, the coach tunes it to you, so the plan keeps moving with your training.
02Who is Palms In — Wrist & Elbow-Friendly Upper Body for?
Eight weeks of neutral-grip upper/lower muscle building for lifters whose wrists or elbows complain. It sits in the Train Around It category, and the coach reads your training to tell you whether it's the right fit before you commit a block to it.
03How does Palms In — Wrist & Elbow-Friendly Upper Body progress over the weeks?
It opens with calibration and finishes with deload & Retest. Each phase has a job — accumulate work, push intensity, or back off to absorb it — and the coach moves your load when your logged sets earn it, not on a fixed schedule.
04Does the coach adjust Palms In — Wrist & Elbow-Friendly Upper Body to me?
Yes. The program is the starting structure; the coach reads your e1RM trend, your weekly volume, and your effort on each lift, then tells you when to push — when a load is getting easier, it's time to add weight. It shows you the trend lines behind every call, and you accept, edit, or reject it. With every workout, the plan gets more yours.
Keep moving forward.
The program sets the structure. Your coach drives it forward — reading your numbers and pushing the weight up as you get stronger, so the plan stays yours and you keep progressing.
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Aleks · Coach
Proposal — add weight