If you have a 5 inch wrist as a man or a woman, then you definitely have a small wrist girth measurement. But is this necessarily a bad thing? And how does having 5 inch wrists actually affect your body?
This guide will discuss just how small 5 inch wrists really are and will then give you some advice on improving the appearance of your 5 inch wrist or 5.5 inch wrist.
See How Your Wrists Compare:
Is a 5 inch wrist small for a male?
Is a 5 inch wrist small for a male? Yes, based on the data, a 5 inch wrist is very small for a male. To be specific, 5 inch wrists are more than 1.5 inches smaller than average for an adult man.
As such, if you’re a man who has 5 inch wrists, then you definitely have skinny wrists and may also have a small bone structure. But as you’ll learn later on, this isn’t always a bad thing.
Of course, there’s more to determining your frame size than just measuring your wrists. Still, it would be highly unlikely that someone with a thin 5 inch wrist circumference would have thick joints elsewhere.
Males who are shorter and who have smaller skeletal structures in general are those who most commonly have 5″ wrists. You might also have a 5″ wrist if you’re a growing teenager.
Is a 5 inch wrist small for a female?
Is a 5 inch wrist small for a woman? Yes, a 5 inch wrist is definitely small for a woman of just about any height. If you’re a female who has 5 inch wrists, then you definitely have slim wrists.
Statistically, most women have wrists that are 0.5 to 1 inches larger than our 5-inch example. So there’s a high chance that a woman who has 5 in wrists also has a small frame.
Since women are typically shorter than men and usually have smaller skeletal structures, it’s more common for women to have a 5 inch wrist measurement.
In other words, 5 inch wrists are small for a woman and extremely small for a man. This is also true if you have 5.25 inch wrists, for example.
Is a 5.5 inch wrist small?
Is a 5.5 inch wrist small? For a woman, a 5.5 inch wrist is slightly on the slim side—on the lower end of the “normal” size range. However, for a man, a 5.5 inch wrist is definitely very small because such a measurement is more than an inch smaller than usual for a male.
Although it might not seem that way, 5.5 inch wrists are considerably larger than 5 inch wrists because half an inch of extra circumference is a lot when it comes to a small joint like the wrists.
Still, there’s no denying that a 5.5 inch wrist is still a very small measurement for just about anyone. The one exception to this is small women. If you’re a short lady, then 5.5 inch wrists might be normal for women of your height.
On the other hand, if you have a 5.9 inch wrist, then you might as well round your measurement up.
Is it good to have 5 inch wrists?
As I often say, the size of your wrists is simply one way to assess your frame size. So unless your wrists are the sign of a problem (which, at 5 inches, they almost certainly aren’t), having 5 inch wrists is nothing to worry about.
That said, depending on your point of view, there are a few pros and cons to having a 5 inch wrist measurement.
First off, many men are worried that their wrists are too small, which can harm their self-confidence. But even though the majority of men have wrists that are larger than 5 inches, there’s still a good number of adult males who have 5 inch wrists and 5.5 inch wrists.
On a more positive note, having small wrists will make your forearms and upper arms look bigger, which can help you to sculpt an aesthetic physique. So for bodybuilding purposes, it can be quite advantageous to have a 5 inch wrist because your small wrists will accentuate your arms.
On the other hand, small wrists give you a lower muscular potential, all else being equal. This is simply because small joints have less space to accumulate muscle mass.
Is it possible to make your 5 inch wrists bigger?
Since the wrists are a bone, it’s likely not possible to make your 5 inch wrists significantly bigger. However, even though the wrists have minimal fat and muscle tissue around them, there is still some soft tissue around your wrists.
This is one reason why obese individuals tend to have fairly large wrists. But since being overweight is undesirable from a physical health standpoint, your best bet is to increase the muscularity of your forearms, which might result in a very modest circumference gain.
Be warned, however, that building your forearms will make your wrists look even smaller (but remember that the reverse of this is true as well—thin wrists will make your forearms look thicker).
Do wrist curls and reverse wrist curls twice per week. You can also train with a hand gripper, which is a convenient tool if you don’t have weights to do forearm curls.
In conclusion: Should you be okay with having a 5 inch wrist?
There’s nothing wrong with having a 5 inch wrist circumference, just like there’s nothing wrong with having wrists that are larger than 5 inches.
Since you really can’t do much to change the size of your wrists, your best bet is to just embrace your 5 inch wrists (remember, there are plenty of other people like you) and focus on the areas of your body that you can control.