For forearm growth
For forearm growth, reverse curl and towel hang score the same.
Reverse curl is easier to progress; towel hang is easier on the joints.
Both are good choices, and they train the forearms differently. Using both across your week covers more of the muscle than either alone: in studies, varied exercises grew parts of a muscle that one exercise missed. (Fonseca et al., 2014; Costa et al., 2021)
The research score comes from these, scored by hand from the studies. Lifter scores appear once an exercise has 10 ratings. How scores work
For forearm growth, reverse curl and towel hang score the same. Reverse curl is easier to progress; towel hang is easier on the joints. Both are good choices, and they train the forearms differently. Using both across your week covers more of the muscle than either alone: in studies, varied exercises grew parts of a muscle that one exercise missed.
About the same: both are easy to learn.
Reverse curl needs an EZ bar, so for most people it’s a gym exercise. Towel hang needs a pull-up bar, so a home gym covers it.
Towel hang: it rates Excellent for joint and recovery cost in our research rubric, against Strong for reverse curl.