Blast your triceps: three exercises for growth
- By Tony Schwartz
- Published 09/11/2009
- Muscle Building
- Unrated
Blast your triceps: three exercises for growth
The triceps are one of the least discussed muscle groups. After all, they contribute a lot more to your overall arm size than your biceps, and they are an important muscle group in all pressing exercises. Is there a lifter out there that doesn't want bigger arms and a stronger bench press?
With this is in mind it should seem obvious that building your triceps should be a priority if you want to get bigger and stronger. The problem is that most lifters do not know how to train their triceps properly. You will often see bodybuilders using valuable energy on things like pushdowns and kickbacks. Now, there isn't anything wrong with these exercises, but the majority of your time would be much better spent on compound exercises which allow for heavy loads to be used.
In fact, you simply can't adequately stimulate all of the muscle fibers in the triceps without using some exercises which allow for heavy weights to be used. In general it is best to hit 1 or 2 heavy compound exercises and then move on to an isolation exercise to squeeze the last little bit out of your muscles.
With this in mind let's take a look at three great exercises for your tris:
Triceps Skullcrushers
This is probably the lifting exercise with the scariest moniker. After all, who wants their head crushed? But the exercise is aptly named because it is done lying down on your back on a bench with a barbell at arm's length. You will then flex at the elbows and lower the bar until it touches your forehead. Obviously if you do this in an uncontrolled manner it will hurt your skull!
The key to this exercise is to make sure the tension stays on the triceps. To do this you want the elbows tucked in and pointed towards the ceiling. It is important that you only flex and straighten the elbows and that you do not move them forward or backward, or you will shift the tension off the triceps.
While this exercise is usually done by touching the bar to the forehead, you can vary the point at which you touch in order target specific areas of the triceps. In general, shifting lower on the body, such as the chin, will hit the medial head harder, while shifting higher on the body will hit the long head harder.
Tricep Dips
This is the classic tricep mass builder. Dips are proba
bly responsible for building more tricep size than any other exercise. This is from the combination of heavy loading and targeted stress that they provide to the triceps. When you first begin lifting you may have trouble performing more than a couple of these, but as you progress it is important to continue adding weight by using a dumbbell between your feet or a specialized dip belt. The addition of external loading will allow you to continue to progress in this exercise once you are capable of easily handling your body weight.
As with most triceps exercises, the key to proper performance is to keep your elbows close to the body. This means using a close grip on the dip bars. It also means that you should use an upright posture without too much forward lean. Leaning forward shifts more of the tension to the delts and pecs, which is not what we want for our goal of bigger triceps. Ideally you should descend into the bottom of the exercise until your upper arms were parallel with the ground. However, this may cause shoulder pain in a good number of lifters, and in this case you should either shorten the range of motion or discard the exercise altogether.
Close grip BB Bench Press
If this isn't the undisputed king of the triceps movements, then it is pretty close. The ability to use heavy loads due to contributions from your chest and shoulders allows you to completely overload the triceps and force them to get bigger. While you want to work on consistently getting stronger, you should never sacrifice form for weight. With this exercise it important to keep the elbows close to your body throughout the movement in order to keep as much tension as possible on the triceps. Even with a close grip the tension can be taken off of the triceps muscle and put onto the elbow joints if you do not keep the elbows tucked in tight. This obviously not only hurts your muscle growth, but can lead to elbow and wrist problems as well.
As you can see perfect technique is crucial to your success with triceps exercises, just as it is with all exercises. You can perform exercises with bad technique and still get some of the benefit, but you will never see optimal results and you may just injure yourself in the process. Because of this it is highly recommended that you learn how to do these exercises properly from an expert in the field.
See video and get tips on California Presses and other exercises in the free body building exercises technique guide.
With this is in mind it should seem obvious that building your triceps should be a priority if you want to get bigger and stronger. The problem is that most lifters do not know how to train their triceps properly. You will often see bodybuilders using valuable energy on things like pushdowns and kickbacks. Now, there isn't anything wrong with these exercises, but the majority of your time would be much better spent on compound exercises which allow for heavy loads to be used.
In fact, you simply can't adequately stimulate all of the muscle fibers in the triceps without using some exercises which allow for heavy weights to be used. In general it is best to hit 1 or 2 heavy compound exercises and then move on to an isolation exercise to squeeze the last little bit out of your muscles.
With this in mind let's take a look at three great exercises for your tris:
Triceps Skullcrushers
This is probably the lifting exercise with the scariest moniker. After all, who wants their head crushed? But the exercise is aptly named because it is done lying down on your back on a bench with a barbell at arm's length. You will then flex at the elbows and lower the bar until it touches your forehead. Obviously if you do this in an uncontrolled manner it will hurt your skull!
The key to this exercise is to make sure the tension stays on the triceps. To do this you want the elbows tucked in and pointed towards the ceiling. It is important that you only flex and straighten the elbows and that you do not move them forward or backward, or you will shift the tension off the triceps.
While this exercise is usually done by touching the bar to the forehead, you can vary the point at which you touch in order target specific areas of the triceps. In general, shifting lower on the body, such as the chin, will hit the medial head harder, while shifting higher on the body will hit the long head harder.
Tricep Dips
This is the classic tricep mass builder. Dips are proba
As with most triceps exercises, the key to proper performance is to keep your elbows close to the body. This means using a close grip on the dip bars. It also means that you should use an upright posture without too much forward lean. Leaning forward shifts more of the tension to the delts and pecs, which is not what we want for our goal of bigger triceps. Ideally you should descend into the bottom of the exercise until your upper arms were parallel with the ground. However, this may cause shoulder pain in a good number of lifters, and in this case you should either shorten the range of motion or discard the exercise altogether.
Close grip BB Bench Press
If this isn't the undisputed king of the triceps movements, then it is pretty close. The ability to use heavy loads due to contributions from your chest and shoulders allows you to completely overload the triceps and force them to get bigger. While you want to work on consistently getting stronger, you should never sacrifice form for weight. With this exercise it important to keep the elbows close to your body throughout the movement in order to keep as much tension as possible on the triceps. Even with a close grip the tension can be taken off of the triceps muscle and put onto the elbow joints if you do not keep the elbows tucked in tight. This obviously not only hurts your muscle growth, but can lead to elbow and wrist problems as well.
As you can see perfect technique is crucial to your success with triceps exercises, just as it is with all exercises. You can perform exercises with bad technique and still get some of the benefit, but you will never see optimal results and you may just injure yourself in the process. Because of this it is highly recommended that you learn how to do these exercises properly from an expert in the field.
See video and get tips on California Presses and other exercises in the free body building exercises technique guide.
Tony Schwartz
Tony Schwartz created the Athletic Muscle System based on extensive research into strength training programs as well as his own work with collegiate and professional athletes. Tony is the Director of Training for Momentum Athletics. He has a B.Sc. in Exercise Science from Indiana University, where he was a research assistant in the areas of biomechanics and exercise physiology. He has authored, edited, and contributed to many books and articles in the field of exercise science.
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