All of these illustrious achievements aside, the NFL legend still has a lot to learn when it comes to training in the gym. That’s where seven-time Mr. Olympia (2011-2017) Phil Heath recently came in.

On Dec. 13, 2022, Club Shay Shay posted a video to their YouTube channel that features Heath walking Sharpe through a back and triceps workout while also giving him short posing lessons. Being someone who tries to maintain a high level of fitness in retirement, Sharpe seemed to hold his own. Even still, it was apparent that Heath’s pointers were effective and left a mark on a fellow sports legend.

Here’s an overview of the strength-training routine Heath and Sharpe worked through together.

Lat Pulldown (Overhand/Underhand)

The icons’ session began with some overhand grip lat pulldowns. Heath’s main note of advice for Sharpe here was to hold the weight for a little longer on each rep so as to contract his muscles more.

“… We want to focus on the technique,” Heath told Sharpe. “We want to focus on the tempo. So we’re not going super fast because this has got momentum. We want to keep muscles under tension for a longer duration.”

After they finished the overhand lat pulldowns, Heath and Sharpe transitioned to an underhand grip variation. According to Heath, performing underhand pulldowns is necessary for bodybuilders because it helps round out the back muscles.

“A lot of people say, ‘Why would I do underhand lat pulldowns?’ Heath asked rhetorically. “Because we want to work on the sweeping of the lats. The lats can actually insert very, very low. You see a lot of guys that have it very up top, very high, and in bodybuilding, we want it to start so low, it looks like the Cobra.”

After finishing off these back exercises, Sharpe clarified how his preparation as an elite football player was very different from Heath’s physique focus as an elite bodybuilder.

“As a football player, you’re not really focusing on that [body aesthetic],” Sharpe said. “You’re focusing on functional strength. We did one-arm rows and dumbbell rows. That was the only thing we did for the back […] I don’t do curls because my thing was to push people off me.”

One-Arm Triceps Extension

After the heavy back portion of their workout, the pair implemented some one-arm triceps extensions, a cable pushdown variation. Heath had Sharpe focus on keeping his shoulder stable while he used his free handle to keep himself level during his reps. The purpose of this emphasized stability was to better isolate the triceps muscle.

Seated Cable Row

To top off their back work, Heath and Sharpe leaned on some seated cable rows as the last back movement in their routine. The duo had minimal corrections or new emphases on this exercise as they powered through a few quality sets.

Dumbbell Incline Triceps Extension

To close the overall workout, Heath and Sharpe performed sets of dumbbell incline triceps extensions. In a slight change-up, Heath suggested moving the dumbbells and elbows at the time. Per Heath, not keeping the elbows stationary helps lessen any potential elbow pain during this movement. Along those same lines, Heath noted the wrists can also be rotated during reps to ease tension on them.

Their meeting of the minds in the gym behind them, Heath and Sharpe will return to their usual spheres. Heath will be a color commentator on the lead 2022 Mr. Olympia broadcast team. Meanwhile, when not working out, Sharpe is a media personality on Skip and Shannon: Undisputed — a daily sports talk show on Fox Sports 1.

If this duo ever gets together to train again, they’ll likely have even more wise words of gym wisdom for each other.

Featured image: Club Shay Shay on YouTube

The post Phil Heath Guides NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe Through a Bodybuilding Training Session appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

On Nov. 28, 2022, Cutler shared a video on his YouTube where he works through a shoulder and triceps routine that features 11 separate exercises (including some calves finishers). He says it’s a part of a personal challenge as he nears the next phase of his fitness life.

Pre-workout, Cutler discussed how his work in the gym is going these days. While he’s stayed in the public eye with recent back workouts from the 2022 calendar year, he hasn’t always outlined his current physical state. Based on the sentiments surrounding this recent workout, Cutler doesn’t seem to be in a rush. He’s gradually pushing ahead to his long-term goals.

“Training is going well,” Cutler explains. “We’re working toward that ‘Fit for 50.’ I got up and did the stairs this morning. I’m on a mission, dude. I only did 30 minutes, so I’m not in the full swing of things.”

As for why he’s staying so dedicated in the gym and the kitchen, Cutler expresses that this routine is part of what he calls an ongoing “planned transformation” with his 50th birthday getting closer by the month. In mid-October 2022, after posing with influencer Lexx Little, some had speculated Cutler was seeking a competitive return as a Masters bodybuilder. He quickly squashed those rumors, noting he simply wants to maintain a high level of individual health.

Here’s an overview of Cutler’s complete shoulders and triceps workout from a glance:

Jay Cutler | “Fit for 50” Shoulders and Triceps Workout

• Seated High-Incline Dumbbell Shoulder Press — Three sets
• Seated Chest Supported Lateral Raise — Two sets
• Machine Rear Delt Cable Crossover — One set
• Incline Barbell Front Raise — One set
• Incline Rear Delt Flye — Two sets
• Machine Triceps Extension — Two sets
• Cable Triceps Pushdown — One set
• Kneeling Rope Triceps Pushdown — Two sets
• Seated Cable Overhead Triceps Extension — One set
• Seated Calf Raise — One set
• Leg Press Machine Calf Raise — One set

During the workout itself, Cutler maintains he’s occasionally changed up segments and focuses of his upper-body training splits. He remains proficient in this aspect of his training, but it doesn’t appear to be something he appreciates.

“I’ve gone back and forth,” Cutler said. “I did arms together, I did chest and triceps. But now I do shoulders and triceps. And ask me why I split arm training, where I train most of the body parts together like legs. I hate arms. For my first-time viewers, I hate training arms.”

Post-workout, Cutler explains that the window after one finishes working out is the most essential time to accumulate proper nutrition for recovery and strength-building. Regardless of one’s preference, Cutler says any way to get protein in the body as fast as possible is ideal.

“Post-workout nutrition is the most important food,” Cutler clarifies. “But the question is, are protein shakes better after training or is whole food better after training? I think having immediate protein to get your body that replenishment is always great. Then, follow-up with an hour of actual digestible food.” 

With no plans for a competitive return any time soon, Cutler is free to experiment with his workouts, training, and general influence on the bodybuilding world as he pleases. The living legend certainly appears to value the power he possesses with his massive platform, and it’s likely not something he takes lightly. For this strength sports titan, he can get “Fit for 50” at his own pace.

Featured image: JayCutlerTV on YouTube

The post Jay Cutler Shares Advice During “Fit for 50” Shoulder and Triceps Workout appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

However, many people overlook a highly effective adjustment right at their fingertips, literally. By moving your hand position slightly inward, you turn the chest-building flat bench press into the triceps-building close-grip bench press.

This changes the training stimulus and emphasizes the tricep muscles, increases the movement’s range of motion, and still builds serious upper body pressing power. Here’s everything you need to know about getting started with this simple movement for size and strength.

• How to Do the Close-Grip Bench Press
• Mistakes to Avoid of Close-Grip Bench Press
• How to Progress the Close-Grip Bench Press
• Benefits of Close-Grip Bench Press
• Muscle Worked By the Close-Grip Bench Press
• How to Program Close-Grip Bench Press
• Close-Grip Bench Press Variations
• Frequently Asked Questions

How to Do the Close-Grip Bench Press

The close-grip bench press biases the triceps muscles with specific exercise performance and a longer range of motion. As its name implies, the close-grip bench press requires your hands to be closer than during a standard bench press. This increases the range of motion and puts your elbows through more elbow flexion and extension, which emphasizes your triceps over your chest.

Step 1 — Set Up on the Bench

Lie down on a flat bench. Push your feet into the floor to slide yourself up the bench until your eye are under the barbell. Pull your shoulders down and back. Place your hands around the bar in a pronated (palm down) grip with your hands close to shoulder-width apart. (1)

The basic technique should almost identical to your standard flat bench press setup. The primary difference is that your hands should now be at least one fist-width (four to six inches) closer than the chest-focused exercise. This is essential for recruiting more triceps into the movement.

Form Tip: While a relatively close grip is necessary, taking an excessively close grip can be counterproductive, creating more joint strain and less muscular stress. Some old school lifters believe your thumbs should be able to touch during the close-grip bench press. This is inaccurate, impractical, and inefficient advice. Having your hands roughly in line with your shoulders will be effective for the majority of lifters.

Step 2 — Unrack the Bar

Fill your belly and chest with a deep breath and lift the bar from the support pins. Maintain full body tension from your flat feet through your core to your shoulders.

With stiff arms, guide the bar forward until it is over your shoulders. Keep your shoulders pinched back to engage your upper back for support.

Form Tip: The bar should feel balanced when it settles into the ideal position. If you feel like you’re “fighting” an unstable weight above your body, it is either still too far above your face or too far toward your abs. Control the weight and reach a strong, stable position before lowering the weight.

Step 3 — Lower the Bar

Lower the bar toward your torso, keeping your elbows stacked under your wrists. This position keeps your tricep under tension, avoids compensation from the deltoids (shoulders), and minimizes strain on your joints.

Keep your elbows close to your ribs. If they begin to flare out to the sides, tuck them back in toward your body. Bring the bar down as close to your body as your mobility allows, ideally reaching near your sternum and lower chest.

Form Tip: Don’t allow your wrists to bend back throughout the rep. Keep your knuckles facing the ceiling. This will keep your wrists in a more favorable, less stressful position. It also helps to keep your wrists stacked above your elbows, which is a more powerful pressing position than falling out of line.

Step 4 — Press to the Starting Position

After reaching your maximum comfortable depth, press the bar up to its starting position. Keep your feet flat on the floor and feel total-body engagement. Maintain a neutral wrist position above your elbows.

The bar should end up balanced directly over your shoulders, in the same position it was in after being unracked.

Form Tip: Because the objective of the exercise is to challenge the triceps, actively squeeze your triceps in the locked out position before performing the next repetition.

Close-Grip Bench Press Mistakes to Avoid

There are multiple mistakes that can happen in the close-grip bench press because this free weight exercise has many variables that must be controlled by the lifter.

In contrast, certain machine exercises can lock you into pre-determined positions that do not offer as much positional choice. In other words, manipulating a barbell requires more focus and more muscular control than a similar machine movement. Here’s what to watch out for during this exercise.

Elbows Flaring Out

This is probably the most common mistake people make when doing any triceps exercise. Your elbows must track under your wrists to emphasize the lengthening of the muscle during the eccentric, or lowering phase, of the repetition.

When your elbows flare out to the sides, your shoulders are more strongly contracted, which reduces the load on the triceps.

Avoid it: Use a slow tempo when bringing the bar down toward your chest. Take three seconds to lower the weight and focus controlling your elbow angle. Keep your elbows forward toward your feet rather than out to the side. Once you’ve practiced and feel comfortable, gradually increase the bar speed to a point in which you are able to control your elbow position throughout the entire movement.

Gripping Too Narrow or Too Wide

If your grip is too narrow, your elbows will likely flare out excessively, forcing your deltoids to contribute more to the movement. A too-narrow grip position can also contribute to internal rotation of the shoulder which, over time, may increase the risk of injury to the supraspinatus muscle of the shoulder joint.

However, a grip that’s too wide can be just as counterproductive, by decreasing the demand on the triceps and increasing chest recruitment. A close-grip bench press without a close grip is a plain old bench press.

Avoid it: Research has shown that the optimal grip for a close-grip bench press is the the same as the distance between the acromion (outer edge) of your shoulder blades.(2) During the setup phase of the exercise, place your hands shoulder-distance apart with your wrists, elbows, and shoulders in a straight line. This will create a customized grip as everyone has a unique shoulder width, rather than telling every lifter in every gym to arbitrarily set their hands 18 inches apart, for example.

Inefficient Bar Path

It is important to remember that the bar path in the bench press is not a strictly vertical line. The bar begins over your shoulders and will travel down and slightly forward as it’s lowered, in a slight arc-like path.

Compared to the standard bench press, the close-grip bench press has an increased range of motion and will therefore have a different touch-point on the body and a different bar path than the standard bench press.

It is important to remember that the bar will touch lower on your chest in a close-grip bench than a standard bench press. If you attempt to use the same touch-point for both movements, it will lead to excessive elbow flare to compensate for the inefficient motion.

Avoid it: Aim for the bar to touch around the narrowing point of the bottom of your sternum — the xiphoid process. However, the exact spot will vary slightly from person to person based on their arm length, ribcage size, and overall body position.

How to Progress the Close-Grip Bench Press

As a basic barbell exercise, the close-grip bench press can be adapted to suit a wide range of lifters’ capabilities with progressively heavier weights. However, if individuals cannot yet manage a full range of motion with the barbell, there are a few options to help achieve the exercise.

Close-Grip Floor Press

The floor press variation reinforces the same close-grip setup and general bar path with a reduced range of motion. While one benefit of the close-grip bench press (performed on a flat bench) is a relatively long range of motion, this floor press variation eliminates the lower portion of the exercise. This reduces shoulder strain while maintaining muscular stress on the triceps.

The close-grip floor press allows you to become familiar with the grip width and hand position, and encourages proper form while staying tight and controlling the movement. Don’t allow your elbows to rest on the ground.

Paused Close-Grip Bench Press

By incorporating a deliberate, long pause at the bottom and top of each repetition, you reinforce proper mechanics throughout the movement. Pause in the bottom, stretched position of every rep for two seconds. It’s crucial that you maintain tension and do not relax with the bar resting on your chest. Your muscles should be tight and engaged for the duration.

Press normally and hold the locked out position for two seconds. Again, don’t treat the pause as an opportunity for rest. Grip the bar hard, flex your triceps, and engage your core before lowering the weight again.

Benefits of the Close-Grip Bench Press

The close-grip bench press has multiple benefits, from performance to aesthetics and even longevity in barbell training. Here’s why you should incorporate this useful movement.

Strength and Performance

For powerlifters or gym-goers looking to increase their max bench press, the close-grip bench press has specific benefits with direct carryover to your bench. If you struggle specifically at lockout, you likely need to improve your triceps strength.

The close-grip bench press primarily challenges the triceps, leading to greater pressing strength.(3) This simple exercise variation could be what is missing from your training routine to push through your sticking point and reach a new bench press PR.

Muscle-Building and Aesthetics

Filling out the sleeves of a shirt is never a bad idea. While triceps dips and pushdowns challenge the lateral head of the triceps in particular, the close-grip bench press significantly recruits the medial and lateral head, leading to more well-rounded muscular development.

This compound (multi-joint) movement also has an increased effect on muscle hypertrophy because it allows you to use relatively heavy weights, which can be useful for stimulating growth.(4)

Joint Health

If you consistently train using a limited range of motion for any muscle or exercise, you can develop strength in that range. However, this can also create a greater risk for strains and tears when those muscles are put through a greater range of motion with “fully lengthened” or “fully shortened” positions. (5)

The close-grip bench press does challenge a greater range of motion than the standard grip due to the positioning of the hands on the bar. The shoulder joints are worked through a longer distance. This will stress the triceps in the lengthened ranges, making them more robust and relatively less prone to injury.

Muscles Worked by the Close-Grip Bench Press

The close-grip bench press is most commonly known for challenging the triceps muscles, however there are more muscles involved than you may think.

Pectorals Major and Minor

The pectoralis major and pectoralis minor are your chest muscles and, while they are not the major contributors to the close-grip bench press, they do play an important role in the movement. During both the concentric (lifting) and eccentric (lowering) phases, both the pec major and minor are recruited to lift the weight and push your arms upward.

Anterior Deltoid

Your shoulder is comprised of three separate heads — the front (anterior), side (lateral), and rear (posterior). Each helps to raise the arm in its respective direction from your body’s midline. The anterior deltoid, specifically, contributes to raising and lowering your upper arm during the close-grip bench press.

However, be aware that if your anterior deltoid is fatiguing before other muscles groups during the exercise, your elbows are likely flaring too much. Adjusting your grip and/or bar path should ensure maximum focus on your triceps.

Triceps Brachii

Your triceps make up the majority of your upper arm, relative to your biceps. The triceps muscle consists of three heads — the lateral, medial, and long head — and together their main action is to extend the arm from a bent elbow position to full to elbow extension. The triceps contraction is emphasized in the lockout of the exercise where the triceps are more strongly recruited.

How to Program the Close-Grip Bench Press

When programming the close-grip bench press, the main consideration needs to be your goal. The most effective approach will be determined by what you want to achieve with the movement and how it fits into your overall training plan.

Strength

To prioritize strength-building, reps need to be kept in a relatively lower range while working with higher percentages of your one-repetition max (1RM). Train with two to six sets of one to five reps, using 80 to 95% of 1RM.

The amount of sets can vary based on your experience, conditioning, and abilities. More is not always better if you can’t handle it. Regardless of your total training volume, focus on using a fast bar speed and fully locking out each repetition.

Hypertrophy

Using moderate to high sets with moderate to higher reps will provide a greater hypertrophy adaptation. For muscle growth to occur, the muscle needs stimulus, volume, and fatigue.(6) Work with three to six sets eight to 20 repetitions, using of 55-65% of 1RM.

The goal is to reach muscular fatigue at the end of each set. If you’re performing more triceps-focused exercises in the same workout, use fewer sets and reps. If the close-grip bench press is your primary triceps exercise, give it the higher end of the workload.

Close-Grip Bench Press Variations

Beyond the close-grip bench press itself, there are some variations you can implement for comparable benefits of hypertrophy and improving your pressing power.

Banded Close-Grip Bench Press

To increase pressing power and/or improve your lockout ability, adding resistance bands of various tension to the close-grip bench press will challenge upper range of motion. Resistance bands offer accommodating resistance — they get more challenging as they’re stretched farther and offer relatively less resistance before they’re maximally stretched.

The biomechanics of the bench press, the lockout position requires less energy and benefits from a leverage advantage. As your elbows become more extended, the weight feels “lighter.” Bands require you to apply maximum tension as resistance increases toward the top position, forcing a stronger contraction. As the bar travels upward, band tension increases at the lockout. This forces you to consciously produce more power and drive hard to achieve lockout.

Machine Press

This is an excellent variation for hypertrophy goals. Using any machine that mimics a similar set up as the close-grip bench gives you more options for hypertrophy. The design of machines allows lifters to efficiently incorporate a variety of high-intensity techniques for increased training stimulus.

Options such as such as drop sets, partial reps, or even forced reps with a training partner allow for greater variations in your workouts. This is also a safer option than training beyond muscular fatigue with the close-grip bench press.

Close-Grip Push-Up

This triceps-focused push-up variation is a nice complement to any training program, as a primary exercise or as a muscle-exhausting finishing movement. Since your hands are closer together, like the close-grip bench press, the range of motion is greater than a standard push-up, thus making it more challenging.

If you cannot perform a full range of motion rep from your toes, you opt for modified versions such as a close-grip inclined push-up (with your hands elevated on a bench) or a kneeling close-grip push up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the close-grip bench press hurt my shoulder?

There could be multiple factors at work, but most people’s shoulders hurt due to a lack of stability in the upper back. This requires a better focus on scapular retraction and depression — pulling your shoulder blades together and down.

During the exercise, make sure to squeeze your shoulder blades back toward your spine and “tuck” them down toward your back pockets. This stabilizes your entire shoulder girdle to support the load. If it’s done incorrectly, or not at all, your anterior deltoid is more strongly activated as your shoulder goes into protraction (reaching forward) and elevation (shrugging up to your ears).

A variety of upper back strengthening exercises and mobility drills can help, along with drilling proper pressing technique and cueing your upper back stabilizers before unracking the bar.

What alternative can I do if I don’t have a bench?

Any exercise that challenges your upper body pressing muscles in a supine position can be an effective alternative. If you don’t have a bench but can lie on the floor, this is a great alternative. A dumbbell or barbell floor press is a great exercise whenever a bench is unavailable. The focus on the upper half of the range of motion further emphasizes triceps recruitment.

Most commercial gyms have steps, boxes, and risers that can be used as modified bench. Ideally, you want the improvised bench to be the same height as a standard one. Place a yoga mat on top of the step or box to reduce the risk of your torso slipping off.

Get a Grip on Your Bench

The close-grip bench press can be performed either as an assistance exercise to boost your classic bench press or it can be approached as a main movement on its own to develop a stronger upper body. The added arm size is an incidental bonus. Apply this simple grip adjustment to a time-tested movement and you’ll soon welcome new levels of size and strength.

References

1. Lockie, Robert & Moreno, Matthew. (2017). The Close-Grip Bench Press. Strength and Conditioning Journal. 39. 1. 10.1519/SSC.0000000000000307.
2. Larsen, S., Gomo, O., & van den Tillaar, R. (2021). A Biomechanical Analysis of Wide, Medium, and Narrow Grip Width Effects on Kinematics, Horizontal Kinetics, and Muscle Activity on the Sticking Region in Recreationally Trained Males During 1-RM Bench Pressing. Frontiers in sports and active living, 2, 637066. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2020.637066
3. Saeterbakken, A. H., Stien, N., Pedersen, H., Solstad, T., Cumming, K. T., & Andersen, V. (2021). The Effect of Grip Width on Muscle Strength and Electromyographic Activity in Bench Press among Novice- and Resistance-Trained Men. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(12), 6444. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126444
4. Brandão, Lucas & Painelli, Vitor & Lasevicius, Thiago & Silva-Batista, Carla & Brendon, Helderson & Schoenfeld, Brad & Aihara, Andre & Cardoso, Fabiano & Peres, Bergson & Teixeira, Emerson. (2020). Varying the Order of Combinations of Single- and Multi-Joint Exercises Differentially Affects Resistance Training Adaptations. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 34. 1. 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003550.
5. Valamatos, M. J., Tavares, F., Santos, R. M., Veloso, A. P., & Mil-Homens, P. (2018). Influence of full range of motion vs. equalized partial range of motion training on muscle architecture and mechanical properties. European journal of applied physiology, 118(9), 1969–1983. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3932-x
6. Mangine, G. T., Hoffman, J. R., Gonzalez, A. M., Townsend, J. R., Wells, A. J., Jajtner, A. R., Beyer, K. S., Boone, C. H., Miramonti, A. A., Wang, R., LaMonica, M. B., Fukuda, D. H., Ratamess, N. A., & Stout, J. R. (2015). The effect of training volume and intensity on improvements in muscular strength and size in resistance-trained men. Physiological reports, 3(8), e12472. https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.12472

Featured Image: Daniel Krason / Shutterstock

The post How to Do the Close-Grip Bench Press for Bigger, Stronger Triceps appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The dumbbell kickback was once a staple of bodybuilding’s Golden Era from the 1950s to the ’70s. However, its popularity in ’80s mainstream fitness classes diluted its muscle-building connection and it began to be performed with extremely light weights for extremely high repetitions. “To tone up without building bulk” was the popular, if misguided, logic.

Regardless of the misinformation, the triceps kickback is a very effective tool to target the biggest arm muscle — the triceps. The triceps are also a key muscle for performance through many upper body exercises. So forget what you might’ve heard about the exercise and learn the real reasons why you should include this exercise in your training regimen.

• How to Do the Triceps Kickback
• Triceps Kickback Mistakes to Avoid
• Benefits of the Triceps Kickback
• Muscles Worked by the Triceps Kickback
• Who Should Do the Triceps Kickback
• How to Program the Triceps Kickback
• Triceps Kickback Variations
• Triceps Kickback Alternatives
• Frequently Asked Questions

How to Do the Triceps Kickback

The basic single-arm dumbbell triceps kickback is an isolation (single-joint) exercise that focuses solely on triceps development. It’s a great way to emphasize peak contraction of the muscle.

Step 1 — Set Up in the Starting Position 

Stand in front of something sturdy, like a rack or a bench. Hold one dumbbell and get into a wide stance. Bend your knees slightly and lean forward at the hips while keeping a neutral spine. Aim to have your torso almost parallel to the floor. Place your free hand on the rack or bench for maximum balance and stability.

Pull your working arm up so your elbow is near your ribs and pinned close to your body. Let your forearm hang perpendicular to the floor with your palm facing in toward your body. Don’t look up or forward. Keep your head in line with your spine and your chin slightly tucked in.

Form tip: Flaring your elbow away from your body will only encourage cheating to move more weight and potentially strain your elbow joint. Keep your upper arm glued to your side. This is not an exercise to move super-heavy weight. Keep the load relatively light to ensure impeccable form.

Step 2 — Reach a Peak Contraction

Brace your core and exhale while flexing your triceps until your arm is completely straight. Squeeze at the top for a second to feel a maximum peak contraction. Your lower arm should be the only thing moving. This is an isolation exercise, so focus on only working the triceps.

Your hand, and the dumbbell, should pivot around your elbow. Treat your elbow like a hinge. No other part of your body should move.

Form tip: Be sure to reach full extension with each rep. In the top position, your entire arm should be nearly parallel to the ground. Because gravity offers minimal resistance against the weight in the bottom part of the movement, it’s essential to use a full range of motion and emphasize the contraction. 

Step 3 — Return to the Stretched Position

Slowly come back to the starting position while inhaling. Again, only your forearm should move. Pause very briefly in the bottom position to avoid quickly swinging the weight down and up.

Sure, momentum might allow you to move more weight, but you will diminish the range of motion and the time under tension — both crucial for muscle mass. Swinging the weight will also put more stress on the elbow joint. More joint strain with less muscle-building is not a great bargain.

Form tip: Start each set with your weaker or non-dominant side so you have more energy and more focus. Perform all repetitions and then match the same number of repetitions with your stronger arm, even if one side is capable of more reps. This will help to balance common strength or development discrepancies between left and right arms.

Triceps Kickback Mistakes to Avoid

This exercise can be prone to bad execution because it requires light weights, so a lifter can sometimes lose focus. Learn about the most common errors and how to avoid them.

Swinging the Weight

Let’s be real for a second: cheating a few reps at the end of a session won’t smite you instantly. It can sometimes even be beneficial, for experienced lifters using it as a deliberate intensity-boosting technique. But for the vast majority of people, you should avoid cheating and swinging the weight with kickbacks or nearly any exercise.

If you swing and cheat, you will only actually work your triceps through a very short portion of the range of motion, and the exercise will provide a limited triceps-building stimulus. Moreover, this will result in more stress to the elbow joint and you don’t want to develop tendonitis — that’s the best way to keep having small arms.

Avoid it: Make sure you control the eccentric (lowering the weight), and even pause for a dead-stop at the bottom briefly. If you focus on only moving your forearm, you basically cannot cheat. If your elbow moves, you’ve started doing a dumbbell row, not a triceps kickback.

Not Locking Out Your Arm

If you don’t completely extend your arms and squeeze your triceps in a hard lockout, you lose most of the benefits of this exercise because of the resistance curve. At the start of the lift, there is almost no resistance at all because the dumbbell isn’t directly moving against gravity. The hardest part of the exercise is in the shortened range when the muscle is contracted.

If you don’t lockout, which can happen if you try using too much weight, then you don’t really work your triceps’ most challenging part of the range of motion. That ends up making the exercise easier and less efficient for muscle growth.

Avoid it: Make sure you use a proper weight that allows you to fully lockout your arm. If you can’t pause at the top for a second, the weight is too much.

Benefits of the Triceps Kickback

Even though the exercise is often overlooked and disrespected, the triceps kickback has unique benefits for your triceps training and will help you get bigger, stronger arms.

Muscle Growth

This exercise is focused on directly training the triceps, specifically for hypertrophy (muscle growth). Indeed, this exercise thrives with lighter weight and a longer time under tension, which is a great way to build muscle and create an aesthetic physique. (1)

Moreover, as an isolation exercise, it is the perfect fit for developing a mind-muscle connection and accumulating triceps-specific volume without taxing other muscle groups, which are both beneficial for muscle growth. (2)(3)

Pressing Strength

Triceps strength, and the pushing pattern in general, are involved in many sports like volleyball, American football, combat sports, etc. And let’s not forget strength sports like powerlifting.

Sure, the triceps kickback won’t create pure neurological strength like training the heavy bench press or overhead press, but building larger triceps muscles can eventually improve strength. (4) So if you’re interested in performance, fit this into your accessory training.

Training the Shortened Range

Many triceps exercises such as skull crushers emphasize the lengthened range of motion and stress the stretched position. The triceps kickback, on the other hand, focuses on the shortened or contracted portion. Because of its resistance curve, the exercise is relatively easy in the stretched position and much more challenging in the peak contraction.

This can provide a novel stimulus, help develop a stronger mind-muscle connection, and unlock new gains, because training variety can be better for motivation and hypertrophy in itself. (5)

Easy on the Elbows

The triceps kickback can be invaluable for experienced lifters with cranky joints. Because the upper arm is in a higher position than the forearm, and joint isn’t being strained through the entire range of motion, the elbow can move more freely without significant stress.

If you have nagging pain in your elbows, shoulders, or wrists, or if you’re prone to tendonitis, make the kickback appear regularly in your training plan.

Muscles Worked by the Triceps Kickback

The aim of the exercise is to train your triceps, but some postural muscle will be recruited as well to hold the position.

Triceps Brachii

This is the biggest arm muscle and the main target of the kickback. It is made of three heads. Two of them (the medial and the lateral head) go from the elbow to the humerus (upper arm bone). These are responsible for extending the arm.

The long head also extends the arm, but because it is attached to the scapula, it also extends the shoulder and raises the arm. Because the upper arm is positioned alongside the torso, the triceps kickback emphasizes the lateral and medial heads.

Back

The whole back — upper back, lats, and lower back — work to maintain a parallel body position and stabilize the working arm during the kickback. The back’s involvement should be limited to the muscles working statically to hold your body’s position without movement.

However, if the kickback is performed improperly, the back muscles (specifically the upper back and lats) may become more significantly recruited, drawing muscular stress away from the triceps.

Who Should Do the Triceps Kickback

The goal of the kickback is to add meat onto your triceps. So if you’re looking for bigger, stronger arms — like plenty of people in the gym — you can include this lift in your training regimen.

Beginners

Some people advise that beginners to avoid single-joint exercises and focus primarily on the big basics (multi-joint compound lifts like presses). This is generally sound advice, but isolation work can also have benefits for newer lifters.

By improving the mind-muscle connection with specific muscles, they can feel that muscle work more effectively, which leads to better growth and body awareness. Exercises like the triceps kickback also help to directly train muscles which may be under-worked when compound exercises are overemphasized.

Physique Enthusiasts

Whether your goal is to look better or to compete in a physique show, the triceps kickback is a perfect fit. Performing this exercise allows you to increase triceps volume without fatiguing other muscle groups, leading to focused muscle growth.

This is very valuable, for instance, if you lack overall arm development, or if you need to create a balanced and symmetrical physique by correcting muscular imbalances.

Strength Athletes

If you’re an athlete that requires pressing strength such as a powerlifter, strongman/strongwoman, or CrossFit athlete, then triceps training is essential. Including the triceps kickback can be surprisingly effective for strength athletes.

The relatively light weight and high muscular tension allows them to increase triceps training volume without aggravating their elbows, which are usually already beaten up by heavy lifting.

How to Program the Triceps Kickback

The kickback is a single-joint exercise and as such, it is not ideal for moving heavy weights because additional muscles will be excessively recruited. The kickback is most effective using moderate to light weight to stimulate muscle growth and zero-in on working the triceps.

Moderate Weight, Moderate Repetitions

The time-tested bodybuilding scheme of three to four sets of 10 to 12 repetitions will be your kickback bread and butter. This is a very efficient way of increasing volume leading to muscle growth.

Light Weight, High Reps

This exercise can really shine with higher reps because of its resistance curve, cumulative time under tension, and its low impact on the joints. Performing two to four sets of 15 to 20 repetitions can serve as an amazing finisher to really scorch your triceps. It can also be a great way to start your arm workout by really warming-up your elbow joints.

Triceps Kickback Variations

The single-arm dumbbell kickback is a great exercise in itself, but you can tweak it to better suit your goals or provide a different feeling. Here are the main kickback variations.

Cable Triceps Kickback

Instead of using dumbbells, use a cable. Instead of attaching a handle, grab the cable by the “ball” at the end, just above the cable clip.  This allows you to keep a neutral hand position without straining your wrists.

The exercise may not seem like much because of the relatively lighter weight, but the cable provides constant tension through the lift, even more than using a dumbbell. This stimulates the triceps throughout the entire range of motion, which will increase the time under tension and lead to improved muscle growth. 

Pronated Kickback

This subtle variation was popularized by bodybuilding coach John Meadows. Using a pronated (palms-down) grip will emphasize the medial head of the triceps. Using two dumbbells at once also changes the total-body stability requirement.

Because your forearm is slightly rotated, this variation will also address forearm and wrist health. You can even perform a type of superset, beginning with reps of pronated kickbacks and then immediately transitioning to standard neutral-grip kickbacks.

Two-Arm Dumbbell Kickback

This variation is pretty straight-forward: Perform the standard triceps kickback with both arms at the same time. This will slightly decrease the weight you can lift because the muscle focus is “divided” between both arms.

This variation also requires more work from your core, back, and legs to stabilize yourself because you don’t have a free hand to brace on an outside support.

Triceps Kickback Alternatives

If you’re still not convinced to incorporate kickbacks, here are some alternatives that will share similar benefits to spice up your training. Variety will challenge the muscles differently, promoting new muscle growth.

Triceps Pushdown

If you’ve got access to a cable station, you can perform this fundamental exercise. The triceps pushdown, sometimes called a pressdown, emphasizes the peak contraction and isn’t very stressful on the elbow joints.

Use an attachment that allows you to extend your arms completely — a rope handle is often most effective. As with the kickback, be sure to keep your arms close to your body and only move your hands and forearms without swinging your elbows.

Decline Dumbbell Skull Crusher

The standard flat bench skull crusher is an effective exercise, but using a decline bench gives it a twist to focus more on the medial and lateral heads of the triceps. The arm angle doesn’t provide as much stretch or long head stimulation, but can offer more tension in the top position.

Using a pair of dumbbells allows your arms to move freely and reduce strain on your wrist and elbow joints, compared to performing the exercise the a barbell or EZ-curl bar.

Overhead Dumbbell Extension

If you want to emphasize the long head of the triceps, this variation is for you. Performing triceps extension with your arms extended above your shoulders will focus more on the lengthened range and will significantly recruit the long head because it’s involved in raising the arm.

Because this movement emphasizes the stretched position, be sure your elbows and shoulders are thoroughly warmed up. It’s not an ideal first-exercise in your triceps workout, but it can be a key player in building larger arms.

FAQs

Do I have to train my arms directly?

It depends on a few variable. If you’re a short-limbed lifter, your arms will probably be significantly stimulated with compound exercises like the bench press, overhead press, rows, and pulldowns. But if you’re dealing with long arms, you should train them directly because your leverage on big lifts is different and the biceps and triceps are often under-stimulated in those movements.

Ultimately, if you’re interested in having bigger arms, it’s a good idea to include at least some direct training, especially if you’re a more advanced lifter. If you’re a competitive athlete, you should skip direct arm training in-season and keep that energy for your sport-specific training. Accumulating too much training volume can cause burnouts, stagnation, or even regression.

I can’t stop my elbow from flaring. Why is that?

The first culprit could be weight. If the dumbbell is too heavy, flaring your elbow out will recruit extra muscles (in your back and shoulders) to help lift the load, but it’s at the potential detriment of your joints and it will reduce triceps activation.

If you’re certain that you can control the weight, it could be a matter of mobility. If your upper back or shoulder mobility is compromised, it will result in protruded, forward-pointing shoulders that prevent you from keeping your elbows close to you. You should include a mobility routine in your workouts with exercises like band pull-aparts and wall slides.

Let’s Get Pumping

The triceps kickback’s bad reputation is unfair and unfounded. Don’t let any misinformed knee-jerk reactions or cliches steer you away from this classic arm-builder. It’s a versatile movement that lets you hit your tris with light weight, high tension, and minimal joint strain. It’s definitely time to remind today’s gyms that kickbacks are for serious lifters.

References

1. Burd NA, Andrews RJ, West DW, Little JP, Cochran AJ, Hector AJ, Cashaback JG, Gibala MJ, Potvin JR, Baker SK, Phillips SM. Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional synthetic responses in men. J Physiol. 2012 Jan 15;590(2):351-62. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200. Epub 2011 Nov 21. PMID: 22106173; PMCID: PMC3285070.
2. Calatayud J, Vinstrup J, Jakobsen MD, Sundstrup E, Brandt M, Jay K, Colado JC, Andersen LL. Importance of mind-muscle connection during progressive resistance training. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2016 Mar;116(3):527-33. doi: 10.1007/s00421-015-3305-7. Epub 2015 Dec 23. PMID: 26700744.
3. Schoenfeld BJ, Contreras B, Krieger J, Grgic J, Delcastillo K, Belliard R, Alto A. Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy but Not Strength in Trained Men. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019 Jan;51(1):94-103. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001764. PMID: 30153194; PMCID: PMC6303131.
4. Reggiani C, Schiaffino S. Muscle hypertrophy and muscle strength: dependent or independent variables? A provocative review. Eur J Transl Myol. 2020 Sep 9;30(3):9311. doi: 10.4081/ejtm.2020.9311. PMID: 33117512; PMCID: PMC7582410.
5. Baz-Valle E, Schoenfeld BJ, Torres-Unda J, Santos-Concejero J, Balsalobre-Fernández C. The effects of exercise variation in muscle thickness, maximal strength and motivation in resistance trained men. PLoS One. 2019 Dec 27;14(12):e0226989. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226989. PMID: 31881066; PMCID: PMC6934277.

Featured Image: IvanRiver / Shutterstock

The post How to Do the Triceps Kickback for Arm Size appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Often neglected and underappreciated, your triceps can dramatically impact your physique and your performance. It doesn’t take much work to build bigger, stronger tris, but it does take some intelligent training. Here are the best movements to put this muscular background player on centerstage.

Best Triceps Exercises

• Close-Grip Bench Press
• EZ-Bar Skull Crusher
• Barbell Kickback
• Dumbbell Overhead Extension
• Two-Dumbbell Kickback
• Neutral-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press
• Single-Arm Skull Crusher
• Dip
• Close-Grip Push-Up
• Medicine Ball Push-Up
• Tiger Bend Push-Up
• Rope Pushdown
• Single-Arm Pushdown
• Single-Arm Standing Cable Skull Crusher

Close-Grip Bench Press

The classic flat bench press is a staple in many lifters’ chest workouts. When you bring your grip slightly inwards, you can shift the emphasis away from your chest muscles and make your triceps the primary mover. (1)

Pressing with a closer grip increases triceps recruitment and decreases relative chest activation. It can also reduce strain on your shoulder joints because they are placed in a stronger mechanical position with less stretching. This makes it an effective bench press alternative for lifters dealing with joint pain.

How to Do the Close-Grip Bench Press 

Lie on a flat bench with the barbell in line above your eyes. Grab the bar using a palms-down (pronated) grip with your hands and wrists directly above your shoulders. Gripping extremely close doesn’t significantly affect triceps recruitment and can increase strain on the wrist and elbow joints.

Plant both feet flat on the ground. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and grip the bar tightly. Press straight up to unrack the bar from the support pins. Lower the bar while keeping your elbows close to your body, not flaring out to the sides. In the bottom position, the bar should be near your lower chest. Pause briefly before pressing straight up to lockout. Keep your glutes touching the bench throughout the entire repetition.

Benefits of the Close-Grip Bench Press

• This bench press variation allows the triceps to be worked with potentially heavy weights, making it ideal for building triceps strength.
• The overall joint position of this exercise allows lifters to train the bench press movement pattern with reduced shoulder joint stress.

EZ-Bar Skull Crusher

The skull crusher is a basic and effective exercise for isolating the triceps with limited activation of the chest or shoulders. Using an EZ-bar changes your hand position and allows a semi-supinated, or angled, grip. This makes the exercise more accommodating for lifters with poor wrist mobility who can’t maintain a fully supinated (palms-down) grip, and it helps to reduce strain on the wrist and elbow joints.

The EZ-bar skull crusher is one of the most fundamental triceps exercises, requiring only a flat bench and an EZ-bar. This makes it an ideal option for lifters with limited equipment, such as training in a basic home gym.

How to Do the EZ-Bar Skull Crusher 

Sit on a flat bench while holding an EZ-bar with a moderate-width, palms-down grip on the angled handles. Lie back while “kicking” the bar into a straight-arm position above your face. To maximize muscular tension, your arms should be angled slightly toward your head, not completely vertical.

Place both feet flat on the floor and tense your abs as you stabilize the weight in a locked-out position. Bend at your elbows to lower the weight towards your forehead. Keep your elbows stationary while reducing the weight. Straighten your arms to lock the weight above your head.

Benefits of the EZ-Bar Skull Crusher

• The EZ-bar reduces wrist and elbow joint strain, making it a good triceps exercise for lifters with joint pain.
• You can increase the intensity of the exercise by increasing the range of motion. Lower the weight to the bench at the top of your head instead of stopping near your forehead. While this will require moving your elbows, the longer range of motion can increase overall muscle activation.
• The EZ-Bar skull crusher can be superset with a close-grip bench press using the same bar for a quick and effective high-intensity technique.

Barbell Kickback

This old-school bodybuilding exercise has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years. Once considered a high-tension triceps-builder, it fell out of favor for no valid reason. The triceps undergo a long time under tension using only free weights, with no cable stations necessary.

While the exercise is often performed with a slightly rounded back, the spine isn’t under direct stress because the weight is supported through the arms. If your hamstring mobility needs improvement, maintaining the bent-over position may be uncomfortable, and you may need to bend at a higher angle or choose an alternate exercise.

How to Do the Barbell Kickback

Begin standing while holding a barbell with a palms-down grip behind your back. Bend forward at the waist and allow the bar to slide down the back of your legs. Pull your elbows up near your ribs. The bar should be near your knees or upper calves, depending on your arm and leg length.

Straighten your arms by pressing your hands backward. Keep your elbows pinned in place during the exercise. With your arms locked out, the bar often ends above your tailbone. It’s not uncommon to feel your triceps cramping hard in the locked-out position when the muscle tension is greatest. Lower the weight under control and avoid hitting yourself behind the knees with the bar.

Benefits of the Barbell Kickback

• The barbell kickback delivers a significant muscle-building stimulus with relatively light weight, making it ideal for lifters using limited equipment or those unable to lift heavy weights.
• The triceps are put through a long time under tension, specifically with a long peak contraction, which creates a significant muscle-building stimulus. (2)
• This exercise is one of relatively few isolation (single-joint) triceps exercises that can be performed with a barbell, making it a valuable addition for lifters with limited equipment.

Dumbbell Overhead Extension

Performing triceps exercises with your arms overhead is essential for maximum triceps growth due to the unique positioning of the triceps heads across the shoulder joints. The separate muscle heads are activated differently as you raise your arms to work the triceps. (3) The dumbbell overhead extension is one of the most basic exercises to address this type of exercise.

The dumbbell overhead extension can be performed standing with your feet together, standing in a split or staggered stance, tall kneeling, half-kneeling, seated with an unsupported back, or seated with a back support. Each of those variations will work the triceps the same. The only difference is descending levels of core and lower back recruitment, so choose the stance that best suits your body.

How to Do the Dumbbell Overhead Extension

Hold one dumbbell with two hands, placing the pinkies of each hand against the inside of the top weight plate. Extend the dumbbell directly overhead with straight arms. Bend your arms to lower the weight behind your head. Keep your elbows pointed up as the weight moves, don’t allow them to sink towards your shoulders.

Resist the temptation to nod your head forward “out of the way” of the dumbbell. Lower the weight under control to avoid contacting your head or neck. Return to the overhead position when you feel a significant stretch on the triceps.

Benefits of the Dumbbell Overhead Extension

• The overhead extension is an efficient way to recruit all heads of the triceps muscle.
• Because you’re lifting with both hands, you can move heavier weight than training unilaterally (one arm at a time). This makes it a useful exercise for building strength.
• This exercise emphasizes the stretched position, which has been shown to improve muscle-building. (4)

Two-Dumbbell Kickback

While the single-arm kickback is more commonly associated with “toning”-type workouts, the two-dumbbell kickback combines the focused muscular tension of the single-arm kickback with improved coordination and total-body tension of a two-arm movement.

The two-dumbbell kickback also allows lifters to rotate their wrists during the movement for a more natural range of motion with less stress on the wrist and elbow joints. 

How to Do the Two-Dumbbell Kickback

Stand upright while holding a dumbbell in each hand. Bend as far forward at the waist as is comfortable and slightly bend your knees. Pull both elbows to your ribs and bend your arms to a roughly 90-degree angle. Keep your elbows pinned to your sides during the entire set.

Using a relatively slow speed to minimize momentum, straighten your arms by driving your pinkies towards the ceiling. In the locked-out position, your arms should be in a straight line pointed toward the wall behind you. Experiment with a neutral grip (palms facing your body), a pronated grip (palms facing the wall behind you), and a supinated grip (palms facing your shoulders) to determine which feels most comfortable.

Benefits of the Two-Dumbbell Kickback

• The two-dumbbell kickback allows significant triceps tension with relatively light weights, making it ideal for lifters with joint pain or limited equipment.
• This movement simulates a cable triceps pushdown without needing a cable pulley station.

Neutral-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press

Much like the close-grip bench press is a triceps-dominant version of the classic movement, the neutral-grip dumbbell bench press is a triceps-dominant variation of the standard flat dumbbell bench press.

The neutral grip allows the elbows to remain close to the body, reducing shoulder joint stress while increasing triceps muscle recruitment. (5) The pressing position also allows the use of relatively heavy weights. Many people will press as much or more weight as with a chest-focused dumbbell bench press grip, making the movement an excellent option for building size and strength.

How to Do the Neutral-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press

Sit on a flat bench while holding a pair of dumbbells resting on your thighs. Lie back while kicking the weights into a straight-arm position locked above your chest. Plant your feet flat and slowly rotate your hands to face each other.

Stabilize the weight and lower the dumbbells towards the outside of your chest. Slide your upper arms along your ribs and keep your elbows pointed towards your feet. When your hands are at chest-level, press straight up to lockout. 

Benefits of the Neutral-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press

• This dumbbell press variation allows the use of fairly heavy weights with reduced joint strain.
• The unique hand position makes the neutral-grip dumbbell bench press one of the few dumbbell exercises to safely and efficiently train the triceps with heavy weight.
• The exercise is effective for lifters who cannot perform the flat dumbbell bench press due to shoulder or elbow joint pain.

Single-Arm Skull Crusher

This exercise is nearly identical to the barbell or EZ-bar skull crusher, with the obvious exception that it’s performed using one arm at a time. This unilateral focus allows lifters to address development discrepancies and muscular imbalances between sides.

The single-arm skull crusher also allows lifters to manipulate their wrist more freely by rotating during the movement, which can alleviate wrist discomfort caused by maintaining a pronated (palm-down) grip on a barbell.

How to Do the Single-Arm Skull Crusher

Begin lying with one dumbbell locked out above your chest. Use your non-working hand to gently hold the triceps of the working arm. This can increase the mind-muscle connection and improve growth. (6)

Lower the dumbbell towards the same-side ear at a slow and controlled pace. Keep your elbow aimed at the ceiling, and don’t allow it to move. When your arm has reached its maximum stretched position, reverse direction and lockout your arm.

Benefits of the Single-Arm Skull Crusher

• This exercise allows extremely focused training on the triceps of each arm.
• The single-arm skull crusher delivers a significant muscle-building stimulus with relatively light weight.
• The unilateral performance allows lifters to address common muscle imbalances between arms.

Dip

The dip is one of the most effective bodyweight exercises to train the triceps because it allows you to lift a significant amount of weight without needing a full gym setup. Whether it’s wearing a weighted vest, a dip belt with random weight plates, or a backpack full of soup cans, the weighted dip allows you to emphasize the triceps while working the entire upper body.

Dips can also be performed to emphasize the chest instead of the triceps, but straightforward technique adjustments can keep the triceps prioritized.

How to Do the Dip

Hold a set of dip handles with your hands slightly outside shoulder width. Jump into the top position and lock your arms out straight. Stabilize your upper body and eliminate any lower-body swinging. Bend your arms while aiming your elbows at the wall behind you.

Maintain an upright torso position with your head and shoulders in line with your hands. Lower your body at a controlled speed until you feel a maximum stretch in your shoulders. Pause briefly in the bottom position before pressing up to lockout.

Benefits of the Dip

• The dip is one of the few bodyweight exercises that allows the addition of significant load for long-term progression.
• You can begin a set with the triceps-emphasizing technique and, when muscular fatigue sets in, change focus to incorporate the chest muscles — during the descent, lean your upper body forward and allow your elbows to flare out to the sides. This is a high-intensity technique to increase overall muscle stimulus.

Close-Grip Push-Up

While the standard push-up is often the first bodyweight exercise — or even the first exercise, in general — many lifters perform. However, the close-grip variation is an effective way to emphasize the triceps without any training equipment at all.

The close-grip push-up, similar to the close-grip bench press, shifts the focus away from the chest muscles and makes the triceps the predominant muscle group.

How to Do the Close-Grip Push-Up

Start with your hands planted on the ground roughly chest-width apart. Straighten your legs and maintain a stable line from your neck to your feet. Lower your entire body until your chest nearly touches your hands.

As you descend, keep your elbows tight to your body and aimed towards your feet. Pause briefly in the bottom position before returning to full lockout.

Benefits of the Close-Grip Push-Up

• The close-grip push-up has been shown to activate the triceps significantly more than the standard push-up technique. (7)
• This exercise can be performed anywhere, at any time, without needing any special equipment.

Medicine Ball Push-Up

Medicine balls are often for throwing or adding resistance during workouts. With this push-up variation, it’s doing neither. The medicine ball is used as a support for your hands and encourages a close-grip position.

The medicine ball also slightly elevates your upper body, which alters your leverage and reduces the amount of body weight lifted during the exercise. This may sound like it makes the exercise “easier,” but it’s offset by the increased challenge from the grip width and instability.

How to Do the Medicine Ball Push-Up

Place a sturdy medicine ball on the ground — the weight of the ball doesn’t affect the exercise. Place both hands on the ball and support your body with straight arms and legs. Stabilize your entire body, and don’t allow the ball to roll or wobble.

Lower your chest towards the ball, being sure to control any instability provided by the ball. When your chest contacts the ball, press up at a controlled pace until your arms are locked.

Benefits of the Medicine Ball Push-Up

• The instability from the medicine ball is an efficient way to strengthen shoulder stabilizing muscles.
• The medicine ball provides a consistent reference point for grip-width, rather than focusing on chest-width or closer-than-shoulder-width, making the exercise more simplified and effective.
• Medicine ball push-ups can be quickly superset with medicine ball throws for a power-building workout.

Tiger Bend Push-Up

At first glance, the tiger bend push-up might appear to be some kind of yoga-meets-gymnastics combination. In reality, it’s a relatively advanced push-up variation that emphasizes the triceps by requiring an extension-type movement more than an actual push-up.

The tiger bend push-up is considered a somewhat advanced exercise because your triceps are required to move the majority of your body weight without assistance from your shoulders or chest. However, there are specific regressions to adjust the challenge for any lifter.

How to Do the Tiger Bend Push-Up

Kneel on the ground with only your forearms, elbows, knees, and shins supporting your body. Place your palms on the ground. Set your elbows beneath your shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. Lift your body by pressing through your palms. Maintain a neutral spine as you move.

To make the exercise more challenging, move your knees farther from your elbows and eventually support yourself off your knees, with a straight line from your shoulders to your feet. To make the exercise less challenging, set your knees wider.

Benefits of the Tiger Bend Push-Up

• This exercise is one of the few isolation (single-joint) bodyweight exercises to work the triceps, which adds to overall exercise variety.
• It provides a significant challenge without added weight, making it ideal for experienced lifters with limited equipment.

Rope Pushdown

The triceps pushdown, sometimes called a pressdown, may be one of the most common exercises seen in any gym. It’s simple to perform, effective at targeting the triceps, and adaptable to beginners as well as the most experienced lifters.

Using a rope handle allows a neutral (palms-facing) grip which can reduce wrist strain compared to a straight bar which requires a palms-down grip. The rope can also be manipulated throughout the set, by bringing the handles apart in the bottom position to increase the range of motion or keeping the handles touching for improved leverage to perform additional reps. 

How to Do the Rope Pushdown

Begin with a rope handle attached to a high-cable pulley. Grab the rope with both hands and bring your elbows next to your ribs. In the starting position, your hands should be near chest-level.

Without moving your elbows, straighten your arms. Pause briefly in the locked out position before returning your hands to the top.

Benefits of the Rope Pushdown

• The pushdown can be performed by lifters of any experience or strength level.
• This cable exercise offers continuous tension, which increases the total time under tension and improves the muscle-building stimulus.
• The rope pushdown helps to reduce joint strain by allowing more comfortable joint angles. 

Single-Arm Pushdown

The single-arm pushdown combines the focused benefits of unilateral training with the high-tension muscle-building of cable training. By working each arm individually, you’re able to address discrepancies in muscular development and strength without compromising any muscle-building stimulus.

This intense pushdown variation can be performed with a variety of handles and grip positions. Using a single “D” handle is most common, either with a palm-up or palm-down grip. Experiment with using a rope handle (holding one or both sides of the rope in one hand) as well. The different hand and wrist positions may feel more comfortable and won’t affect the triceps recruitment significantly.

How to Do the Single-Arm Pushdown

Attach a handle to a high-cable pulley. Grab it with one hand and bring it into the starting position with your elbow near your ribs and your working hand near chest-level. Your free hand can brace against the pulley station away from the cable.

Straighten your arm and press down to full lockout. Don’t allow your elbow to move and don’t allow your torso to lean sideways towards the working hand. Pause briefly in the bottom position before returning to the top.

Benefits of the Single-Arm Pushdown

• The single-arm pushdown emphasizes each individual arm without significant core work due to the stability of the cable station, making it ideal for lifters with lower back pain.
• The exercise can be performed with a variety of grips to accommodate lifters with grip strength issues or wrist pain.
• This pressdown variation can also be performed “crossbody-style” — standing sideways to the cable stack, with the non-working side of the body closest to the cable, and bringing the working hand from the opposite shoulder to the same-side hip. The unique angle changes the range of motion and may reduce shoulder joint strain. 

Single-Arm Standing Cable Skull Crusher

This unique exercise uses a cable pulley to mimic the motion of a single-arm dumbbell skull crusher. The increased tension from the cable allows a strong muscle-building stimulus with relatively light weight and less overall joint strain.

Whether it’s simply for training variety or as a high-intensity triceps finisher at the end of any workout, this movement zones in on the triceps with maximum efficiency and no assistance from other muscle groups.

How to Do the Single-Arm Standing Cable Skull Crusher

Grab a single handle attached to a high-cable pulley. Face away from the weight stack and press the weight straight in front of you. Use your non-working arm to support the working-side elbow, which should remain stationary throughout the set. Slowly bend your arm and bring your hand back towards your face. When you feel a maximum stretch, slowly extend your arm to full lockout.

Benefits of the Single-Arm Standing Cable Skull Crusher

• This exercise delivers a significant time under tension, which is beneficial for muscle growth.
• The single-arm standing cable skull crusher allows the triceps to be trained with minimal strain on the shoulder and elbow joints.

The Triceps Muscles

Understanding the triceps muscle and its related joints will lead to a better understanding of how and why certain exercises and training methods are effective.

Here’s a closer look at this critical arm muscle and how it works.

Triceps Brachii

The “tri” in triceps refers to three separate but related heads of the muscle. The medial head and lateral head both attach at the upper arm bone and elbow joint. The long head attaches at the elbow and shoulder blade.

All three heads work to straighten the arm at the elbow. However, because the long head runs over and across the shoulder joint, it is also activated when the upper arm moves. (8) This is why triceps exercises performed at a variety of angles — with your arms overhead and/or perpendicular to your body — are essential for overall muscle activation and development.

How Often Should You Train the Triceps

Because all three heads of the triceps attach at the elbow joint, excessive training volume or frequency may aggravate (or create) joint pain or tendonitis. The triceps are significantly worked during the majority of chest and shoulder exercises, which needs to be a factor when programming triceps training.

Generally, directly training the triceps one to two days per week with relatively low volume per workout (five to 10 sets split up between one to three exercises) can be sufficient for building size and strength. The overall details of your training program such as exercise choice, training intensity, and volume (total sets and reps) will be factors in designing a triceps workout.

To make your triceps a training priority, reduce the frequency and volume of pressing in your chest and shoulder workouts. This will help to reduce the overall stress on the triceps muscle and related joints. Training your triceps and biceps in one workout is another highly effective method, especially when using alternating sets or supersets, which have been shown to improve power and strength while reducing overall fatigue. (9)

How to Progress Your Triceps Training

Triceps workouts can be approached and progressed like any other body part. Work consistently and gradually increase the training volume (more repetitions) and/or increase the training load (more weight). The decision to increase volume or load will be determined by your goal, as well as the specific exercises being used.

Isolation (single-joint) exercises like the two-dumbbell kickback or single-arm pushdown don’t typically accommodate very heavy loads because proper technique becomes unmanageable. A focus on increasing volume is typically more effective for those types of exercises.

Compound (multi-joint) exercises like the close-grip bench press and dip do allow you to safely and efficiently work up to heavier loads eventually, as long as you never sacrifice form for the sake of more weight.

How to Warm-Up Your Triceps

Warming up the triceps is about preparing the muscle for the stimulus of the workout. It’s also about preparing the joints, specifically the elbow joints, because they will be significantly worked in each exercise.

Light weight, high-rep isolation exercises are one effective way to prepare your elbows for intense triceps training. Focus on warming up with exercises which don’t put the arms into an excessive stretch. As the warm-up progresses and your arms are better prepared, gradually increase the range of motion and variety of exercises.

For example, warming up with rope pushdowns for one to two sets of 20 reps can be safer and more joint-friendly than performing the dumbbell overhead extension for the same sets and reps.

Don’t Tri Too Hard

Triceps training shouldn’t overwhelm your workout program, it should complement it, like a solid bass line in any great song. It might be understated and simple, but it delivers the goods and keeps you on track. If you dial things up too hard and hit the tri’s with too much work, you’ll invite potential injury, compromise the rest of your plan, and your name might as well be Mud.

References

1. Lockie, Robert & Moreno, Matthew. (2017). The Close-Grip Bench Press. Strength and Conditioning Journal. 39. 1. 10.1519/SSC.0000000000000307. 
2. Burd, N. A., Andrews, R. J., West, D. W., Little, J. P., Cochran, A. J., Hector, A. J., Cashaback, J. G., Gibala, M. J., Potvin, J. R., Baker, S. K., & Phillips, S. M. (2012). Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional synthetic responses in men. The Journal of physiology, 590(2), 351–362. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200
3. Kholinne, E., Zulkarnain, R. F., Sun, Y. C., Lim, S., Chun, J. M., & Jeon, I. H. (2018). The different role of each head of the triceps brachii muscle in elbow extension. Acta orthopaedica et traumatologica turcica, 52(3), 201–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aott.2018.02.005
4. Oranchuk, D. J., Storey, A. G., Nelson, A. R., & Cronin, J. B. (2019). Isometric training and long-term adaptations: Effects of muscle length, intensity, and intent: A systematic review. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 29(4), 484–503. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13375
5. Lehman G. J. (2005). The influence of grip width and forearm pronation/supination on upper-body myoelectric activity during the flat bench press. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 19(3), 587–591. https://doi.org/10.1519/R-15024.1
6. Oshita, Kazushige. (2021). Effect of internal focus of attention with touching cue on the agonist muscle activity during exercise. 10.14198/jhse.2021.16.Proc2.04. 
7. Kim, Y. S., Kim, D. Y., & Ha, M. S. (2016). Effect of the push-up exercise at different palmar width on muscle activities. Journal of physical therapy science, 28(2), 446–449. https://doi.org/10.1589/jpts.28.446
8. Tiwana MS, Sinkler MA, Bordoni B. Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Triceps Muscle. [Updated 2021 Aug 6]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK536996
9. Robbins, Daniel W; Young, Warren B; Behm, David G; Payne, Warren R Agonist-Antagonist Paired Set Resistance Training: A Brief Review, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: October 2010 – Volume 24 – Issue 10 – p 2873-2882 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181f00bfc

Featured Image: MDV Edwards / Shutterstock

The post The 14 Best Triceps Exercises for Bigger, Stronger Arms appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The cable’s pulley system puts tension — and lots of it — right where it belongs. All you need to do is straighten your arms and build some muscle. Okay, there’s a little more to it than that. Here are all the details.

• How to Do the Triceps Cable Pushdown
• Triceps Cable Pushdown Mistakes to Avoid
• Benefits of the Triceps Cable Pushdown
• Muscles Worked by the Triceps Cable Pushdown
• Who Should Do the Triceps Cable Pushdown
• How to Program the Triceps Cable Pushdown
• Triceps Cable Pushdown Variations
• Triceps Cable Pushdown Alternatives
• Frequently Asked Questions

How to Do the Triceps Cable Pushdown

The cable pushdown is pretty straightforward. To put maximum tension on the triceps and minimize involvement of other muscles, your elbows should remain pinned to your sides as you extend your arms down. Here’s a more in-depth look at how to get set up and how to get the most out of the exercise.

Step 1 — Set Up At the Pulley Station

Attach a straight bar to a high-cable pulley. Grab the bar with both hands in a palm-down grip. Take a small step back into a staggered stance. This will give you more total-body stability, especially when using heavier weights.

Bend your knees slightly and tighten your core. Pull your elbows toward your ribs to raise the weight from the stack. Your hands should be roughly in line with your chest, ready to perform the first rep.

Form Tip: The farther you move from the weight stack, the more your back and shoulders muscles will be engaged to keep your elbows pinned to your ribs. The cable running from the handle to the pulley should be at a slight angle.

Step 2 — Straighten Your Arms

Squeeze your upper arms into your sides and pretend you are gluing them in place. Push straight down with both hands until your arms are straight but not fully locked. This maintains slight tension on the muscle and increases the muscle-building stimulus. Keep your hands in line with your forearm without bending your wrists.

Form Tip: Keep a strong, tall posture and an engaged core. You should only be moving at the elbows, not at the waist, as you drive the weights down.

Step 3 — Bend Your Arms to Lower the Weight

From the nearly locked out position, bend your arms and slowly return your hands upwards. Keep your elbows stuck to your ribs. When your hands are in the top position, the weights should be hovering barely above the rest of the stack. If the weights rest completely on the stack, adjust your stance and take a very small step backwards.

Form Tip: Don’t allow the weights to pull your elbows forward. Tense your abs, grip the handle hard to engage your grip and control the bar, and pull your shoulder blades back to keep a stable body position.

Triceps Cable Pushdown Mistakes to Avoid

The cable pushdown requires tightness and stability through your entire body. This can be a benefit because keeping your back, shoulders, arms, abs, and legs fully engaged builds muscular coordination.

However, this total-body recruitment also creates multiple opportunities for technique problems to occur. Here are the most significant issues to watch for.

Misaligned Posture

Hunching forward or arching your back when lifting or lowering the weight will prevent you from fully stabilizing your core. You can’t tense your abs effectively without a neutral spine.

Having an unstable or angled upper body reduces your ability to control the movement. When your arms and torso aren’t vertical, you’re working through a different angle of resistance and recruiting different muscles. More importantly, a lack of core stability means you could hurt your back.

Avoid It: Stabilize your posture and alignment before each rep. Pull your core muscles up and in. Staggering your feet can also reinforce a strong upper body position because it increases lower body stability, which is transferred through the upper body.

Moving at the Shoulder

The primary movement should be from your elbows, not from your shoulders. When your shoulders work to move the weight, stress is taken off your triceps and shifted onto your deltoids (shoulders) and upper back.

Don’t allow shoulder rotation to flare your elbows. If your elbows point sideways to the walls instead of behind you, you’ve shifted out of position.

Avoid It: Check your elbow creases. If they turn in, tightness in your shoulders or chest may be pulling your arms forward. Start practicing shoulder and chest flexibility exercises to loosen up the area. Keep the shoulder and upper arms locked into place. Keep your elbows pinned to your sides and be aware of if/when your elbows start to come forward.

Bending Your Wrists

Don’t let your wrists crane back or bend forward. Doing so increases strain on the smaller wrist joint and increases the risk of injury. Keep your hands in line with your forearms, with a straight line from your elbow to your knuckles.

Avoid It: If breaking at the wrist is an issue for you, consider a glove with wrist wraps or wrist wraps. This external support reminds you to keep the joints in line. Gripping the bar hard, instead of passively pressing through your hands, can also reinforce a stable hand position.

Benefits of the Triceps Cable Pushdown

The cable pushdown places the triceps muscle under constant tension for the duration of the set. This long duration of muscular stress is a key factor responsible for muscle growth. (1)

Pushdowns are a foundational triceps exercise, allowing lifters to focus solely on their triceps, which can improve the mind-muscle connection for greater activation and growth. (2)

Upper Body Strength

The triceps play a role in the majority of upper body exercises, either assisting in chest and shoulder pressing movements or as stabilizers during pulling movements. Increasing triceps-specific strength with cable pushdowns can carry over to improved strength in larger upper body exercises.

Aesthetic Muscle-Building

Cable pushdowns works all three heads of the triceps muscle, creating well-balanced muscle growth. The triceps are worked through a full range of motion with constant tension, making the pushdown an efficient way to directly target the tris.

Muscles Worked by Triceps Cable Pushdown

The triceps cable pushdown is primarily for the triceps, though several muscle groups stabilize the upper body and allow correct performance.

If other muscles get fatigued before the triceps during a set of pushdowns, it’s an indicator that your technique is off. Reduce the weight and be more focused on applying proper form.

Triceps Brachii

The triceps is a three-headed muscle responsible for elbow extension, or straightening the arm. It’s made up of the lateral and medial heads, which attach at the upper arm and below the elbow, and the long head which attaches to the shoulder blade and below the elbow. (3) Because the long head runs along the shoulder joint and attaches to the shoulder blade, it is also activated during shoulder movements when the upper arm is raised.

Pectoralis Major

The pectoralis major, or pecs, are the main chest muscle. The pecs are responsible for pulling your arms toward the centerline of your body. While the chest isn’t a primary mover during pushdowns, it is worked statically to provide upper body stability and to keep your elbows by your sides, particularly in the locked out position.

Upper Back

The upper back muscles include the trapezius, rhomboids, teres, and rear deltoids. This collection of muscles work in similar roles to control the shoulder blades, shoulder position, and posture. During cable pushdowns, the upper back is highly activated to stabilize your upper body and maintain a stable upper arm position as the lower arm moves the weight.

Who Should Do the Triceps Cable Pushdown

The pushdown can be used by any lifter looking to emphasize their triceps. The movement can be implemented into strength-building programs, as well as any arm day or muscle-specific routine designed to build size.

Beginners

When you’re first learning how to train various muscles of the body, the triceps cable pushdown is a useful movement to start with because it isolates the muscle group. This targeted work allows new lifters to feel the muscle working throughout the entire range of motion.

Training for Muscle Growth

Whether you’re a physique competitor or training for general aesthetics, this exercise can help to build to triceps. Increased triceps activation without interference from other muscles stimulates greater muscle growth in the target muscle leading, simply, to bigger arms.

How to Program the Triceps Cable Pushdown

The triceps cable pushdown is easy to implement into most routines as long as you have access to a cable machine. The exercise isn’t well-suited to extremely heavy weights and low-rep sets, because strict form becomes unmanageable and additional muscles are recruited. However, light or moderate weights can be highly effective for muscle growth due to the high tension provided by the cables.

Moderate Weight, Moderate Reps

Training the cable pushdown with three to four sets of eight to 12 reps is a classic muscle-building approach. This is a time-tested way to pack on triceps size and build larger arms.

Light Weight, High Reps

Using the pushdown as a finisher or burnout is a very high-intensity way to end any arm workout. One or two sets of 15 to 25 reps, reaching muscular failure at the last rep, is an excellent method for increasing training volume. The lighter weights make this approach is particularly useful for lifters who need to minimize joint strain.

Paired with Biceps Training

Because the cable pushdown requires minimal setup, one extremely effective way to program the exercise is to superset it with any biceps exercise. By alternating between a biceps curl and triceps pushdown, you can quickly and efficiently train your entire arm with high intensity.

Triceps Cable Pushdown Variations

The triceps pushdown is extremely versatile. With a simple adjustment of the handle attachment, you can change things up, add an extra challenge, and work the triceps in slightly different ways.

Rope Pushdown

Using a rope attachment puts your hands in a neutral (thumbs-up) grip, which can be beneficial for lifters dealing with wrist or elbow pain because it places the muscles around those joints in a stronger position, which relieves stress on the joints.

While this variation doesn’t necessarily recruit the triceps muscle differently, it offers a slightly longer range of motion. The hands begin close together in the top position and flare out to the sides in the bottom position. Your elbows should remain stuck to your ribs, only your hands should move.

Reverse-Grip Pushdown

The reverse-grip pushdown isn’t often seen in gyms, but it can be an effective variation to reinforce strict form. With a supinated (palm-up) grip, swinging your torso is less effective since the bar is only held in place with your fingers, compared to a more secure a palm-down grip which covers the bar with your entire hand.

This underhand grip also reinforces proper elbow position because it becomes more difficult to flare your elbows out with this setup.

Single-Arm Pushdown

Performing a single-arm pushdown emphasizes each individual arm during a set. This one-sided attention helps to fight strength and muscular discrepancies that may develop from over-focusing on bilateral (simultaneous two-arm) exercises.

Single-arm pushdowns can be performed with a single-handle, a rope attachment, or no handle at all holding just the attachment anchor.

Triceps Cable Pushdown Alternatives

If you don’t have access to a cable pulley, there are still plenty of effective options to work your triceps. It’s always fun to mix it up, and it’s important to challenge the muscles in different ways.

Diamond Push-Up

The diamond push-up, or close-grip push-up, is a reliable bodyweight exercise to emphasize the triceps. The narrow hand position recruits more triceps and relatively less chest muscles to complete the movement.

This is another extremely efficient exercise to alternate with biceps training to create a quick arm-building workout. Perform any set of curls, drop and perform diamond push-ups, rest briefly, and repeat.

Triceps Kickback

This dumbbell movement is often performed with very light weights for very high reps. However, maintaining good form while moving more challenging weights in the 10-12 rep range can be a serious muscle-building exercise.

The key is to keep your elbows stuck to your ribs and not recruit the back or shoulder muscles to move the weights. You can increase the time under tension and muscle-building stimulus for the triceps by pausing in the top position for a full one or two seconds.

Dumbbell Skull Crusher

This exercise works the triceps in a slightly different plane of motion, with the arms perpendicular to the body instead of alongside the torso. This can slightly change the muscle recruitment of different triceps heads and lead to a new muscle-building stimulus. (4)

Using dumbbells also allows more freedom for the wrist and elbows to move, which can reduce strain on the joints. Keep the dumbbells in line with your shoulders. In the bottom position, the weights should be near your ears.

FAQs

Do I need to work my triceps specifically?

While the triceps are worked actively during most chest and shoulder exercises, as well as serving a supportive role during most back exercises, direct triceps training is essential for maximum muscle growth.

The triceps also play a functional role in many daily activities, from closing a car door to getting up off the ground after falling. Building the triceps specifically, within a comprehensive training program, can play a critical role in improving overall functional strength.

What if my arms can’t stay by my sides?

A physical inability to keep your arms at your sides against resistance may be caused by chest or shoulder immobility. When the chest or shoulders are excessively tight, they want to pull the arms forward and inward.

Performing a simple doorway chest stretch daily is one efficient place to start. In addition, work on  overall posture and alignment to encourage overall strength and stability.

Get Down with Pushdowns

The triceps cable pushdown is such a basic and effective movement in the gym, it is easy to pepper into your workout routine. Using strict form and a full range of motion will add size to your triceps, help to keep your elbows and shoulders healthy, and support all of your big pressing goals.

References

1. Burd NA, Andrews RJ, West DW, et al. Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional synthetic responses in men. J Physiol. 2012;590(2):351-362. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200
2. Calatayud J, Vinstrup J, Jakobsen MD, Sundstrup E, Brandt M, Jay K, Colado JC, Andersen LL. Importance of mind-muscle connection during progressive resistance training. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2016 Mar;116(3):527-33. doi: 10.1007/s00421-015-3305-7. Epub 2015 Dec 23. PMID: 26700744.
3. Tiwana MS, Sinkler MA, Bordoni B. Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Triceps Muscle. [Updated 2021 Aug 6]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK536996/
4. Kholinne, E., Zulkarnain, R. F., Sun, Y. C., Lim, S., Chun, J. M., & Jeon, I. H. (2018). The different role of each head of the triceps brachii muscle in elbow extension. Acta orthopaedica et traumatologica turcica, 52(3), 201–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aott.2018.02.005

Featured Image: Slatan / Shutterstock

The post How to Do the Triceps Pushdown for Bigger Arms appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The tris are a powerhouse muscle, responsible for moving heavy loads during the more popular bench press and overhead press. They also cover more surface area on the upper arm, making them more responsible for increasing arm size than the more popular biceps. It’s time to put the triceps centerstage and give them the attention they deserve.

Best Triceps Workouts

• With Dumbbells
• With Bodyweight 
• For Muscle Mass
• For Strength

Best Triceps Workout With Dumbbells

Training with dumbbells is an effective way to reduce joint stress because the arms are able to move freely without being locked into a strict range of motion. Because many triceps exercises can aggravate the elbow joint due to leverage, using dumbbells is one common alternative.

The Dumbbell-Only Triceps Workout

This all-dumbbell plan builds size and strength in the triceps without the need for a fully equipped gym, versatile cable stations, or a wide array of equipment.

With a good set of dumbbells and a bench, you can work all three heads of the triceps with minimal joint strain.

Neutral-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press

• How to Do it: As you lie on a flat bench, “kick” a pair of dumbbells into a locked out position above your chest. Face your palms toward each other and plant your feet flat on the floor. Keep your head and tailbone on the bench as you lower the weights to your chest. Point your elbows toward your feet and let them slide past your ribs as you lower the weight. The dumbbells should end up touching the outside of your chest with your elbows near the bottom of the bench. Reverse direction to press the weights up.
• Sets and Reps: 4 x 6-8
• Rest time: Two minutes between sets

Dumbbell Skull Crusher

• How to Do it: Lie on a flat bench with a pair of dumbbells locked out overhead with your palms facing each other. Keep your head and glutes on the bench. Bend only at the elbows and lower the weights to the bench behind your head. In the bottom position, your elbows should point to the ceiling and your hands should be facing your ears.
• Sets and Reps: 4 x 10-12
• Rest time: One minute between sets.

Single-Arm Overhead Extension

• How to Do it: Sit upright on a bench with a dumbbell locked overhead in one hand. Use your free hand to touch the triceps of the working arm. This maintains its position and reinforces muscle recruitment. (1) Bend your elbow to lower the weight in an arc without moving your upper arm. In the bottom position, the weight should be behind your opposite shoulder. Raise the weight while keeping your elbow pointed to the ceiling. Perform all reps with one arm before switching sides.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15
• Rest time: No rest between arms. 30 seconds between sets.

Best Bodyweight Triceps Workout

Bodyweight exercises typically target larger muscle groups like the chest, back, and legs because the majority of bodyweight movements involve multi-joint exercises primarily emphasizing those larger body parts.

However, certain exercise variations or specific exercises can emphasize the triceps while associated muscles, like the chest and shoulders, work in a supportive role.

Triceps Size and Strength Without Weights

This bodyweight-only triceps workout uses push-up variations to adjust the body’s leverage, which makes the triceps the primary muscle recruited.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Natasa | Alt Art | Aerial Yoga (@spanbody)

Choose any one of these exercises to plug into a more complete upper body or full-body workout, or perform the entire workout as part of a triceps-focused training day.

Tiger Bend Push-Up

• How to Do it: Begin in a kneeling position with your forearms, elbows, knees, and shins on the ground. Set your elbows directly under your shoulders, your knees under your hips, and your palms down. Press through your hands until your arms are locked straight. Don’t allow your back to sag or round. To make the exercise more challenging, move your feet and knees farther back. Performing the exercise with straight legs and only your toes on the ground is the most difficult progression.
• Sets and Reps: 4 x 4-6
• Rest time: Two minutes between sets.

Dip with One-and-a-Half Reps

• How to Do it: Begin at a dip station or set up between two sturdy chairs or high benches. Jump to the top position with locked arms. Keep your torso upright and your head back as you lower your body by bending your elbows. As you descend, keep your elbows pointed straight back, not flared to the sides. Pause after several inches and press back to lockout. Lower yourself again as far as your shoulder mobility allows before pressing up to full lockout. That’s one complete rep.
• Sets and Reps: 4 x 6-8
• Rest time: 60 seconds between sets.

Close-Grip Push-Up

• How to Do it: Begin with your hands on the ground slightly closer than shoulder-width and your feet on the ground, slightly wider than shoulder-width. Maintain a straight line from your neck to your feet. Lower your entire body until your chest nearly touches the ground. Keep your elbows aimed towards your feet, not flared to the walls.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-15
• Rest time: 30 seconds between sets.

Best Triceps Workout for Muscle Mass

Big arms are a popular goal for many, if not most, lifters in the gym. However, over-focusing on building the biceps is an inefficient and ineffective plan for arm size.

One common anecdote shared in gym locker rooms is, “triceps account for 66% of your arm size.” This well-meaning statistic is as arbitrary as it is widespread. However, the moral behind it is solid. The triceps muscle does have the potential for a greater impact on overall arm size compared to the biceps because it’s anatomically larger, even before weight training’s muscle-building stimulus.

More Size for Your Tris

For maximum muscle growth, the triceps need to be worked with the upper arm in a variety of positions relative to the torso. (2) Due to the varied attachment points of the three heads of the triceps muscle, complete development is achieved by working with the upper arm alongside the torso (pointed down), perpendicular to the torso (pointed forward), and above the torso (pointed up).

Rope Pressdown

• How to Do it: Attach a rope handle to a high-cable pulley. Take the rope with both hands and pull your elbows to your sides with your hands roughly chest-level. Keep your knees slightly bent and your torso upright. Press your hands toward the ground for a complete contraction. Pause for one second in the bottom position. Don’t allow your elbows to move forward when lowering the weight.
• Sets and Reps: 4 x 8-12
• Rest time: 30 seconds between sets.

Dumbbell Overhead Extension

• How to Do it: Sit upright on a bench holding one dumbbell with both hands above your head. Keep your core tight while lowering the weight behind your head toward the bench. Your elbows should point forward, not flare out to the sides. In the bottom position, your triceps should be stretched and your hands should be near the back of your neck. Raise the weight slowly, maintaining a forward-elbow position.
• Sets and Reps: 4 x 10-12
• Rest time: 60 seconds between sets.

EZ-Bar Skull Crusher

• How to Do it: Hold an EZ-curl bar with a moderate-width (neither close nor wide) overhand grip. Sit on a flat bench. As you lie back, “kick” the weight into a locked out position above your face. Lower the weight towards the bench behind your head and allow your elbows to move slightly as you bend your arms. Rest the weight briefly in the bottom position before returning to the starting position.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-12
• Rest time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

EZ-Bar Close-Grip Bench Press

• How to Do it: Remain lying on the bench while holding the same weight in the same hand position as the previous exercise. Begin with your arms locked straight above your chest. Lower the weight until it touches your lower chest. Keep your elbows close to your sides, not pointed away from your body.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x AMRAP (As many repetitions as possible until muscular failure.)
• Rest time: 90 seconds rest before returning to the previous exercise.

Best Triceps Workout For Strength

Triceps strength is essential for all pressing exercises, as well as providing stability during pulling exercises. Building stronger triceps will carry over to total-body strength, so time spent focused on stronger tris is time spent focused on a stronger body.

Triceps-Focused Strength Workout

While some lifters approach triceps training as assistance exercises performed with lighter weights and higher reps, training the tris specifically for strength using more traditional strength and power-focused sets, reps, and loads can yield more direct improvements in overall strength.

It is important to note that training priorities should always be respected. Recovery and progress may be compromised if you try to focus on bench and/or overhead strength as well as triceps-specific strength simultaneously. Taking several weeks to prioritize the triceps before re-prioritizing chest or shoulder pressing is a more efficient long-term plan.

Close-Grip Bench Press

• How to Do it: Lie down at a flat bench press station. Take an overhand grip on the barbell with your hands slightly closer than shoulder-width for increased triceps stress and decreased chest recruitment. (3) Keep your feet flat on the ground as you unrack the bar and lower it to touch your chest. Your elbows should point towards your feet. Press back to full lockout and pause at the top before beginning the next rep.
• Sets and Reps: 5 x 3-5
• Rest time: Three minutes between sets.

Weighted Dip

• How to Do it: At a dip station, jump into the top position with locked arms. Keep your head up and your torso upright. Lower yourself under control as far as your shoulder mobility allows. To emphasize triceps recruitment, keep your elbows pointed backwards, not flared to the sides. Use a dip belt or weighted vest for added resistance.
• Sets and Reps: 4 x 6-8
• Rest time: Three minutes between sets.

Partial Overhead Press

• How to Do it: In a power rack, begin in a shoulder press position holding a barbell with an overhand grip at roughly collarbone-height. Keep your knees slightly bent and your core tense as you press the weight overhead to full lockout. Lower the weight to eye-level before pressing to full lockout again. On each repetition, bring the weight no lower than your eyes to increase triceps recruitment and decrease shoulder activation.
• Sets and Reps: 4 x 8-10
• Rest time: Two minutes between sets.

The Triceps Muscles

The triceps muscles may not be one of the most popular body parts, but they play an active role in countless upper body exercises and a more supportive role in many lower body exercises.

Here’s a more in-depth look at how the triceps function and how they can be most effectively trained.

Triceps Brachii

The triceps brachii, or triceps, are composed of three separate muscle heads working in unison to extend the elbow, or straighten the arm. The long head, medial head, and lateral head all attach just below the elbow.

The medial head and lateral heads originate on the upper arm, while the long head connects to the scapula (shoulder blade). (4) Because the long head crosses the shoulder joint, it serves an added function in helping to control movement of the arm at the shoulder.

This shoulder function allows the long head to be more highly activated when the arm is brought overhead during triceps exercises, as in overhead extensions.

Triceps Warm-Up

A thorough warm-up is essential for optimizing performance and minimizing joint strain. A triceps warm-up should involve the surrounding musculature (chest, back, shoulders, and biceps) as well as the triceps directly.

Here’s a simple and effective resistance band warm-up to begin any triceps workout.

Triceps Band Warm-up

• Band Pull-Apart: Take a palms-down grip on a resistance band. Begin with your arms extended in front of your chest. Keep your arms nearly locked while pulling your hands in line with your shoulders. The band should touch your chest before returning to the starting position. Perform 15 reps before moving to the next exercise.
• Band Chest Press: Secure the band to a stable point roughly chest-height. Face away from the anchorpoint. Take one end of the band in each hand. Press straight ahead until your arms are locked out in front of your shoulders. Perform 15 reps before moving to the next exercise.
• Band Curl: With the band still anchored at chest-height, turn around and grab one end of the band in each hand. Step back and extend your arms straight. Curl your hands towards your face with a thumbs-up grip while keeping your elbows at shoulder-height. Perform 15 reps before moving to the next exercise.
• Band Pressdown: Keep one end of the band in each hand and step forward. Pin your elbows to your ribs. Straighten your arms to full lockout with your hands near your waist. Return your hands to chest-level. Perform 15 reps before returning to the first exercise. Do a total of two sets of the complete circuit.

Tri to Focus

Don’t let your triceps be overshadowed, figuratively, by other body parts. They’re overlooked, quietly working alongside their more attention-grabbing counterpart, the biceps.

The tris only step into the spotlight when it matters most, whether it’s helping you lock out a bench press PR or fill out your shirtsleeves. It’s time to bring them front and center, choose a targeted training plan, and spend time giving them the attention they’ve been missing.

References

1. Oshita, Kazushige. (2021). Effect of internal focus of attention with touching cue on the agonist muscle activity during exercise. 10.14198/jhse.2021.16.Proc2.04.
2. Kholinne E, Zulkarnain RF, Sun YC, Lim S, Chun JM, Jeon IH. The different role of each head of the triceps brachii muscle in elbow extension. Acta Orthop Traumatol Turc. 2018;52(3):201-205. doi:10.1016/j.aott.2018.02.005
3. Lehman G. J. (2005). The influence of grip width and forearm pronation/supination on upper-body myoelectric activity during the flat bench press. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 19(3), 587–591. https://doi.org/10.1519/R-15024.1
4. Tiwana MS, Sinkler MA, Bordoni B. Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Triceps Muscle. [Updated 2021 Aug 6]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK536996/

Featured Image: MDV Edwards / Shutterstock

The post The Best Triceps Workouts for Muscle, Strength, and More appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The barbell skull crusher can improve strength in a variety of activities, especially the bench press and overhead press. When performed correctly, the exercise takes your triceps through a range of motion that will ignite your muscle-building potential and challenge the triceps in a way that few exercises can.

• How to Do the Barbell Skull Crusher 
• Barbell Skull Crusher Mistakes to Avoid
• Benefits of the Barbell Skull Crusher
• Muscles Worked by the Barbell Skull Crusher
• Who Should Do the Barbell Skull Crusher
• How to Program the Barbell Skull Crusher
• Barbell Skull Crusher Variations
• Barbell Skull Crusher Alternatives 
• Frequently Asked Questions

How to Do the Barbell Skull Crusher

Skull crushers may seem like a simple movement, but lifters don’t often optimize their position to get the most triceps growth for their buck. By applying simple changes to your body position, you can facilitate even more muscle growth while reducing strain on the elbow and shoulder joints.

Here’s what you need to know to perfect the movement and unlock its potential.

Step 1 — Get Into Position

Lie on a flat bench with a barbell held over your chest in a shoulder-width, palms-down grip, the same way you would when performing a bench press. If you have a training partner, they can help you get the bar into the starting position. If you’re training alone, you can use the bench press pins or “kick” the bar into position with your knees as you lie on the bench.

Limiting any arch of the lower back will help to create a more disadvantaged position for the triceps, meaning that the muscle will have to work harder. And working harder means you will build more size and strength.

Form Tip: Focus on keeping a “grounded” and fully engaged torso with no arch in your lower back. You can place your feet on the bench to focus on limiting torso extension.

Step 2 — Lower the Weight to a Full Stretch

Lower the barbell towards your forehead. This is where the “skull crusher” exercise gets its melodramatic name.

As you reach roughly the halfway point, slightly shift your elbows towards your head to maximize the stretch on the triceps. Just don’t let them move too far back, which would recruit your lats instead of emphasizing your triceps.

Form Tip: Range of motion is key here. Feeling the triceps stretched to their fullest will tell you if you have performed this part of exercise correctly. It is important to not relax the muscle and let the weight strain the joints at the bottom. Make a conscious effort to actively contract the triceps.

Step 3 — Extend Your Arms to Raise the Weight

Pause briefly in the fully stretched position before powerfully contracting your triceps to extend your arms. “Lift explosively, lower under control” is an effective way to approach both portions of this exercise.

In the top position, your arms should be locked out with the bar above your forehead, not your chest. This helps to maintain constant tension and can lead to more growth. With skull crushers, and many muscle-building movements, tension is the name of the game.

Form Tip: Keep your elbows steady while raising the weight. Focus on getting the weight up by flexing your triceps and driving your hands through the bar. In the lockout position, your triceps should still be under tension, not relaxed.

Barbell Skull Crusher Mistakes to Avoid

Smooth and strong execution is the key to make sure you’re actually targeting the triceps with skull crushers. Too often, lifters worry so much about moving heavy weights that they end up swinging their upper body and taking work away from the triceps.

Elbows Flaring Out

The primary function of the triceps is to produce elbow extension, or straightening of the arms. To do this, you want the elbows to be stable when performing barbell skull crushers. This allows a greater connection with the triceps without displacing stress to other muscles or providing added stress to the joints.

If your elbows flare out, then you lose the ability to maximize the tension placed on the triceps. You also place the delicate elbow joint into an unstable load-bearing position which can lead to pain and injury.

Avoid It: Maintain a strong abdominal brace and control your breathing pattern. This increases stability as a whole, from your torso through your arms, which will allow greater control when performing the movement. Choosing an appropriate weight and simply executing reps with controlled form is also essential.

Unstable Torso

Even though you’re lying on a flat bench, the torso plays a surprisingly large role when performing the barbell skull crusher. Some lifters allow their hips to shoot up, which leads to instability through the torso via extension (when you create a large arch in your lower back).

This will affect efficiency in recruiting your triceps because your shoulders and elbows are then shifted backwards, which causes the entire upper body to become unstable. This also turns the movement into a pullover variation, which puts more work onto the lats and serratus instead of the triceps.

Avoid It: Elevate your feet onto the bench or move the bench near a wall and place your feet on the wall during the set. This uncommon solution allows you to keep your torso in contact with the bench and be more stable, which enhances your ability to maintain tension on the triceps with increased stability from head to toe.

Benefits of the Barbell Skull Crusher

Some lifters choose to minimize or entirely overlook direct triceps exercises, like the barbell skull crusher. This approach to training is often based on the time-efficient but arguably effective system of relying on the triceps’ role as assistant muscles during larger exercises, such as presses, to provide sufficient stimulus.

Targeting the triceps directly with the barbell skull crusher can deliver greater overall results due to the increased muscle activation during the exercise.

Increase Lockout Strength

The triceps are responsible for complete elbow extension during upper body pressing movements such as the bench press or overhead press. The barbell skull crusher plays a huge role in developing your ability to successfully lockout each rep. Any lifter focused on improving these heavy lifts will see greater improvements and fewer weak points when implementing skull crushers into their program.

Build Bigger Arms

For some lifters, the goal of training is just to build a solid set of pipes. The triceps take up two-thirds of the upper arm, compared to the relatively smaller biceps, which means giving the triceps plenty of attention is a surefire way to increase arm size. The barbell skull crusher targets all three heads of the triceps for complete development.

Muscles Worked by the Barbell Skull Crusher

The barbell skull crusher primarily targets all three heads of the triceps muscle, with specific recruitment of the long head due to shoulder position during the exercise.

Triceps Brachii

The triceps brachii are “the triceps” on the back of the upper arm. It consists of three separate heads — the long, lateral, and medial — which function together to extend the arm. All three heads connect to the forearm bone, but only the long head attaches to the scapula while the other heads attach to the humerus (upper arm).

Because the long head crosses the shoulder joint with this unique attachment, it is emphasized when performing the barbell skull crusher (or any time the upper arm is involved in an exercise).

Who Should Do the Barbell Skull Crusher

No lifter should neglect this beneficial exercise. Its usefulness can specifically aid many other movements throughout your week of training.

Training for Strength and Power

Because the barbell skull crusher strengthens the triceps and improves lockout strength, lifters seeking to increase their bench press or overhead press will benefit greatly from adding skull crushers to their programming.

Training for Muscle

When a lifter’s goal is building bigger arms, the barbell skull crusher should be prioritized. The complete muscle recruitment of the triceps, with specific emphasis on the long head, influences muscle growth unlike many other triceps exercises.

How to Program the Barbell Skull Crusher

The triceps have been shown to have a high degree of type II muscle fibers. These “fast-twitch” fibers allow the triceps to respond exceptionally well to explosive-type power training and heavy lifting. (1)(2) . However, to recruit all muscle fiber types for optimal development, using a mix of rep ranges has been shown to be best. (3)

It is important to note that the triceps are activated during horizontal and vertical pressing movements, with horizontal presses (like the bench press) recruiting more triceps compared to vertical presses (like the shoulder press). (4) The inclusion of isolation exercises like the barbell skull crusher will be necessary to fully stimulate the triceps for maximum results.

Higher frequency training has been shown to be more effective than lower frequency work. (5) Start with training the triceps twice per week and slowly graduate to three days per week for maximum growth.

Moderate Weight, Moderate Repetition

On days when you perform overhead pressing (shoulder) exercises, which recruit the triceps to a lesser degree, perform the barbell skull crusher for three or four sets of 10 to 12 reps to maximally activate the triceps. This approach is best complemented by training triceps in an additional workout using a different set and rep range for improved overall results.

Lighter Weight, Higher Repetition

Two to four days after the first workout, ideally on a day you incorporate horizontal (chest) pressing exercises, train triceps using three or four sets of 12 to 20 reps. This diverse stimulus allows sufficient recovery from the previous workout. Pairing lighter weight, higher-rep triceps training with relatively heavy chest exercises also helps to reduce strain on the elbow joints.

Working the triceps multiple times per week using a variety of sets, reps, and loads is an almost-perfect way to build bigger, stronger triceps in a safe and effective manner.

Barbell Skull Crusher Variations

Many beginners jump right into exercises that require a certain level of technique. While the barbell skull crusher is not super-technical, it does involve some specific considerations to maximize the recruitment of the triceps. Learning effective variations may be more appropriate for lifters having trouble with the barbell movement or lifters looking for variety.

Resistance Band Skull Crusher

Use the same body position and flat bench setup as the barbell skull crusher with one small difference. Wrap a resistance band under the head side of the bench or around a heavy barbell on the floor.

Lie down and grab the band with your palms facing the ceiling. Begin from the stretched position and extend your arms overhead.

Flat Bench Cable Triceps Extension

Set a bench in front of a cable machine. Attach an angled bar to the lower pulley. Lie on the bench with your head nearest the cable and perform a skull crusher, starting from the bottom position to full lockout.

This variation is a great opportunity to practice the entire technique before getting yourself under some heavier loads. Also, the cable provides more constant tension on the muscle since it’s taut throughout the entirety of the exercise’s range of motion.

Dumbbell Skull Crusher

Lie back onto a flat bench with a pair of dumbbells. Begin with the weights above your chest, similar to a dumbbell bench press. Lower the weight under control towards your head, angling your hands inwards to touch the top of your shoulders.

Contract your triceps to fully extend your arms and begin lowering into the next rep. Once you can perform these with control, you will be ready to get yourself under the bar for some more intense skull crushers.

Barbell Skull Crusher Alternatives

The barbell skull crusher is one very effective type of triceps extension, but other triceps extension exercises can be useful for bulking up the triceps. Here are some great alternatives to consider based on your overall program and available equipment.

Overhead Extension

If you have good shoulder mobility and healthy elbows, overhead extensions will put your triceps into an even deeper stretch in the bottom position. This increased range of motion should stimulate even more muscle growth.

Cable triceps extensions are a great alternative to the barbell. The main differences are the loading (because cable exercise cannot be progressed as heavily as barbells) and the positioning of the upper arm.

Tricep Pressdown

Triceps pressdowns can be less stressful on the elbow joint than barbell skull crushers.

They won’t work your triceps through as deep of a stretch, which means the muscle-building stimulus may be reduced. The biggest advantage is that pressdowns tend to be easier on the elbows, especially if using a rope handle attachment.

Close-Grip Bench Press

Because the bench press is so conducive to higher loading, it’s a perfect choice for a triceps-focused heavy movement. Heavier loads have been shown to elicit higher levels of triceps activation, so this exercise is best programmed in a lower rep range. (6)

A shoulder-width grip produces more triceps activation than a wider bench press grip, and an inside-shoulder-width grip creates even greater triceps recruitment (7) However, such an extremely close-grip can provide unwanted strain on your wrists and limit the range of motion. For optimal results, use a shoulder-width grip to emphasize the triceps.

Time to Crush the Triceps

Barbell skull crushers will always be a mainstay in triceps workouts. The range of motion and muscle recruitment are nearly impossible to duplicate with other exercises. It improves your bench press and builds bigger arms. If those aren’t two of the most popular goals in the gym, then what are?

FAQs

How can I increase the weight used in this exercise?

A large part of moving heavier weights will stem from your ability to keep your torso stable through bracing. Tighten your stomach as if you were getting punched. This increases engagement of your entire core and helps to produce head-to-toe stability.

Increased stability allows you to more effectively manage each rep — lowering the barbell to the fully lengthened bottom position and making sure the triceps are contracting to move the barbell back up, not just waving your arms up and down.

An essential element in training is being able to produce the effort required for each rep. Most of the time, effort is the amount of weight being lifted. But never lose focus on your ability to maintain tension on the triceps. If you are not strong enough to keep your torso stable, then the tension shifts off of the triceps and you are left open to an injury or, worse, wasted time.

What do I do if my elbows hurt when performing skull crushers?

Complaints of discomfort and pain in the elbows are common during some triceps exercises, especially if the lifter has pre-existing joint problems. Overhead extensions are generally the most troublesome exercise, but skull crushers may still cause problems.

Performing your heavier pressing exercises first in your workouts will effectively warm-up your elbows before hitting skull crushers. The heavier work will also fatigue your triceps, leading to a reduction in weight used for skull crushers.

A lighter weight also allows a higher rep range. Remember, using heavy loads is not the most important training variable. Maintaining tension on the triceps and maximizing the range of motion can lead to greater benefits. If you have been performing 6-10 reps, move into 12-20 reps.

You can also use a different skull crusher variation. Instead of a straight barbell, try the EZ-bar to slightly adjust the wrist and elbow angle during the exercise. If that doesn’t help enough, use dumbbells or a cable variation, either with both arms or as single-arm exercises to strengthen each triceps individually.

References

1. Talbot J, Maves L. Skeletal muscle fiber type: using insights from muscle developmental biology to dissect targets for susceptibility and resistance to muscle disease. Wiley Interdiscip Rev Dev Biol. 2016;5(4):518-534. doi:10.1002/wdev.230
2. Terzis G, Georgiadis G, Vassiliadou E, Manta P. Relationship between shot put performance and triceps brachii fiber type composition and power production. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2003;90(1-2):10-15. doi:10.1007/s00421-003-0847-x
3. Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Van Every DW, Plotkin DL. Loading Recommendations for Muscle Strength, Hypertrophy, and Local Endurance: A Re-Examination of the Repetition Continuum. Sports. 2021; 9(2):32. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports9020032
4. Barnett C, Kippers V, Turner P. Effects of variations of the bench press exercise on the EMG Activity of 5 Shoulder Muscles. 1995:222-227.
5. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2016). Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 46(11), 1689–1697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8
6. Schoenfeld, Brad & Contreras, Bret & Vigotsky, Andrew & Ogborn, Daniel & Fontana, Fabio & Tiryaki-Sonmez, Raziye. (2016). Upper body muscle activation during low-versus high-load resistance exercise in the bench press. Isokinetics and Exercise Science. 24. 217-224. 10.3233/IES-160620.
7. Lehman G. J. (2005). The influence of grip width and forearm pronation/supination on upper-body myoelectric activity during the flat bench press. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 19(3), 587–591. https://doi.org/10.1519/R-15024.1

Featured Image: Serghei Starus / Shutterstock

The post How to Do the Barbell Skull Crusher for Triceps Size and Strength appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Want to bring up your bench press? A strong set of horseshoe triceps will help you when locking out the weight. If you struggle with pull-ups, underdeveloped biceps may be holding you back.

Whether you are just beginning your training journey, have been hitting the gym for years, or have no equipment at all but still want great results, you can find the perfect arm workout to get you closer to those goals. Dive in, choose your plan of attack, and get working.

The Best Arm Workouts

• Best Bodyweight Arm Workout
• Best Arm Workout for Beginners
• Best Arm Workout With Dumbbells
• Best Muscle-Building Arm Workout

Best Bodyweight Arm Workout

Bodyweight training may not seem like a popular option to consider, but focusing on bodyweight movements can translate into improved body awareness, better muscular coordination, and more exercise options once you start to add weight in the gym.

The Arms Mastery Bodyweight Workout

This workout is designed to be simple and effective. Get stronger, improve muscle coordination, and feel a pump that you never thought could be possible with just your body weight.

You will perform two exercises in a superset fashion with the inclusion of the “contrast training method.” Contrast training is when you start a set using a slow-and-controlled rep speed and finish the set performing reps explosively. This contrasting tempo recruits more muscle fibers, which leads to increased power output and an increased stimulus for muscle growth.

Tempo is indicated by a series of four numbers. The first number addresses the speed for lowering the weight (stretching the muscle), the second number refers to any pause in the stretched position, the third number is the speed to raise the weight (contracting the muscle), and the fourth number covers any pause in the contracted position. The third number, in particular, may sometimes be an “X” instead of an actual number. This means the movement should be performed as quickly as possible. Think of the “X” as “explosive”.

For example, using the contrast training method, perform the first six to eight reps working at a 5-0-1-0 tempo — take five seconds to lower the weight (yourself, in this case). Take no rest before immediately raising the weight for one second. Lockout but do not rest at the top before beginning the next repetition. For the next six to eight reps of the same set, you will use a 2-0-x-0 tempo — two seconds to lower, no rest, as fast as possible upwards, and then no rest at the top position.

The amount of reps in this bodyweight workout may not seem too difficult at first, but take into account the total time under tension. The first half of your set can take more than 45 seconds followed by another 20+ seconds, resulting in more than one intense minute for each set.

Diamond Push-up

• How to Do it: Support your body on your toes and hands. Set your hands directly underneath your chest to create a triangle or “diamond” shape with your thumbs and index fingers. Your hands do not need to be touching. Keeping them a few inches apart may be more comfortable for your wrist and elbow joints. Maintain a straight line from your neck to your ankles during each rep. Bend your elbows to lower your entire body. Press to full lockout. Allow your elbows to sit roughly at a 45-degree angle towards your body.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 4 x 12-16 using contrast training. Each set should be 6-8 reps at 5-0-1-0 tempo followed by 6-8 reps at 2-0-X-0 tempo.
• Rest time: 60 seconds before moving to the next exercise.

Inverted Biceps Curl With Towel 

• How to Do it: Wrap a sturdy towel around any fixed object that can support your bodyweight, such as a rail, staircase, or fence. Grab the towel with your thumbs up and the material running out of the pinky-side of the hand. Shift your weight onto your heels. A lower body angle will be more challenging, so adjust the towel length and position your body accordingly. Flex your biceps and curl to pull yourself up. Supinate your wrists (rotate your palms towards you) as you come to the last quarter of the contraction. Your palms should end up directly in front of your face.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 4 x 12-16 using contrast training. Each set should be 6-8 reps at 5-0-1-0 tempo followed by 6-8 reps at 2-0-X-0 tempo.
• Rest time: 60 seconds before moving back to diamond push-ups.

Best Arm Workout For Beginners

So you are just starting your fitness journey. That’s good. But you might be thinking the way to a bigger, stronger, and more functional set of arms is all about getting as pumped as possible. Nope.

It’s important to understand that you cannot rush this process and, much like the larger muscle groups that most trainees dedicate time to, improving the arms should be no different.

The biceps and triceps receive a portion of the tension in almost every exercise involving the chest or back. This indirect work should still be counted towards your overall weekly “arm training” volume. It is also important to understand that, in the initial weeks of starting any new program, you will see an improvement in neuromuscular adaptations before muscle growth can occur. (1)

Essentially, when you begin a new workout routine, your brain “learns” how to efficiently use various muscles during an exercise before your body can “tell” those muscles to respond to training by growing larger. When your body is more efficient at using specific muscles, your training plan can become more productive.

This means it would be wise to spend time perfecting these exercises to better serve you in later cycles of training. Because most people work on their larger muscle groups at the start of the week, it makes sense to use this arm workout at the end of the week.

This beginner workout focuses on recruiting the biceps and triceps with simple and effective exercises. This allows you to develop a mind-muscle connection (learning to feel the specific muscles working), reinforces strict form on fundamental movements, and targets the body parts to build a foundation of size and strength.

Close-Grip Bench Press

• How to Do it: Take a slightly inside shoulder-width grip. Lower the bar in-line with your mid-chest. Do not aim to keep your elbows tucked in, but allow them to sit naturally or at a 45-degree angle with your forearms perpendicular to the floor. Touch the bar to your chest at the bottom. Reach full lockout before lowering the bar.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 4 x 6-8 at 4-0-X-0 tempo.
• Rest time: 60 seconds before moving onto the next exercise.

Medium-Grip EZ-Bar Curl

• How to Do it: Keep your feet flat and grasp the bar with a palms-up grip. Keep your shoulder blades retracted as you brace your abdominal wall. Keep your upper arms perpendicular to the floor. Every rep should start with the muscle fully stretched at the bottom and end fully contracted at the top.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 4 x 6-8 at 4-0-X-0 tempo.
• Rest time: 60 seconds before moving back to the first exercise.

Cable Triceps Extension With Rope 

• How to Do it: Face a cable high-pulley with a rope attachment. Grab the rope with both hands and take one or two steps back. Maintain a strong, stable upright position. Set your upper arms in place, gently touching the sides of your body. Keep your elbows in position and do not let them move forward or back. As you start the movement by pressing your hands down, think of flexing your triceps to move the weight.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 3 x 10-12 at 3-0-1-1 tempo.
• Rest time: 60 seconds before moving to the next exercise.

Cable Hammer Curl With Rope 

• How to Do it: Face a cable low-pulley with a rope attachment at the bottom. Grab the rope with a thumbs-up grip and take one or two steps back. Maintain a strong, stable position. Your upper arms should be set in place with your elbows angling slightly outwards. Do not allow your arms to flail as you curl the weight upwards.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 3 x 10-12 at 3-0-1-1 tempo.
• Rest time: 60 seconds before moving back to the previous exercise.

Best Arm Workout With Dumbbells

Whether you can’t make it into the gym or you don’t have a gym membership, no problem. You can still build a respectable set of arms. All you need is a few sets of dumbbells and an adjustable bench.

The Dumbbell-Only Workout for Arm Size

Training with dumbbells can be a great way to spot any lack of strength or coordination from one arm to the other. Requiring the body to move two weights separately in a single coordinated exercise will reveal, for example, if one arm has been under-stimulated by standard exercises or if one side has been overcompensating for the other during specific movements.

It’s not uncommon for one arm to reach muscular failure before it’s opposite side, typically the non-dominant side (right-handed people tend to have weaker left sides and vice versa.). When this happens, end the set when one side reaches failure even if the opposite side is not fully fatigued. This allows the weaker side to eventually “catch up” in development and reduce the discrepancy.

Switching to dumbbells is also a great way to take the pressure off your joints if you get pain when performing the same exercises with a barbell. Dumbbells allow your wrists and elbows to adjust slightly during any given exercise, while a barbell requires your hands to stay in a static position during an exercise, which can sometimes contribute to joint strain.

Single-Arm Skull Crusher

• How to Do it: Lie on a flat bench as if performing a standard dumbbell bench press, with a dumbbell in only one hand. Keep your elbow pointed directly up to the ceiling. Lower the weight until your arm is fully stretched and the dumbbell is touching the top of your shoulder on the same side (right hand lowers to right shoulder, left to left).
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 3 x 8-10 at 3-1-1-0 tempo.
• Rest time: No rest between sides, 45 seconds before moving to the next exercise.

Dumbbell Spider Curl

• How to Do it: Set the bench to a high-incline angle. Lie with your chest on the top of the bench. Curl both weights while keeping your your hands supinated (palms facing up). During the movement, do not allow your elbows to shift back towards your body. Be sure to hold an isometric contraction at the top position.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 3 x 8-10 at 3-0-1-2 tempo.
• Rest time: 60 seconds before moving back to the previous exercise.

 Dumbbell French Press

• How to Do it: While standing, raise one dumbbell over your head with both hands. Your hands should be placed against the top weight plate with your palms facing the ceiling. Be sure to pause in the stretched position before raising the weight. Keep your elbows stationary during the movement. Raise and lower the weight by bending only at the elbows, not pressing with the shoulders.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 3 x 12-14 at 2-2-1-0 tempo.
• Rest time: 45 seconds before moving to the next exercise.

Zottman Curl

• How to Do it: Sit on a bench with an upright torso. Retract your shoulder blades and brace your abdominal wall. Your upper arms should remain perpendicular to the floor. Curl the dumbbell up with a supinated (palms up) grip. As you reach the top position and begin the descent, rotate both hands into a pronated (palms down) grip. Lower the dumbbells until the biceps are fully stretched in the bottom position. Rotate both hands to a supinated position before beginning the next rep.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 3 x 12-14 at 4-0-1-0 tempo.
• Rest time: 45 seconds before moving back to the previous exercise.

Best Muscle-Building Arm Workout

Dedicating an entire session to train the biceps and triceps is a classic and effective workout style. Even if you are already hitting your triceps and biceps in other sessions, add this workout 36-48 hours later. You’ll be fully recovered beforehand and can put 100% into this workout. This will make sure you are maximizing your efforts to add muscle, since training a body part twice per week can deliver better results than only training it once per week. (2)

This workout combines heavy loads, extended sets, and intense peak contractions all into one workout. You begin with a heavy lower-rep exercise, followed by exercises using the high-intensity one-and-a-quarter rep technique. The workout finishes with high-tension isolation exercises using high reps coupled with isometric holds in the fully shortened (peak contraction) position.

You will perform this workout in a superset format using a short rest period after the first exercise and a longer rest period after the second exercise in each pair.

Close-Grip Bench Press

• How to Do it: Using a standard flat bench, emphasize triceps recruitment by using a slightly closer grip on the bar. Keep your elbows positioned at a 45-degree angle from your body and don’t allow them to flare out. Note that there is no lockout or pause in any position. Maintain explosiveness coming out of the bottom of the movement.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 4 x 6 at 3-0-X-0 tempo.
• Rest time: 60 seconds before moving to the next exercise.

Medium-Grip EZ-Bar Curl 

• How to Do it: Grab an EZ-bar with a palms-up grip, setting your hands just outside your hips. Keep your elbows positioned into your rib cage throughout the set. Focus on not letting your elbows move forward or backwards as your lift. Keep your upper arms in place with no internal or external rotation of the shoulders. Maintaining strict form will keep all the tension placed on the biceps.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 4 x 6 at 3-0-X-0 tempo.
• Rest time: 90 seconds before returning to the previous exercise.

Decline Dumbbell Skull Crusher 

• How to Do it: Position a bench at a slight decline (roughly 20 degrees) and lie back holding two dumbbells overhead with your hands facing each other. Perform each set using the “one and a quarter rep” technique. Lower the weight fully, raise it one-quarter of the way up, return to a fully stretched position, and then return to full lockout. This is counted as one rep. As you lower the dumbbells, fully stretch the triceps by thinking about reaching your arm slightly behind your head.
• Sets, Reps,Tempo: 3 x 8-10 at 3-2-1-0 tempo.
• Rest time: 45 seconds rest before moving to the next exercise.

Incline Dumbbell Curl

• How to Do it: Position a bench at a high incline (roughly 45 to 65 degrees. Choose the higher angle if your shoulder mobility is restricted) and sit fully back with your hips, shoulders, and head on the bench. Begin with the weights hanging straight down. Perform each set using the “one and a quarter rep” technique. Curl both dumbbells all the way up, lower them to a full stretch, curl both weights one-quarter of the way up, and then down to a full stretch. This is counted as one rep. Focus on keeping your elbows in place and don’t allow them to swing forward.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 3 x 8-10 at 3-2-1-0 tempo.
• Rest time: 60 seconds before returning to the previous exercise.

Cross-Body Dual Cable Triceps Extension

• How to Do it: Position yourself in a cable station with two high pulleys. Grab the left handle with your right hand and the right handle with your left hand. Take a few steps back to add emphasis to the peak contraction. Bring your elbows in front of your body slightly to line up the cables with each arm. Focus on keeping your upper body stable while allowing your elbows to naturally sit in position. Do not keep your elbows tucked in close to your body. Press both hands down, and once you feel tension in your triceps, focus on maintaining it through the set. Be sure to finish each rep with a two-second isometric hold in the shortened (contracted) position.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 2 x 15 at 3-0-1-2 tempo.
• Rest time: 45 seconds before moving to the next exercise.

High-Pulley Dual Cable Biceps Curl

• How to Do it: Position yourself in front of a cable set at eye-level. Grab the handles and take a few steps back until your biceps are almost fully stretched out. Imagine your elbows are sitting firmly on a very high table and do not let them move during the set. Keep your palms supinated (palms facing up), and flex your biceps to bring your palms towards your face. Be sure to use a two-second isometric hold in the shortened (contracted) position.
• Sets, Reps, Tempo: 2 x 15 at 3-0-1-2 tempo.
• Rest time: 60 seconds before returning to the previous exercise.

The Arm Musculature

Building an impressive pair of arms requires training both the biceps and triceps. Neither body part can be neglected when the goal is overall size. In order to optimally train these muscles, it’s important to understand the details of how they perform and how they’re best recruited.

Biceps Brachii

When you flex your biceps in the mirror, you’re actually looking at more than just one muscle. The upper arm consists of two main muscles on the anterior (front) side. Both are responsible for achieving the desired look.

The biceps brachii is what most people consider “the biceps”. It is composed of two heads: a long head commonly referred to as the “outer” and a short head referred to as the “inner.” Both muscle heads originate at the scapulae and insert on the radius bone of the forearm.

Because the biceps muscle crosses both the elbow and the shoulder, it’s worked during the classic curling motion (elbow flexion) and it’s worked during front arm raise movements (shoulder flexion).

Brachialis

The brachialis originates at the humerus bone of the upper arm and inserts on the forearm’s ulna bone. Due to its location, the brachialis isn’t involved in shoulder movement; it only bends the elbow and moves the forearm. Its anatomy also makes it the stronger elbow flexor. (3)

Triceps Brachii

The triceps brachii is the main muscle on the posterior (back) side of the upper arm. The triceps muscle has three distinct heads, each with a slightly different shape and function — the long head, the medial head, and the lateral head.

The long head is located closest to the torso. It can be seen in poses such as the bodybuilder’s classic “front double biceps”. The lateral head, responsible for a triceps’ “horseshoe” shape, is on the outer side of the upper arm and it’s most visible in a “side triceps” pose. The medial head is a deeper muscle, located below the long head, and isn’t often noticeable on the surface.

The primary function of the triceps is elbow extension. All three heads cross the elbow joint and insert onto the ulna bone of the forearm. The origin of the lateral and medial heads are both on the humerus bone of the upper arm. The long head crosses the shoulder joint and originates on the scapula.

This different attachment point is one reason why different triceps heads can be influenced by shoulder and upper arm position during an exercise. (4)

Physical Preparation is Non-Negotiable

It does not matter what muscles you are planning to train — a warm-up is an absolute must. It not only prepares for what is to come physically, but mentally as well.

An effective warm-up will have your muscles firing and your nervous system ready to hit the ground running before you start your first working set. Arm workouts, in particular, require warming up the shoulder and elbow joints to train hard without pain.

The Biceps and Triceps Warm-Up Circuit

Perform these exercises back-to-back for three total rounds. Take no rest between each exercise, but take 30 to 45 seconds rest after each full round.

• Push-Up: Perform a basic push-up. Take two seconds to lower your body and two seconds to press up. Complete 10 reps.
• Bench Dip: Sit off of the side of a standard flat bench with your feet flat and knees bent. Place your hands on the bench to each side of your hips with your fingers pointed at your feet. Straighten your arms and then lower your hips below bench-level until you create a 90-degree angle with your arms before returning to the top. Complete 10 reps.
• Inverted Row: Use a Smith machine or any sturdy bar set at roughly waist-height. Grab the bar and suspend yourself from locked arms below it. Keep a straight body with only your heels touching the ground. Pull your chest to the bar. Perform five reps with a pronated (palms down) grip and then five reps with a supinated (palms up) grip. If necessary, keep your feet flat and bend your knees to improve leverage and complete the reps with less difficulty. This should be a warm-up, not an intense working set to muscular failure.

Bigger Arms Start Now

Wanting larger triceps and biceps isn’t just for bodybuilders. A workout dedicated to building a set of arms helps to put the finishing touch on any lifter whether their training priority is strength, athleticism, or all-out muscle. Stop short-changing your physique and start adding an arm day to your program.

References

1. Moritani T. (1993). Neuromuscular adaptations during the acquisition of muscle strength, power and motor tasks. Journal of biomechanics, 26 Suppl 1, 95–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9290(93)90082-p
2. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2016). Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 46(11), 1689–1697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8
3. Plantz MA, Bordoni B. Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Brachialis Muscle. [Updated 2022 Feb 22]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK551630/
4. Kholinne E, Zulkarnain RF, Sun YC, Lim S, Chun JM, Jeon IH. The different role of each head of the triceps brachii muscle in elbow extension. Acta Orthop Traumatol Turc. 2018;52(3):201-205. doi:10.1016/j.aott.2018.02.005

Featured Image Credit: Goami / Shutterstock

The post The Best Arm Workouts for Beginners, With Dumbbells, and More appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

And while most folks think hammering out close-grip bench presses and standing curls is enough to target the smaller arm muscles, there’s a science to building up your arms. But there are four fundamentals you need to wrap your head around to comprehend how to build bigger arms fully.

Arm Training Tenants

• Muscle Mechanics: That is, how your muscle move your joints. To fully develop your biceps and triceps, you must know how they move so you can select the right exercises for the job.
• Training Volume: Volume — meaning how many total reps you perform — has a dose-response relationship with hypertrophy. More training volume equals more muscle (assuming you don’t exceed your ability to recover).
• Progression: The best progression model to use if you haven’t used one before is double progression. Simply put, double progression is where you increase the weight within your exercises only when you hit the upper limit of a given rep range across all of your target sets.
• Training Frequency: A comprehensive meta-analysis concluded that twice per week is better than once per week for maximizing growth, while frequencies of three or more may or may not be better. (1) Because the biceps and triceps are two of the smaller muscle groups you can train, they’ll recover faster. Training your arms three times per week isn’t unheard of. And if you’re at a point volume-wise where you’re pumping out 15 to 20 sets per session, it may make more sense to break those sets up into two to three separate eight-set sessions.

Muscle Mechanics

It’s essential to understand the biomechanics of the arms before understanding how to train the best. So first, we need to cover their basic anatomy quickly.

The Biceps

The upper arm consists of three muscles in the anterior compartment. However, we will only need to focus on two of these muscles:

• Biceps brachii
• Brachialis
• Coracobrachialis 

Biceps Brachii

The biceps are composed of two heads: a long head commonly thought of as the “outer” and a short head referred to as the “inner.” Both muscle heads originate at the scapula and insert on the radius bone of the forearm. The biceps crosses both the elbow and the shoulder and can flex both the elbow (aka curl) and the shoulder (aka front raise).

Brachialis

The stronger of the elbow flexor is the brachialis. It originates at the upper arm’s humerus bone and inserts on the ulna bone of the forearm. The brachialis isn’t involved in shoulder movement; it only flexes the elbow.

The Triceps

There is one main muscle in the posterior compartment of the upper arm: the triceps brachii. The triceps muscle has three heads:

• Long head
• Medial head
• Lateral head 

The long head is the thicker or more dense muscle, which can be seen in poses such as a double front biceps. The lateral head or the “horseshoe” muscle is what you see most visibly in the side triceps pose, and the medial head is a deeper muscle that isn’t as noticeable on the surface as the other two.

The primary function of the triceps is elbow flexion. All three heads cross the elbow joint and insert it on the ulna bone of the forearm. The origin of the lateral and medial heads are both on the humerus bone of the upper arm, with the long head crossing the shoulder joint to originate on the scapula.

Additional Considerations

Both the biceps and triceps are involved in pulling and pushing movements, respectively. Therefore, it’s not uncommon to hear that back and chest exercises are enough to stimulate the bis and tris. And there are several studies have shown pull-ups and rows elicit high levels of biceps activation, and that horizontal presses bring the triceps into play (2)(3)(4). However, pulling and pressing exercises alone may not be enough to maximize biceps and triceps development.

When you rely on indirect movements exercises to engage the arms, the biceps and triceps only receive a portion of the tension. That said, your arms do get hit when your work the chest and back, and it’s essential to keep this in mind when training. If you train your back hard twice per week, you probably don’t need two to three dedicated biceps workouts.

Instead, it’s probably wise to focus more of your sets on moderate (8-12) and high (12-20) rep ranges for recovery purposes and for the sake of avoiding redundancy. Because the triceps are also targeted with any heavy vertical or horizontal pressing movements, it may be wise to focus more of your sets on moderate (8-12) and high (12-20) rep ranges for recovery purposes.

The Missing Link

Ok, now that you have a firmer grasp on those arm training fundamentals, let’s circle back to a big issue in arms training: exercise variance. You may think that simply curling and extending is enough to stimulate the muscles, but there’s more nuance to arm training. Your arm muscles will travel through different ranges throughout the entire range of motion.

To stimulate our muscles throughout their entire contractile range we must be challenging them at these three points:

• Mid-range: barbell curl, close-grip bench press
• Lengthened (stretched position): incline dumbbell curl, French press
• Shortened (contracted position): high-cable curl, cable pushdown

“Fine, then I’ll just make sure to lift with a full range of motion (ROM) for every movement,” you say. Well, hold up. Lifting only with a full range of motion is a great move (so kudos), but you still need to select movements that engage the muscle the most during each of the three ranges listed above. A worthwhile arm training session aims not to complete a movement using a full ROM but to be challenged throughout the entire ROM.

Putting it all Together

Ok, so where do you go from here? You’ve probably already peeped the charts below and noticed that there’s a lot of work to be done. Don’t freak out just yet. Look closer, and you’ll see that most of the movements below are done for just two high-rep sets. The program’s goal below isn’t to decimate your biceps; it’s to partition a moderate amount of work (10 sets for each muscle group) among all three ranges of motion.

Training Explained

There’s nothing complicated about this routine. First, you’ll select a primary movement for your biceps and one for your triceps. These exercises preferably target the lengthened or shortened range since these are the ranges most folks ignore. You’ll perform the primary exercise for four sets of six to eight heavy-ish reps, using a tempo of 3-0-1-0 (lowering phase-pause at bottom-lifting phase-pause at top).

After that, you’ll blast your arms with a circuit of three movements, known as a triset, each of which targets the mid, lengthened, and shortened ranges. The trisets are marked with the same letters (“A” and “B”). Think of this as a template to guide your sets, reps, and exercise choices. If you want to sub out the movements below for others, that’s fine, but make sure you’re hitting each ROM.

Pay attention to the tempo within each exercise especially the triset sequence as you will notice a pause in the shortened position (contract hard) exercises and a pause in the lengthened position (full stretch), if you take these into consideration your arms will be pumped like you have never seen.

While you most certainly could complete this three-times per week, focus on quality over quantity at first. Whereby you focus on the quality of work given within the workout twice per week for six weeks before taking its progression to the next level by completing it three times per week.

Another aspect of progressing this plan is to change the primary exercises from a lengthened to a shortened focus and the same to be done in the triset exercises. After at least 2-3 rotations of this you can then start to reintroduce the mid-range exercises as a primary focus while the others take a back seat. Here is how it should look:

Nutritional Considerations

To maximize your muscle growth, you need to eat within a caloric surplus then you cannot expect to be building any significant amount of muscle mass. With that being said here some recommendations regarding your nutritional intake:

• Eat 5-10% above your maintenance (Caloric Surplus).
• Eat four to five times per day. This his could be three meals plus two shakes or four meals plus one shake. Make sure it is suited to your lifestyle and daily schedule but keep your protein feeding times frequent.
• For your macros aim to eat 35% protein/35% carbs/and 30% fat. Say you’re eat 3,000 calories per day, that comes out to 262.5 grams of protein, 262.5 grams of carbs, and 100 grams of fat.
• Excessive supplementation isn’t necessary to grow. Your standard multi-vitamin, fish oil and probiotics will provide a great base of support.

References

1. Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2016;46(11):1689-1697. doi:10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8.
2. Youdas JW, Amundson CL, Cicero KS, Hahn JJ, Harezlak DT, Hollman JH. Surface electromyographic activation patterns and elbow joint motion during a pull-up, chin-up, or perfect-pullup rotational exercise. J strength Cond Res. 2010;24(12):3404-3414. doi:10.1519/ JSC.0b013e3181f1598c.
3. Snarr RL, Esco MR. Comparison of Electromyographic Activity When Performing an Inverted Row With and Without a Suspension Device. J Exerc Physiol. 2013;16(6):12-22. http://faculty.css.edu/tboone2/asep/Russell.pdf.
4. Barnett C, Kippers V, Turner P. Effects of variations of the bench press exercise on the EMG Activity of 5 Shoulder Muscles. 1995:222-227.

Featured Image: Paul Aiken/Shutterstock

The post The Definitive Guide on How to Build Big Arms appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

• It matches the muscles strength curve.
• It counteracts an all too common technique flaw.
• The set-up creates a stability.
• It minimizes injury because it lines the force up between your shoulders and elbows.

If we examine a straight bar triceps press down it has a few problems. At lockout, people tend to have to lift and roll their shoulders position to finish the lift. This shifts tension away from the triceps. As the set goes on this tends to become more of an issue due to fatigue.

The fatigue manifests in two ways. Obviously, the triceps are tired but so too are the lower traps. The lower traps play a crucial role in stabilizing the shoulder blades. When they get tired they can no longer control the shoulder blades.

As a consequence, by the end of a set it is common to see people rounding and shrugging their shoulders—and using a ton of body English to move the weight. All of which does zero for triceps growth, but does train your ego and beat up your elbows.

Related: The Best Arm Workouts

A Fix to Shoulder Instability

To improve on the issues created by the straight bar, people often use a rope attachment to allow for more freedom of movement. This means the hands can move apart more naturally at the end of the range. This helps keep the elbows healthy, but it doesn’t fix the issues with shoulder instability.

To fix these issues you need to achieve three key things:

1. Create a position where you can stabilize the shoulder blades and promote trap three activation.
2. Align the force through shoulder, elbow, and wrist so that no excessive strain is put on any of these joints.
3. All of the above packaged together into an exercise that matches the strength curve of the triceps.

The Ultimate Band Pressdown does all of these things and it means the load is all targeted towards the triceps.

Specifically, the exercise achieves this by:

1. Doing the job of the lower traps so their strength endurance does not become a limiting factor. The bands anchor your shoulders in position and basically provide you with an extra set of rubber band lower traps.
2. Allows a set-up bespoke to your exact body structure. This centers the resistance through your shoulder. You are not fixed into a position that is too narrow or too wide because of equipment limitations. This is an issue most people will run into when using standard cable attachments.
3. Extension patterns like the triceps pressdown, have an ascending strength curve where you get stronger throughout the range. Using bands matches this perfectly because their tension increases throughout the movement.

The stable position, artificial shoulder stability provided, and resistance profile of this exercise make it a phenomenal triceps builder.

Hey, I hope you are enjoying this article and find value in utilizing these concepts to build lean muscle. Writing about this stuff is a hobby for me. What I do all day, every day is coaching people. Both in-person and online. Evaluating, researching, and refining my craft to provide more value to my clients. If you’d like to work with me then, please get in touch here to find out about my coaching services.

The post The Ultimate Band Pressdown appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

What Are Triceps, Anyway?

The anatomy of the triceps muscle is relatively straightforward when we consider its function. The triceps brachii muscle is an extensor of the elbow. It allows us to straighten the forearm. The muscle is located on the posterior aspect of the arm. It has three distinct heads referred to as the long, medial, and lateral heads. Let’s review more details about the triceps brachii muscle anatomy.

• The long head takes its origin from the infraglenoid tubercle of the scapula.
• The medial head takes its origin from the dorsal humerus.
• The lateral head begins its insertion on the dorsal humerus.

As stated earlier, this tri-headed muscle is the largest muscle group of the upper arm. It merges together and forms a common tendon that inserts on the posterior proximal ulna, which is the olecranon. This muscle is innervated by the radial nerve, which is a part of the brachial plexus.

How to Stretch Your Triceps

Stretching your triceps is an essential part of any arm workout. The following two stretches can be done while seated to avoid any issues, especially if you are dizzy or light-headed from your workout.

1. Extend your arm across the chest and hold the arm in this position for 15-30 seconds. Perform 3 repetitions on each side. If you are standing, keep your knees slightly bent and shoulders squared. The extended arm can be held in high and low positions across the chest, as well as the standard mid-chest position. Adding these upward and downward angles will help you to hit all three heads and stretch all areas of the triceps that are normally ignored.
2. Another effective triceps stretch is to flex or bend the elbow and then place the elbow behind your head, across from your ear on the same side. Once you are in the appropriate position, hold this stretch for 15-30 seconds for 3 repetitions.

These two basic stretches will help you avoid injury and minimize pain in your arms after an intense workout.

More Arm Advice From Dr. Levi:

• 7 Exercises to Maximize Hand, Wrist and Forearm Strength
• Avoid Shoulder Injury by Strengthening the Rotator Cuff
• The 2-Minute Arm Workout to Build Strong Biceps
• New on Breaking Muscle

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Avoid Pain and Injury With Two Simple Triceps Stretches appeared first on Breaking Muscle.