I’m a huge fan of training triceps by pushing weight ‘away from the ground’.
Ropes and pulley exercises have their place, but I’ve found my triceps respond best to the following exercises:
The Best Tricep Exercises
The following exercises are all free-weight exercises performed with either a dumbbell or barbell.
Overhead Tricep Press
Grab a weight with both hands. Slowly lower your hand to the base of your neck. The farther down you lower the weight the better.
Flex your triceps to bring the weight to the top of the motion. Your arms should be completely straight and triceps flexed as hard as possible.
Keep your chin and chest held high. This allows you to reach back farther and make the most of the movement. It also helps ensure your shoulder is down into a safer and more effective training position.
Single-Arm Overhead Tricep Extension
Similar to the overhead press but using one arm at a time makes you have to balance the weight. It also gives you a free-er range of motion to really target the whole tricep.
I use this exercises to exhaust my triceps. I’ll use my free hand to ‘spot’ my working arm. This way I can complete a few forced-reps for maximum gains.
Skull Crushers
Skull crushers are awesome. The trick is to keep your elbows in tight close together, and your elbows toward the ceiling.
Get into position: Pull your shoulder blades back and slide them down toward your lower back as low as you can. This should pop your chest up a bit and help you keep your elbows pointed straight up while engaging the triceps.
Now bend your elbows to lower the weight toward your head. Your knuckles should almost touch your skull just above the temples.
For extra credit, lower the bar down passed the top of your head. Keep your shoulders rooted in place and let your elbows slowly shift back and down. This engages more tricep muscle fibers and the stretch feels amazing.
Close Grip Bench Press
It’s hard to beat the good old-fashioned close grip bench press.
This exercises seems to be a little different for everyone in order to make it feel right. Some people flare their elbows, while others keep them tight to their sides. It’s best to see what works for you. You might find it best somewhere in between.
J. M. Press
The J.M. Press is tricky to execute but feels amazing when done correctly. The motion is a mix between the close-grip bench press and skull crusher.
To perform, start with a close grip on the bar. The bar should be straight over your shoulders. Bring the bar down like you’re doing a close grip bench press while simultaneously bending your elbows so your forearms fold against your upper arms and the back of your hands comes down to your shoulder.
You should feel a sensation in your tricep, especially the few inches above your elbows.
Tricep Dips
Last but certainly not least, tricep dips wreak havoc on your triceps and make them grow incredibly strong.
Dips are known as the ‘squat of the upper-body’. Your arms become your legs and your triceps do most of the work.
You can do dips a variety of ways:
- with a dip-bar (parallel or otherwise)
- on an elevated structure (bench, box, sturdy furniture, etc.)
Either way, dips are extremely effective tricep builders.
Tricep Training Tips
Always keep your humorous bone, upper arm in a vertical position. I let the weight stretch may arms back. This requires shoulder flexibility but you can increase flexibility, and range of motion to make this exercise even more effective.
Flex your tricep HARD at the top of each movement. Like, as hard as you can, hard. Hold the full contraction for 2 or three seconds.
There you have it. Try these out and you’re on your way to building horseshoe triceps.
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