Email a Friend |
The Best Exercises: Triceps
Is there a lifter out there who doesn't want bigger arms and a stronger bench press? The triceps are one of the most underrated muscle groups. After all, they contribute a lot more to your overall arm size than your biceps, and they are an important muscle group in all pressing exercises.
With this is in mind it should seem obvious that building your triceps should be a priority if you want to get bigger and stronger. The problem is that most people don't know how to train their triceps correctly. You will often see bodybuilders using valuable energy on things like pushdowns and kickbacks. Now, there isn't anything bad about these exercises, but the majority of your time would be much better spent on compound exercises which allow for heavy loads to be used.
In fact, you simply can't properly stimulate all of the muscle fibers in the triceps without using some exercises which allow for heavy loads to be used. In general it is best to hit 1 or 2 heavy compound exercises and then move on to an isolation exercise to squeeze the last little bit out of your muscles.
With this in mind let's take a look at three fantastic exercises for your triceps:
Triceps Skullcrushers
This is probably the strength training exercise with the most frigthening name. After all, who wants their head smashed? But the exercise is perfectly named because it is done lying down on your back on a bench with a barbell at arm's length. You will then flex at the elbows and lower the bar until it touches your forehead. Obviously if you do this in an uncontrolled way it will hurt your skull!
The key to this exercise is to make sure the stress stays on the triceps. To do this you want the elbows close to the body and pointed towards the ceiling. It is important that you only bend and straighten the elbows and that you do not move them forward or backward, or you will shift the stress off the triceps.
While this exercise is usually done by touching the bar to the forehead, you can vary the point at which you touch in order target specific sections of the triceps. In general, shifting lower on the body, such as the chin, will hit the medial head harder, while shifting higher on the body will hit the long head harder.
Parallel Bar Dips
This is the classic tricep mass builder. Dips are probably responsible for building more tricep muscle than any other exercise. This is from the combination of heavy loading and targeted stimulation that they provide to the triceps. When you first start lifting you may have trouble performing more than a couple of these, but as you progress it is vital to continue adding weight by using a dumbbell between your feet or a specialized dip belt. The addition of external loading will allow you to continue to progress in this exercise once you are capable of easily handling your body weight.
As with most triceps exercises, the key to proper performance is to keep your elbows close to the body. This means using a narrow grip on the dip bars. It also means that you should use an upright posture without too much forward lean. Leaning forward shifts more of the stress to the deltoids and pecs, which is not what we want for our purposes. Optimally, you should descend into the bottom of the exercise until your upper arms were parallel with the ground. However, this may cause shoulder pain in a good percentage of lifters, and in this case you should either shorten the range of movement or skip the exercise altogether.
Close grip Barbell Bench Press
If this isn't the undisputed king of the triceps exercises, then it is pretty close. The ability to use heavy loads due to synergy from your pecs and delts allows you to really blast the triceps and force them to grow. While you want to work on consistently getting stronger, you should not sacrifice technique for weight. With this exercise it important to keep the elbows near your body throughout the movement in order to keep as much stress as possible on the triceps. Even with a narrow grip the stress can be taken off of the triceps and put onto the elbow joint if you don't keep the elbows tucked in tight. This obviously not only hampers your muscle growth, but can lead to elbow and wrist injuries as well.
As you can see good form is crucial to your success with triceps exercises, just as it is with all exercises. You can perform exercises poorly and still get some of the benefit, but you will never see optimal results and you may just hurt yourself in the process. Because of this it is highly recommended that you learn how to do these exercises correctly from an expert in the field.
With this is in mind it should seem obvious that building your triceps should be a priority if you want to get bigger and stronger. The problem is that most people don't know how to train their triceps correctly. You will often see bodybuilders using valuable energy on things like pushdowns and kickbacks. Now, there isn't anything bad about these exercises, but the majority of your time would be much better spent on compound exercises which allow for heavy loads to be used.
In fact, you simply can't properly stimulate all of the muscle fibers in the triceps without using some exercises which allow for heavy loads to be used. In general it is best to hit 1 or 2 heavy compound exercises and then move on to an isolation exercise to squeeze the last little bit out of your muscles.
With this in mind let's take a look at three fantastic exercises for your triceps:
Triceps Skullcrushers
This is probably the strength training exercise with the most frigthening name. After all, who wants their head smashed? But the exercise is perfectly named because it is done lying down on your back on a bench with a barbell at arm's length. You will then flex at the elbows and lower the bar until it touches your forehead. Obviously if you do this in an uncontrolled way it will hurt your skull!
The key to this exercise is to make sure the stress stays on the triceps. To do this you want the elbows close to the body and pointed towards the ceiling. It is important that you only bend and straighten the elbows and that you do not move them forward or backward, or you will shift the stress off the triceps.
While this exercise is usually done by touching the bar to the forehead, you can vary the point at which you touch in order target specific sections of the triceps. In general, shifting lower on the body, such as the chin, will hit the medial head harder, while shifting higher on the body will hit the long head harder.
Parallel Bar Dips
This is the classic tricep mass builder. Dips are probably responsible for building more tricep muscle than any other exercise. This is from the combination of heavy loading and targeted stimulation that they provide to the triceps. When you first start lifting you may have trouble performing more than a couple of these, but as you progress it is vital to continue adding weight by using a dumbbell between your feet or a specialized dip belt. The addition of external loading will allow you to continue to progress in this exercise once you are capable of easily handling your body weight.
As with most triceps exercises, the key to proper performance is to keep your elbows close to the body. This means using a narrow grip on the dip bars. It also means that you should use an upright posture without too much forward lean. Leaning forward shifts more of the stress to the deltoids and pecs, which is not what we want for our purposes. Optimally, you should descend into the bottom of the exercise until your upper arms were parallel with the ground. However, this may cause shoulder pain in a good percentage of lifters, and in this case you should either shorten the range of movement or skip the exercise altogether.
Close grip Barbell Bench Press
If this isn't the undisputed king of the triceps exercises, then it is pretty close. The ability to use heavy loads due to synergy from your pecs and delts allows you to really blast the triceps and force them to grow. While you want to work on consistently getting stronger, you should not sacrifice technique for weight. With this exercise it important to keep the elbows near your body throughout the movement in order to keep as much stress as possible on the triceps. Even with a narrow grip the stress can be taken off of the triceps and put onto the elbow joint if you don't keep the elbows tucked in tight. This obviously not only hampers your muscle growth, but can lead to elbow and wrist injuries as well.
As you can see good form is crucial to your success with triceps exercises, just as it is with all exercises. You can perform exercises poorly and still get some of the benefit, but you will never see optimal results and you may just hurt yourself in the process. Because of this it is highly recommended that you learn how to do these exercises correctly from an expert in the field.
Article Source: www.Content-Syndication.org
Article Tags
muscle building, bodybuilding, muscle growth, build muscle, body building, best triceps exercises, exercise for triceps mass, bodybuilding exercise technique guide, exercise guide, chest exercises, exercises to build chest strength, exercises for pecs, triceps exercises
About the Author
See video and get tips on JM Presses and more of the best exercises for triceps muscles.
Rating: Not yet rated
