The greatest way to develop strong, solid triceps is to perform exercises that target all muscle fibers from every angle. Strong arms are essential for practically every upper body activity you perform on a daily basis, and your triceps are frequently the heavy lifters. You use your triceps every time you push something, whether it’s a door, a stroller, a lawnmower, or a barbell.
The triceps feature three distinct heads. They are the medial head, the long head, and the lateral head. During triceps exercises, all of these heads contract, although different motions emphasize different portions of the triceps.
How Should You Do Tricep Exercises?
Creating a triceps workout might assist you in gaining functional movement. Moreover, powerful triceps are required for training other muscular groups. Push-ups, for example, require strong triceps, as do chest presses. These are a few things to think about while planning a triceps workout.
Warm Up
Warming up before any strength-training activity, including the triceps, is essential. It boosts the warmth of your muscles and increases blood flow to them, which helps avoid injury. Begin your workout with some light jogging or walking, jumping jacks, or calisthenics.
Train Multiple Muscle Groups
Workouts to get strong triceps differ from typical strength workouts in that several of the exercises isolate the triceps so specifically that other muscle groups are not worked at the same time. As a result, people frequently prefer to work out different muscle groups at the same time. So which muscle groups should you work in addition to your triceps?
Many people train their shoulders and chest in addition to their triceps since they all perform many of the same functional activities. Rest the muscle groups that you work on for at least two days before working on the same muscle group.
How Often Should You Exercise?
When training to have strong triceps, make sure you target all three heads of the triceps muscle. The more variation you can include in your workout, the more balanced your strength will become.
When you first start exercising, aim for three sets of 10-12 reps of each exercise. You might be wondering how heavy you should make your weights. For each exercise, aim for approximately 70% of your maximum possible weight. When your fitness level improves, increase the weight and reps.
Triceps Exercises
According to the American Council on Exercise, some triceps exercises are more effective than others (ACE). Researchers conducted an ACE-commissioned study in which they took exercisers through eight of the most typical triceps workouts and measured muscle activation by attaching EMG electrodes to subjects’ triceps. They ranked the eight best triceps exercises using this information. The following are the top four moves:
Diamond push-ups: This exercise is the most effective at emphasizing all three heads of the triceps muscle.
Kickbacks: Similar to the diamond push-up, this move works all three heads of the triceps. This exercise is also less difficult, making it more user-friendly than push-ups.
Triceps extensions: Including this exercise means you’ll have a move that emphasizes the triceps muscle’s long head, which is a nice complement to the other exercises.
Triceps pushdowns: This exercise stresses the lateral head of the triceps, which is a good complement to the other workouts.
Rather than performing all of these techniques in the same session, focus on selecting a combination of workouts that target all of the triceps’ distinct locations to get strong triceps.
Diamond Push-ups
The diamond push-up is most likely the most difficult triceps workout on this list. It demands a lot of upper body strength, so start at your knees and gradually work your way up to your toes.
Diamond Push-Up Technique
- Begin the motion by placing your hands on the mat immediately under your chest, fingers spread, and thumbs and forefingers touching in a diamond pattern.
- Straighten your legs into a plank posture, or keep your knees on the floor for an easier alternative.
- Maintain a flat back and engaged abs as you bend the elbows and lower until your chin or chest contacts the mat. If you can’t get that low, go as low as you can and work on building up the strength to go all the way down over time.
- At the bottom of the movement, keep your elbows close to your sides.
Return to the starting position, maintaining the torso tight, and repeat for 1 to 3 sets of 8 to 16 reps.
Kickbacks
According to the ACE, the triceps kickback is the second most effective triceps exercise, trailing only diamond push-ups in terms of muscle activation (88%).
Bending forward forces you to work against gravity in order to lift the weight up and down. The key to this maneuver is to stabilize your upper arm with your shoulder while allowing your forearm to extend behind you. To preserve appropriate form, use a smaller weight if your elbow slides down.
Triceps Kickback Technique
- Put the right foot on a step or platform, rest the right forearm on the thigh to support the back, or let the arm fall straight below the shoulder.
- Have the weight in your left hand and raise your elbow to the torso level.
- Maintaining the elbow position, stretch the arm behind you, concentrating on squeezing the triceps muscle.
Drop the forearm to approximately 90 degrees and repeat for 1 – 3 sets of 8 – 16 repetitions.
Tip: Throughout the exercise, keep the upper arms immobile against the torso.
Dips for Strong Triceps
Triceps dips are the third most effective on the list and difficult exercise, depending on how your feet are positioned. The knees are bent in this variant, making the action easier. Stretching your feet will make the workout more difficult.
To keep this maneuver safe, keep your hips close to the chair or bench to alleviate stressing your shoulders. Keep your shoulders down, keeping away from your ears, and if you have any shoulder soreness, skip this exercise.
Triceps Dip Technique
- Sit on a chair with your hands just outside your hips and your knees bent or straight out (harder).
- Raise up onto your hands and, keeping your hips close to the chair or bench, bend your elbows, descending until they’re at about 90 degrees.
- Maintain your elbows pointing behind you, shoulders down, and abs engaged.
Return to the starting position and repeat for 1 – 3 sets of 8 – 16 reps.
If you have shoulder problems, avoid this workout.
Overhead Triceps Extensions
Overhead triceps extensions are the fourth most effective exercise, accounting for approximately 76% of muscle activation. The trick is to maintain your arms close to your ears as you decrease the weight behind you. To keep your back from arching, make sure you can contract your abs.
You can do this exercise either standing or sitting. Believe it or not, sitting makes this technique more difficult, and sitting on an exercise ball adds an aspect of core strength.
Overhead Triceps Extension Technique
- Maintain a straight back, whether sitting on a chair, bench, ball, or stand. Hold a weight with both hands and raise it overhead.
- Lower the weight behind your head, keeping your biceps close to your ears and your elbows facing forward until the elbows are at around 90-degree angles.
Straighten your arms while contracting your triceps, and repeat for 1 – 3 sets of 8 – 16 reps.
Tip: Maintain abdominal engagement throughout the exercise and avoid arching the back.
Rope Pushdowns
The rope pushdown, which is typically performed on a cable machine with a rope attachment, ranks fifth, evoking approximately 74% muscular activation. To effectively activate the triceps muscle, widen the rope at the bottom of the exercise.
If you don’t have access to a cable machine, a resistance band will suffice. Tie a loose knot in the band about halfway down and attach it to the top of a doorway.
Rope Pushdown Techniques
- Hold the rope near the knotted ends of a cable machine with a rope connection and begin the exercise with the elbows bent.
- Stretch your arms, bringing your hands down towards the floor and spreading the rope slightly out on either side as you contract your triceps.
Return the forearms to the starting position and repeat for 1 – 3 sets of 8 – 16 reps.
Bar Pushdowns
The bar pushdown is comparable to the rope pushdown. However, it is slightly less effective (67%). This exercise is typically performed on a cable machine at the gym with a little bar attachment, but it may also be performed at home with an exercise band, and a short pole or bar threaded through the handles.
The trick to this maneuver is to keep your elbows stationary while pushing the weight down. If you raise the bar too high (above the level of your neck), your elbows may come forward, making the exercise less effective.
How to Do a Bar Pushdown
- Hold onto the bar of a cable machine with your elbows bent to roughly 90 degrees.
- Push the bar down while keeping the elbows fixed, contracting the triceps as you lengthen the arms.
Return the bar to around chest level without moving the elbows, and continue for 1–3 sets of 8–16 reps.
Lying Triceps Extensions (Skull Crushers)
Triceps extensions performed lying down (commonly known as skull crushers) rank seventh, evoking around 62% muscular activation. While this exercise is recognized for being difficult, some exercisers may be surprised by the relatively low activation rate.
The muscle activation data does not indicate you should stop doing these, but rather that you should incorporate them into a program that also contains some of the best exercises. Utilizing a range of workouts that target various muscles at varying intensities can result in greater results and stronger triceps.
What Is a Skull Crusher?
Lay on a bench, step, or the floor with your hands about shoulder distance apart on a barbell or dumbbell.
- Begin the exercise by lifting the weight over your head, palms facing out, and thumbs adjacent to your fingers.
- Bend the elbows and reduce the weight until the elbows are approximately 90 degrees. This is the phase of the exercise where you don’t want to go too low and crush your skull.
- Straighten the arms without locking the joints by squeezing the triceps.
Repeat for 1–3 sets of 8–16 repetitions.
Close Grip Bench Press
The close grip bench press ranks ninth as a triceps workout, eliciting approximately 62% muscle activation. This motion also involves a lot of chest effort, which may explain why the triceps don’t get as much work as they do in other exercises.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t do the activity. In fact, if you’re targeting both the chest and the triceps in the same session, this can be a wonderful exercise.
This action can be done towards the end of your chest workouts to warm up the triceps before moving on to more targeted moves.
How to Perform a Close Grip Bench Press
- Lay on a bench or step, hands shoulder-width apart, gripping a barbell.
- Begin with your elbows bent and the barbell floating just over your ribs.
- Focus on tightening the triceps as you press the weight straight over the ribs.
Lower and repeat for 1–3 sets of 8–16 repetitions.
To Conclude
To get strong triceps you need to train other muscle groups as well as actions involving elbow extension. It’s easy to overdo a tricep workout, so start with lighter weights. You can gradually increase the weight to increase the intensity as your fitness improves.