The Best Exercises: Triceps

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 bodybuilders 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 wrong with these exercises, but the majority of your time would be much better spent on compound exercises which allow for heavy loads to be used.

In fact, you simply can't adequately stimulate all of the muscle fibers in the triceps without incorporating some exercises which allow for heavy weights to be used. In general it is best to hit 1 or 2 heavy compound exercises and then move on to an isolation exercise to squeeze the last little bit out of your muscles.

With this in mind let's take a look at three great exercises for your tris:

Triceps Skullcrushers

This is probably the bodybuilding exercise with the scariest moniker. After all, who wants their skull smashed? But the exercise is perfectly named because it is performed 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 tension stays on the triceps. To do this you want the elbows close to the body and pointed towards the ceiling. It is essential that you only bend and extend the elbows and that you do not move them forward or backward, or you will shift the tension off the triceps. While this exercise is usually done by touching the bar to the forehead, you can vary the point at which you touch in order target specific 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.

Narrow Parallel Bar Dips

This is the classic triceps mass builder. Parallel bar dips are probably responsible for building more triceps size than any other exercise. This is from the combination of heavy loading and targeted stress that they provide to the triceps. When you first start lifting you may have trouble performing more than a couple of these, but as you progress it is important to continue adding weight by using a dumbbell between your feet or a specialized dip belt. The addition of weight 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 tight 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 tension to the delts and pecs, which is not what we want for our goal of bigger triceps. Optimally, you should descend into the bottom of the exercise until your upper arms were parallel with the ground. However, this will cause shoulder pain in a good percentage of lifters, and in this case you should either shorten the range of movement or discard the exercise altogether.

Close grip BB 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 chest and delts allows you to completely blast the triceps and force them to get bigger. While you want to work on consistently getting stronger, you should not sacrifice correct form for weight. With this exercise it important to keep the elbows close to your body throughout the movement in order to keep as much tension as possible on the triceps. Even with a narrow grip the tension can be taken off of the triceps muscle and put onto the elbow joint if you don't keep the elbows tucked in tight. This obviously not only diminishes your muscle growth, but can lead to elbow and wrist injuries as well.

As you can see perfect technique is crucial to your success with triceps exercises, just as it is with all exercises. You can perform exercises with bad technique and still get some of the benefit, but you will never see optimal results and you may just injure yourself in the process. Because of this it is suggested that you learn how to do these exercises correctly from an expert in the field. See video and get tips on Triceps Skullcrushers and more of the best exercises for triceps muscles.

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