Sometimes you have to destroy your triceps (in the best way possible) to stimulate new levels of growth in your arms. To do this, you need to incorporate the best tricep workouts and exercises.
The triceps is one of the most underrated muscles in the body. Bodybuilders focus more on the high-profile biceps, while sport-specific athletes tend to focus on the shoulders and core. This hurts your profits, so it's time you put some real effort into it.
Anatomy of the triceps
The three-headed triceps brachii muscle makes up about two-thirds of the mass of your upper arm. So even if you hit the triceps for purely aesthetic reasons, you'll get a massive return on your time in the gym.
- long head: This is the largest of the three muscles; It's the part along the inside of your arm that's closest to the body.
- Lateral head: This is considered the strongest tricep head. It starts at the humerus and inserts into the ulna forearm bones. Although not as long as the long head, the side head generates high force and kicks in when lifted.
- Medial head: This rests on the back of the arm, below the long head, just above the elbow. It's the smallest of the three, covered mostly by the lateral and long heads, but does most of the day-to-day elbow raise.
Related: The best tricep workout with just dumbbells
Benefits of a strong triceps
The triceps support the elbow in movements like signing your name and raising your hand. The musculature also plays a crucial role in functional movement in sports and everyday life, as the muscles help extend the forearm at the elbow joint and, together with the lats, bring the arm towards the body. This means that many athletic movements — swinging rackets, racquets, or racquets, to name a few — rely on strong triceps.
Swimmers rarely train triceps in the gym but have crazy tris from stretching their arms to pull water for hours. For basketball players to perform an effective jump shot, they must have efficient elbow extension and enforcement, which is not possible without strong, stable triceps.
If you're two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, these massive tricep horseshoes will let you shoot precise midrange jumps, throw vicious dunks, sign autographs, and look intimidating doing it.
A weak triceps is not only a problem in sports, but also a physical one. Tennis elbow results in part from a weak triceps, which forces the arms to balance and produces micro-tears in the tendons connecting the forearm muscles on the outside of the elbow.
Related: The best bodyweight exercises for triceps
How to warm up and stretch the triceps
A tricep-specific workout will hit all three heads. As with any routine, it's important to warm up. Bodyweight movements are a great way to activate muscles so they're primed for the real work.
Do a tricep stretch with a towel, move through a few chaturangas, and some tricep extensions using a light resistance band (all shown below). These are a great way to warm up before you reach for the iron.
Also see: 50 Best Arm Exercises of All Time
How to do a tricep workout
A body part focused workout could include five of the top 15 tricep exercises outlined below. Perform 3 sets of 12 to 15 repetitions of each movement. Because tricep exercises tend to be almost exclusively pushing movements, this requires resting between sets. Use your goals to set rest times:
- Gain muscle mass (aka hypertrophy): Rest 60 to 90 seconds between sets.
- To build pure power: Rest 3 to 5 minutes between sets. Your muscles and central nervous system need time to recover from the stress of heavy lifting.
- To build endurance and efficiency: Rest 50 to 55 seconds between sets. To build more muscle, improve conditioning, and finish your workout in less time, reduce your rest times by five to ten seconds each week, within reason, without increasing the weight. If you rested 60 seconds between sets one week, rest only 50-55 seconds the next week.
Targeted triceps training helps to increase strength and aesthetics. They also help prevent injury since strong triceps lead to healthier elbow joints. Add these 15 moves to see a big difference in your muscles.
The 15 best tricep training exercises of all time
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The best tricep workout finishers
You can also add tricep workout finishers to other body part specific workout days (e.g. leg, chest, and back day). Over time, this will polish up your muscle definition. Just be careful not to overdo it. Add a tricep workout finisher on about 50 or 75 percent of your training days. You can expect to hit every head of your triceps, increasing blood flow and maximizing muscle growth.
Tricep Finisher 1: Cable Pushdown Burnout
For both the concentric and eccentric contractions, move quickly, press and hold for 1 second at the end of the exercise. Use a very light weight if using a cable pulley, otherwise use a resistance band. If you fail before 50, rest for 5 seconds, then continue. 1 x 50 reps
Tricep Finisher 2: Burnout Giant Dropset
Drop sets increase mass by pushing muscles past failure. This can help increase the release of growth hormones, which stimulate muscle growth. To do a drop set, do one set to failure, then immediately reduce the weight by 20 to 30 percent and return to failure. Repeat 3 times through.
*Only drop sets on the last set or two of each exercise to avoid overtraining.
- dips x 25 reps
- skull crusher x 25 reps
- Incline Skull Crusher x 25 reps
