tricep exercises to use in your tricep workout. Each of the tricep exercises
listed should be performed with proper form to not only avoid injury, but to
also allow the muscle to go through a full range of motion and get the most out
of the exercise.
Dips
1. Stand inside a parallel
(or v-bar) dip station and hold on to the bars with a shoulder width grip.
2. While keeping your elbows close to your sides at all times, press
yourself straight up so that your arms are extended.
3. Lower
yourself until your upper arms are parallel to the floor.
4. Return
to the starting position by pressing yourself back up.
– Keep your head up and hips
straight.
– Try to avoid leaning forward too much and also avoid allowing
your elbows to move away from the sides of your body. Both will cause the focus
to shift from your triceps to your chest.
– This exercise can also be
weighted by either holding a dumbbell between your feet, or by adding weight to
a dip belt.
– While dips are primarily a tricep exercise, they also recruit
the use of the shoulders and chest secondarily.
Cable Tricep Pressdown
1. Stand at a cable tricep
pressdown machine with knees slightly bent and your back against pad (if there
is a pad).
2. Grab the bar with palms facing down. At this starting
point, your forearms and biceps should be pretty much touching.
3.
Press bar down in a semicircular motion towards the front of your thighs.
4. Keep elbows close to your sides at all time.
– This exercise can also be
performed with an underhand grip, with one arm at a time, and with many
different handles such as a rope.
Skull Crushers (aka Lying
Tricep Extension)
1. Lie on your back on a
bench with a barbell or EZ-Curl bar.
2. Using a narrow overhand grip,
press the bar to arms length (arms fully extended) above your chest.
3. Lower the bar towards your forehead by bending your arms at the
elbows. Your upper arms should remain still and vertical the whole time.
4. Return to the starting position by extending your arms.
– Lying tricep extensions are
called skull crushers for a reason. As with all exercises, be sure to start with
a light weight.
– Skull crushers can also be performed using dumbbells.
– This exercise may be more comfortably performed using an EZ-curl bar
instead of a barbell.
Close Grip Bench Press
1. Lie on a flat bench
(the same used for the regular bench press) with your feet firmly on the floor.
2. Grab the bar with a slightly narrower than shoulder width grip
(palms facing forward) and lift it off of the holders.
3. Lower the
bar down towards your chest while keeping your elbows close to your body.
4. Press the bar back up to the starting position.
– While the close grip bench
press is primarily a tricep exercise, it also recruits the use of the shoulders
and chest secondarily.
One other thing that some people
don’t realize (I know because I get 100’s of e-mails like this) is that tricep
exercises like the dips, the cable tricep pressdown, skull crushers, and the
close grip bench press, or any other tricep exercise for that matter, will only
help build muscle and increase strength in your triceps. Tricep exercises DO NOT
target any of the fat that is specifically located on your triceps. If there is
any fat, muscle will be built underneath this fat. You must then work on getting
rid of that fat in order to see more “tone and definition” or look more “ripped
and cut up” or whatever other fancy words you can think of. The ONLY way to lose
fat from ANY part of the body is through either a proper diet, cardio or a
combination of both.