The Three Best Tricep Exercises | Lifehacker

Arm day will be one of the enjoyable days on the health club, however do not restrict your self to only bicep workouts. Your triceps, on the again of your arm, are an excellent bigger arm muscle, and so they’re what provide the energy to carry issues overhead or bust out a set of pushups. Here I’ll share a few of my favourite tricep workouts, together with a crash course on what the triceps are and what they do.

What is the triceps? 

The triceps brachii (“three-headed muscle of the arm”) is the muscle on the again of your higher arm. Its essential operate is straightening your elbow. 

Each head has a distinct origin level close to the highest of your higher arm: The lateral and medial heads each originate on the higher humerus (higher arm) bone. The lengthy head truly begins in your shoulder blade.

The three heads of the tricep merge collectively into a giant flat tendon on the decrease a part of your arm, above the elbow. This is what creates the “horseshoe” form you’ll be able to generally see when anyone flexes their tricep. That tendon continues downward and attaches to the olecranon strategy of the ulna, or to place it in clearer phrases, the sharp a part of your elbow. 

Unlike the deltoids, the place the three heads carry out completely different motions, the three heads of the tricep will all get labored moderately effectively with any train that has you straighten your arm. 

What’s with all these particular workouts for the “long head”?

Since the lengthy head of the triceps originates on the shoulder blade, slightly than the higher arm bone, you’ll be able to stretch the lengthy head a bit by placing your arms overhead. As I mentioned in my article on one of the best bicep workouts, you arguably get one of the best stimulus for development when coaching a muscle in its stretched place. So, overhead tricep workouts are generally stated to “hit the long head” higher.

Will tricep workouts tone my higher arms? 

The identical logic that has individuals doing crunches to eliminate stomach fats (which doesn’t work) additionally has individuals doing tricep workouts to eliminate “chicken wings” or “bingo arms.” It doesn’t truly work that means, in both case. 

The solely factor that may cut back fats in a particular physique half, just like the higher arm, is lowering fats throughout your physique. You can’t meaningfully management the place your physique shops fats; you do have a small quantity of management over how a lot complete fats. 

Strengthening a muscle could make it bigger and might make it simpler to see definition (like that horseshoe the place the muscle bellies meet the tendon). It doesn’t change the wobbly look of your arm when it’s relaxed, nevertheless it does imply you’ll be able to flex the muscle and showcase a bit. 

The finest train for triceps: dips

I’m going to award the crown right here to dips. I’ll give some barbell, dumbbell, and cable choices beneath, but when I might solely decide one tricep train? It can be dips. 

Dips are the train the place your palms are down at your sides, on handles, and also you bend and straighten your elbows to maneuver your physique up and down. 

Dips are a compound train historically executed with simply your physique weight, however you can also make it simpler through the use of a band or an assisted dip machine. Once you get robust sufficient that body weight dips are straightforward, begin including weight. Grab a dip belt (your health club most likely has one in a bucket of equipment someplace) and thread as many weight plates as you want onto the chain. Weighted dips are a critically underrated train, and so they have a tendency to enhance your bench press as a facet impact.

Dips are generally divided into two classes: “chest dips” once you lean your torso ahead and flare your elbows out, and “tricep dips” once you hold your physique as upright as potential, with elbows near your physique. Both are nice. Here’s a video on tips on how to do tricep dips: 

If you don’t have entry to dip handles (or gymnastics rings, which additionally work), the following finest body weight train can be tricep pushups. These are pushups with the palms positioned shut collectively, and the elbows tucked in near your waist. 

The finest train for the lengthy head of the triceps: overhead extensions

Since the lengthy head attaches to the shoulderblade (on the underside, close to the shoulder joint), arguably the easiest way to coach it’s whereas your arms are reaching overhead. A 2023 examine discovered that overhead tricep extensions produce higher hypertrophy (dimension modifications) within the triceps than pushdowns. Interestingly, the rise wasn’t simply within the lengthy head, however in all three heads of the triceps. 

Whatever the rationale, I’d advocate overhead extensions for those who like the concept of doing probably the most “scientific” or “optimal” tricep train. (Although to be trustworthy, individuals have gotten nice outcomes doing quite a lot of tricep workouts, so that you don’t have to stay to this one for those who don’t prefer it.) 

This video reveals a model of the train you are able to do on a cable machine, however a dumbbell tricep extension would additionally match the invoice. 

The finest barbell train for triceps: shut grip bench press

The triceps are utilized in all pushing workouts, together with bench press and overhead press. I like barbell workouts, and I like overhead press, so personally I’d gravitate towards overhead strict press if I had been simply selecting one thing for myself. 

But I’m going to be a bit extra truthful to the health club neighborhood at massive, and put in an excellent phrase for a traditional tricep developer, the shut grip bench press. 

Bench press makes use of a variety of completely different muscle tissues, however the principle movers are your pecs (chest), which carry your arms collectively and in entrance of you; and, in fact, the triceps, to straighten your elbows. The wider your grip, the extra it’s essential to use your pecs, and the narrower your grip, the extra it’s essential to use your triceps. 

That signifies that most individuals take a medium grip width on the bar (palms close to or simply within the rings, normally) to get one of the best of each worlds. But as an adjunct, you are able to do shut grip bench, along with your palms simply barely shoulder width aside.