The Best Triceps Exercises &
Workout Tips for Huge Triceps

Triceps exercises are crucial to your training plan if you want to build big triceps with the highly sought after "horseshoe" shape (see image below)...

...Achieving this goal is just a matter of figuring out which exercises to do, when to do them and how to implement them into your program for the best results.

And that's exactly what I'll discuss in this triceps training guide.

Specifically, this guide is designed to help you to accomplish all of the objectives in the list below:

• Understand the biggest benefits of proper triceps training.
• Become acquainted with the functional anatomy of the triceps.
• Discover the top 5 triceps exercises & learn to do them with good form.
• Learn invaluable triceps tips, from must-do tweaks to not-so-obvious tricks.
• Figure out how strategically implement triceps training into your program.

Radically improved triceps are as good as yours, as long as you've got the prerequisites for success: An appropriate plan and the willingness to consistently adhere to it.

Benefits of Triceps Exercises

Triceps Training Benefits. Triceps exercises bring a whole host of potential benefits to the table. Here are the most attractive benefits to be had from an effective approach triceps training:

• More Muscular Triceps. If you want the best possible triceps development with a profound horseshoe-like shape, then direct triceps exercises are a must. You can't maximize the muscular potential of your triceps without them.
• Bigger & More Symmetrical Arms. Bigger triceps equals bigger arms. People underestimate the powerful visual impact that even relatively small triceps gains can have on upper arm size. You see, the triceps constitute a full 2/3 of upper arm mass. Yet most folks focus disproportionately on the biceps, which only make up 1/3 of the mass.
• Stronger Upper Body Lifts. The impact of triceps training reaches beyond just the triceps muscles. It facilitates strength gains on all upper body pushing exercises, including the barbell bench press and the overhead press, where the triceps play a strong secondary role.

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Triceps Anatomy 101

"Triceps brachii" is the anatomical nomenclature for the triceps muscle group.

By breaking down and analyzing this name, which is derived from Latin, we can reveal the essential information about the triceps anatomical structure.

'Triceps' breaks down into 'tri' and 'ceps,' which translate to 'three' and 'heads,' respectively. 'Brachii' translates to 'of the arm.'

This tells us that the triceps brachii is, quite literally, the three-headed muscle of the arm. The 'head' of a muscle are the origin points of the muscle.

The three heads of the triceps brachii include the long, lateral and medial heads.

You now know the basic structure of the triceps brachii muscle. Nice, but what does it actually do? It has only one simple function: arm extension.

For a more detailed understanding of the triceps brachii anatomy, see the links below:

Triceps Brachii:

• Long Head
• Lateral Head
• Medial Head

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The 5 Best Triceps Exercises

Top 5 Triceps Exercises. Here's my top 5 list of the best exercises for adding muscle and strength to the triceps:

1. Close Grip Bench Press
2. Triceps Dips
3. Rack Lockouts
4. Overhead Triceps Extension
5. Lying Triceps Extension

1. Close Grip Bench Press

How to Do the Close Grip Bench Press. Get a flat bench. If your bench doesn't have uprights, you'll need a power rack. Place a barbell on the pins (of the uprights or the rack) and load the desired weight on. Lie on the bench and plant your feet on the floor. Grab the bar with shoulder width grip. Unrack and move the bar over your chest. Lower the weight and keep your elbows tucked. Touch the bar between your solarplexus and navel. Press it back up. Repeat.

Close Grip Bench Press Benefits. No other triceps exercise lets you lift such heavy loads through this large of a range of motion. Because of this, it is the most effective exercise for progressively overloading the triceps. This means it produces the largest muscle and strength gains in the shortest amount of time. Additionaly, the close grip bench press is super easy to set up and to perform. The other compound triceps exercises in this list have either a greater learning curve (triceps dips), or require more time and effort to set up (rack lockouts).

2. Triceps Dips

How to Do Triceps Dips. Approach your dip station, grip the handles and step onto the platforms. Get into the starting position safely by jumping as you extend your arms. To best target the triceps, keep your torso as close to vertical as you can – It helps to straighten your legs (unlike what's shown in the video) if you've got enough space below. Bend your elbows to dip down, stopping once your elbows form 90°. Extend your elbows until you're back in the starting position. Add weight with a dip belt for a greater challenge.

Triceps Dips Benefits. This is a closed kinetic chain (CKC) exercise, meaning you move your body in relation to a fixed point (i.e. the dip bar). This increases the amount of compression force on the joints, which is good for joint stability. It also stimulates the agonist muscle (triceps) as well as the antagonist muscles (rear delts/biceps), simultaneously and non-stop. In other words, you are "co-contracting" opposing muscles. This means you kill 2 birds with 1 stone by efficiently stimulating the entire upper arm. Plus, you further improve the joint stability. The better your joint stability, the heavier you can lift. Since you must lift at least your bodyweight on dips, you become strong...FAST. Once you can do 6+ dips in a row, you can leverage this movement to build lots of muscle.

3. Rack Lockouts

How to Do Rack Lockouts. Move a flat bench into a power rack. Adjust the height of the bar catches to the point where the triceps would take over during a regular bench press rep. This is about 2/3 through the positive rep range of motion, when each elbow is at ~110°. Place the barbell on the catches. Assume the same body position, stance and grip as you would use on the barbell bench press. Press the bar straight up until you lockout. Lower it back onto the catches. Let it go dead. Repeat.

Benefits of Rack Lockouts. Rack lockouts are best for developing explosive triceps strength. Of course it can also build more muscular triceps, but it is specifically designed primarily for increasing strength and power. The short range of motion lets lift a ridiculous amount of weight. This stimulates the triceps' fast-twitch muscle fibers, which is essential for strength training. Even though you only train your triceps within a limited range of motion, the strength you gain transfers (at least partially) to other exercises with triceps involvement. You'll notice the most dramatic strength improvements in the lockout portion of the overhead press, the bench press, and all of their respective variations.

4. Overhead Triceps Extensions

How to Do Overhead Triceps Extensions. Find a seated utility bench and grab a dumbbell. Take a seat and stand the dumbbell up vertically on your dominant thigh. Thrust your knee up to help lift the dumbbell onto your shoulder. Adjust your grip to hold the dumbbell vertically, in whichever way is confortable. Get into the starting position by extending your elbows until the dumbbell is overhead. Your elbows should be just short of locking out and rotated/tucked in. Bend your elbows to lower the dumbbell. Go until you can bend them no further. Extend your elbow to lift the weight back to the starting point. Repeat.

Overhead Triceps Extension Benefits. This is fun to do and it works like a charm for adding mass to the triceps. Plus it gives you a ridiculous pump! If you modify this movement by doing isometric holds at various points in the range of motion, it can potentially help do all of these things: correct poor scapular stability, improve scapular retraction, increase shoulder range of motion, and strengthen weak middle and lower trapezius muscles.

5. Lying Triceps Extension

How to Do Lying Triceps Extensions. Get a flat bench and an EZ curl bar with the desired amount of weight added. Pick the weight up to chest level. Sit down on the bench and the recline back, keeping the bar against your chest. Slide your body so that your head is at the edge of the bench. Put your feet up on your bench or plant them on the floor (whichever you prefer). Press the bar over your chest and move the bar just a few inches back. Rotate your elbows slightly inward. This is the starting position. Lower the bar by bending your elbows. Move your upper arms back slightly when bar approaches your head, to allow it to pass by. Stop once the bar descends below the back of your head. Extend your elbows to bring the weight back up, moving your upper arms slightly forward into their original position, so that the bar can clear your head. Finish extending your elbows until return to the starting position. Repeat.

Lying Triceps Extension Benefits. Lying down puts your body in a position that enables a larger range of motion than is possible on any upright triceps extension variations. This means you can stimulate the triceps in a greater number of positions, and for a longer duration, than you can on other isolation triceps exercises. Lying down is also biomechanically advantageous because it enables you to lift substantially more weight than when seated or standing.

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Triceps Exercise Tips & Training Advice

Here's where I'll share all the tips, tid-bits, pointers, hints and tricks that are particular to triceps training...

...This includes everything from general suggestions to very specific and seemingly trivial details – Anything that can give you a leg up.

Tip #1: Grip Width for Barbell Triceps Exercises

Use a shoulder-width or slightly narrower grip for all barbell triceps exercises.

Lots of folks go too narrow because they think it will work their triceps better. However, that's just not the case. A shoulder-width or slightly narrower grip provides at least as much triceps stimulation.

Using grip width that's too narrow places undue stress on your wrist and shoulder joints. Not to mention, you can't lift nearly as much weight.

Tip #2: Scapular Health

Poor scapular (shoulder blades) health can indirectly slow down your triceps gains. Good scapular health is necessary to perform most triceps exercises properly and safely.

Do your scapulae function properly for triceps exercises? Do this test to find out:

If you can do this without with minimal effort, then you've got nothing to worry about. Congrats!

If you couldn't do it – or if took an epic struggle to do it – then you've got something to work on...

...Failure on this test indicates that you have poor upward scapular rotation, which you can improve by strengthening your lower trapezius, middle trapezius and serratus anterior.

Poor shoulder flexibility is another factor that commonly contributes to failure on this test. The shoulder dislocations exercise helps to fix this.

Tip #3: Posture

Maintain a neutral spine during triceps exercises. Don't arch or extend your back, or otherwise modify your posture or stance in such a way that helps you lift more.

You're not doing Olympic lifts, training your bench press or doing other power movements. You are simply doing triceps exercises.

Your main goal is to stimulate the triceps as effectively as possible. Modifying your posture or stance to maximize how much you can lift – even if done in a way that isn't unsafe or blatantly cheating – detracts from this goal.

Tip #4: Elbows In

You'll target your triceps more effectively by tucking, or rotating your elbows in, on every triceps exercise.

It's common for trainees to flare their elbows out to the sides like "chicken wings."

This diverts the focus from the triceps to other muscles (e.g. chest, deltoids) and puts excess stress on your shoulder joints.

Tip #5: Prioritize Compounds

The best approach for training your triceps is to prioritize the compound triceps exercises (e.g. close grip bench press) over the isolation triceps exercises (e.g. triceps extensions).

This way you maximize the extent to which you can stimulate and overload the triceps muscles.

You wouldn't be able to lift nearly as much on the compounds if you did isolation exercises first...

...Obviously doing compounds before isolation movements reduces how much you can lift on the isolation movements. But your overall potential for overloading the triceps is much greater than doing isolation work first.

Tip #6: Prioritize Triceps

Just as it's generally better to prioritize compound triceps exercises over their isolation counterparts, prioritizing triceps exercises over exercises for other muscle groups can be similarly beneficial.

For example, if you have a dedicated arms workout day, then you could set it up in such a way that you do triceps exercises before biceps and delts. This way you're fresher, more energized and stronger when training triceps.

Whereas, you'd be tired and your triceps would be partially fatigued if you worked your triceps last. As a result you'd be weaker and less able to sufficiently overload your triceps.

Tip #7: Drop Sets

Drop sets for triceps are an effective technique for pushing the triceps to the limit.

They allow you to achieve as much muscle overload as possible, and they bring a new level of focus intensity to your workout.

If you don't know what a drop set is, let me explain: It's when you do a set of an exercise to failure, reduce the weight by a large percentage (i.e. 30-50%) immediately and then proceed to do another set to failure.

Drop sets shouldn't be done for all sets of all triceps exercises.

I'll do 1-2 drop sets at the end of each of the last 2-3 triceps exercises in an arm workout. This way I avoid fatiguing my triceps too much, too early.

Tip #8: Unilateral & Bilateral Dumbbell Triceps Exercises

Your triceps can stagnate in terms of size and strength if one side is significantly weaker than the other. So, if your left triceps is a lot weaker than your right triceps, it could be holding back your overall triceps development.

This can happen from doing only barbell exercises (or 2-handed dumbbell exercises, such as dumbbell triceps extensions) where your dominant side can always compensate the weaker side.

Over time, the imbalance grows until the it is so large that you stagnate. The stronger side can no longer compensate for the weaker side, and the weaker side can no longer contribute sufficiently to the effort.

To fix or prevent this, you need to train each side independently. This means doing unilateral (one-side) and bilateral (two-side) triceps exercises.

Examples of unilateral dumbbell triceps exercise include: 1-arm overhead triceps extensions, 1-arm cable pushdowns and triceps kickbacks.

Examples of bilateral dumbbell triceps exercise include: dumbbell close grip bench press and dumbbell triceps extensions.

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The Best Triceps Workout Approach for You

You need to be intelligent when deciding the proper role of triceps exercises within your program. You must consider the context of certain factors, such as your:

• Experience level
• Current weight lifting program
• Goals and your priorities for these goals

If you're in the beginner stage, do yourself a favor and forget about doing any triceps specialization. That means no dedicated triceps or arms workouts.

As a matter of, my recommendation for beginners is to stay away from isolation triceps exercises altogether – Unless it's done in the manner prescribed below, for the stated purpose:

If you're an intermediate or advanced trainee, you've got broader options to consider. Here are the two triceps training approaches for intermediate and advanced lifters:

• Body Part Split. Doing a 4- or 5-day body part split routine is the best training approach for prioritizing the goal of building bigger triceps. The downside is that it's not as conducive for increasing strength as other types of routines. If you go with this approach, I recommend 1 or 2 days dedicated to upper arm training, with an emphasis on the triceps over biceps and shoulders. If you choose to do two arm workouts, one workout should be more intense. The other one should be less intense, but still challenging. Also, be sure to space the arm workouts 3-4 days apart to allow for maximum recovery. Whether you do 1 or 2 weekly arm workouts, aim for 10-15 total sets of triceps exercises.
• Upper Body/Lower Body Split. A 4-day upper body/lower body routine is another top choice for an effective triceps training approach. It would include 2 days where you incorporate a bunch of triceps sets. I've personally had great success doing routines like this, where one of the upper body workouts is dedicated to hypertrophy (more isolation work, around 7-12 reps per set) and another dedicated to strength (more compound work, around 4-6 reps per set). 5-7 sets of triceps for each upper body workout is a good starting point.

Though not as optimal as the above options, integrating a significant amount of triceps work into other types of training regimens is certainly possible.

For example, there are a couple of things you can do if you're training with a 3-day full body workout routine:s

• Weave-in a few sets of triceps work to each workout.
• Modify exercises to target the triceps better (e.g. bench → the close grip bench; chest dips → triceps dips; shoulder press → elevated-feet triangle push ups).

Or if you're on a 3-day push/pull/legs program, then you could:

• Emphasize the triceps on the push day by increasing the number of sets of triceps exercises.
• Train triceps earlier in the routine.
• I'd probably also add triceps work to legs day.

This page should have gotten the ball rolling for you.

Now, it's up to you to decide the specifics of implementing a strategy that will work for you...

...So get that all figured out first. Then get to the gym and start building up those triceps up, damn it! ;-D

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