Tricep Exercise

widido   Tricep Exercise   Comment  

The best tricep exercises are important to any program, whether you’re a guy trying to build bigger arms or a woman trying to get rid of that ugly flap under the arms. Either way, you need to build your triceps to reach your goal.

For building bigger arms, it’s important to realize that the tricep makes up two thirds of the arm mass.

Most people focus on building bigger biceps (it’s more motivating to watch your biceps work and blow up with a nice pump) but it you want truly big arms, you gotta get those triceps to grow.

And that means focusing on the best tricep exercises.

If you suffer from the dreaded arm flap (and let’s face it, this can be guys, too), it means you have too much body fat covering your tricep muscle and not enough muscle.

You need to develop the tricep muscle and burn some fat and you’ll be rid of the embarrassing arm flap forever.

First, you have to pick the right exercises.

 Here are my 3 favorite tricep exercises.

1. Dips

The dip is an awesome tricep exercise.

If you’re not strong enough to get a set of 10 reps, most gyms nowadays have a tricep machine where you can perform dips with less than 100% of your bodyweight. Do it!

To emphasize the triceps more, try not to lean forward too much as you lower and raise yourself each rep.

Here’s one of my favorite ways to utilize the dip for the triceps. Perform just one rep, but do it like this. Starting from the bottom position (so you are doing the positive portion of the rep first), take 30 seconds to push up to lockout and then lower in 30 seconds.
best tricep exercises

Immediately proceed to a set of lying decline tricep extensions for a set of 12 reps.

At failure, remove some weight and continue for another 5 to 6 reps, again hitting failure. That’s the workout!

You may need to work up to performing an extended rep like that. And you also don’t want to do this type of workout all the time.

When you do it, try it for 3 workouts in one week and then go back to a more traditional workout program.

2. Close grip bench press

I prefer doing this on a decline as opposed to a flat bench. There is less emphasis (and stress) on the shoulders and rotator cuff.

Don’t place your hands too close together, as you’ll place unnecessary stress on your wrists. Keep your hands slightly more narrow than shoulder width.

The second key is to keep your elbows tucked in along your sides, instead of letting them flare out, the way most people perform the regular bench press.

3. Lying Tricep Extension

I like to perform this with the EZ Curl Bar (should be the EZ Tricep bar, as it’s much better for tricep exercises than it is for curls!).

I also prefer doing this on a decline bench instead of flat. It puts more (good) stress on the tricep muscles.

Lower the bar to your forehead and press up. Your hands should still be above your head, which keeps your arms at a slight angle toward you when at lockout.

Don’t allow the bar to drift forward toward your toes, putting your arms in a straight up and down position, as this takes the stress off the tricep muscle.

Okay, I’ll go with more than three. A lot more. Other great tricep exercises include variations of the classic pushup.


You can do:

    Regular Pushup
    Medicine Ball Pushups
    Explosive Pushups
    Narrow Pushups (Hands together or close to it, like close grip bench presses)
    Pike Position Push Ups
    Handstand Pushups (fantastic shoulder exercise but also awesome for the triceps)
    Incline Pushups
    Decline Pushups

There are plenty more. I’ll do an article on pushups soon.

Try using the best tricep exercises in your workout program and start seeing some real results!