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Just sit back and think about something...
By combining all the usual equipment in your gym, including benches, barbells, dumbbells, cables, exercise balls, frames and other machines. You can come up with a list of 84 different exercises that stimulate the triceps! Pretty amazing and even more amazing is that over 65 of them are actually isolation exercises. Meaning they work the triceps brachii as a primary!
It has the largest selection of exercises out of any other muscle group mainly because it’s involved in all pushing movement of the torso and works in close partnership with the chest and deltoids during resistance training. This fact alone makes for a lot of confusion among the weight training community. Like what is the difference between a lying single dumbbell skull crusher and a lying barbell skull crusher? I could sit and go through every single exercise conflict there might be, but that would be pointless. I’d rather go into detail about the positives and negatives of using different types of equipment to train the triceps. < What equipment does what for triceps? > BARBELL - Barbells allow for a smooth motion throughout each exercise.
- The weight can be stacked much more than any other free weight exercise.
- EZ bars allow for a fixed alignment of the wrists which increases safety.
- Most commonly used exercises for use with the barbell include close grip bench presses and barbell triceps extensions.
- Major downside to using a barbell is that it favours your body’s dominate side. Using a fixed bar attachment (barbell) means that maintaining an equal amount of tension on both left and right triceps is practically impossible, especially at the latter half of a set.
DUMBELLS
- Dumbbells have a large variety of exercises to choose from.
- Possibility to concentrate on separate arms during sets.
- There is no limit to your triceps ROM (range of motion). If you can extend your triceps a certain distance without any weight, you can do the exact same thing with an added dumbbell in your hand.
- The most effective exercises include, kickbacks, skull crushes and varying angle extensions (targets all three heads)
- Only down side to training the triceps with dumbbells is that some exercises require double the amount of time to complete in comparison to using a conventional barbell.
CABLES - Cabled exercises provide a great alternative to hand weight training.
- They can be used in combination with a large variety of bench setups.
- Very easy and fast to set up an exercise. Changing the amount of resistance is as simple as moving a weight pin to a desired level.
- There is really no limit to the amount of gripping attachments available that can help isolate different heads of the triceps and take excess pressure from the fragile joints in the wrist.
- Overall, working with cables does provide impressive results. For more old school trainers, my only real issue with them is the amount of ‘play’ in the cable itself. Unlike fixed weight equipment like barbells, using a cable means you can change the angle of movement in any direction while in the middle of a repetition. A change in angle can have a huge impact on actually maintaining stimulation on a muscle, that’s crucial for me. This is its only let down.
BODYWEIGHT
- Common bodyweight exercises for the triceps are different forms of pushups and the use of a dip frames.
- Most important factor is to keep your elbows inward throughout the exercise. If you flair the elbows outwards, your anterior deltoids are forced under contraction.
- Bodyweight exercises are great for a quick workout. They can be performed anywhere at any time and done correctly stimulate the muscle very well.
MACHINE
- Little or no benefits over more conventional methods.
EXERCISE BALL
- Including an exercise ball into your triceps exercises puts extra pressure on the core muscles of the lower back, abdominals and obliques.
- There is a large emphasis on balance when doing extensions, dips and any pressing movement on an exercise ball which further supports the stimulation required while using this equipment.
< Overall... > Naturally, the neuromuscular connection (mind to muscle) with your triceps is quite strong, this is because of the wide variety of contractions they go through everyday like simply pushing. What this means is that actually stimulating the triceps within the weight room isn’t going to be too difficult. The major consideration when training the triceps is working all three heads evenly so a full and complete tricep can be constructed. 
There is an absolute array of exercises for the triceps and many work practically the same way. But now that you know both the pros and cons of those different exercises, you should find it easier to get results. Almost more than any other muscle group, the triceps will give you a very accurate indication as to what exercises are doing the job and what exercises are falling short. Personally, my triceps got to where they are with dumbbell isolation exercises, using tempo and holding contractions. After you perform movements like this, you really see how much weaker the triceps are compared to the larger muscles of the shoulders and chest. In training you should always realise that once your triceps start to fail, you’ve done your first job and it’s now up to you to maintain them at that point to ensure maximum muscular recruitment! < Here's your first set of questions for 2010! Please answer below... > 1) What do you think is the most important factor for building bigger triceps?
2) What is your ALL TIME favourite tricep exercise?
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