Triceps!!!

[Blooddraine]

Hey guys what are the best exercises for the lateral head of the triceps? This part of my arm is lagging, making my arms look smaller which i cannot stand. My routine looks like this:

Pushdowns (change grip frequently)
One arm or two arm overhead extensions with dumbbell
skull crushers
one-arm underhand grip pushdowns
dips

My arms are about 16.5 but when compared to my friend who has same height and weight and arm measurement mine look like 14s. What do you guys suggest i do?

[pvit486]

Try it in this order, dips, skullcrusher and closegrip bench. HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY!

[Ronnie Rowland]

You cannot isolate any head of the triceps. But, unilateral over-hand grip pushdowns and skull crusher work well as do dips.

[briancb1]

I personally am liking incline skull crushers, and I let the bar go behind my head. May seem funny but focus on just isolating the tri's and you will see why I like them. But my tri's suck aswell, I'm going to integrate them into chest day and see what happens after a while.

[MotoLifter]

I always start my tri workout with HEAVY close grip benches. It really blasts them hard and I have gotten great growth from it. Amazing pump too. but isolating the tri itself can be difficult if doing them for the first time, or going TOO heavy.

[rockinred]

I always start my tri workout with HEAVY close grip benches. It really blasts them hard and I have gotten great growth from it. Amazing pump too. but isolating the tri itself can be difficult if doing them for the first time, or going TOO heavy.

I have good tris and decent arms.... genetics is the key because my tri's are strong and big, but bi's suck big time... anyhow I had a question on the close grip benches... I used the barbell bench and the bar hurt my outer wrists like crap... it was also a little difficult to balance... is there a trick to these? I loaded 185 and it was no problem, except for balance and wrist pain?? ...could have went heavier except for that pain and balance issue.

Blooddraine, I recommend all those you have listed and any other tricep variation... keep shocking them and burning them til you can't stand the pain.. that's what I do and it works.. i.e.. I use weights on my dips, skull crusher w/ wieight that hurts, every weight I use no matter what the exercise is, I make it burn like crap... the key is to change it up a little and monitor what works the best... to me the tris have the most diverse exercises of just about any muscle group.

Dips
skull scrushers
close grip press
seated dips between bench
reverse grip tricep pull downs
tri kick backs
behind head dumbell ext
rope pull downs
numerous pull downs with different attactchments
close grip push ups
tricep machines...

the list is forever...

[Testsubject]

it may not nessesarily be the excersizes your doing thats causing you this problem, it may be your rep range, i find when I use low reps and heavy weight for tricep excersises it doesnt do much except hurt my elbows, my triceps dont even get sore, my triceps grow really well when I do sets of 12-15, no less than that, and honestly IMO your doing too much for a tricep day, you dont need to beat your muscles into sunmission for them to grow, you only need to rip them a little bit for them to grow. Concentrate on form and really sqeeze them on the bottom of the rep, on every rep, those ****ers will grow man, if not i dont know whats going wrong.

[BigJames]

My tris are pretty good. I am training them after chest right now so that I do not have to go as heavy (elbow pain / tricep tendonitis).

I do dips for my chest and then:

1) Tricep Press Downs: 1 warm up and then 3 working sets. I range from 15 reps down to 10 reps for my last set. I use a full range of motion; all the way up and all the way down with solid form to put the strain on the muscle.

2) Overhead Tricep Extensions: I do these with both arms together so I can move a decent weight with a dumbbell or with a medium to high cable bent over with a rope. Again, I use a full range of motion for every rep. I believe that overhead dumbbell tricep extensions are the best mass builder for me: I have used as much as 120lb dumbbell for 10 reps on this exercise and that was my 3rd set. I do not recommend going that heavy due to strain on elbows, the key is to put the work in the muscle and get a killer pump.

3) One arm Tricep pulldowns (reverse grip) or dumbbell kickbacks: I do this to really work the horseshoe and get a burn. I do higher reps and really make it hurt.

Triceps do not need a lot of volume...they need full range and heavy weight to grow imo. Tris are my favourite body part to work...crazy good pumps.

Good luck!

[Blooddraine]

thx guys for all the input, as for rockinred it sounds like your hand placement is way too close. widen your hand placement until you can balance. Also, if you feel that your hand placement is adequate, then it could be that you just arent used to the exercise give it some time. I used to love close-grip bench but cant do them anymore because of my shoulders... dips hurt as well but for some reason that is more tolerable... anyway thx for all the input guys!!

[newmuscleguy]

dips.......

[slacker]

My tri's are way bigger than bi's but lately i have noticed that i have been working them to hard. Getting some serious elbow pain so i have to agree with Testsubject that sets of 12 - 15 and good form will kill em the best.