If you've tried everything and still can't get your triceps to grow, you'll want to watch this. Here, I'll show you how to get bigger triceps by focusing on the right part of this three-headed arm muscle and the best triceps exercises to make them grow faster. I promise that if you do what I'm showing you, this stubborn muscle will finally start getting bigger.
Anatomy Of The Triceps
To start, it always helps to review a little bit about how the triceps muscle is put together. As the name suggests, the triceps is a muscle with three heads. These heads are the lateral head, the medial head, and the long head. Only one-third of the triceps' total mass is made up of the lateral and medial heads. The back of that upper arm is about two-thirds the size it is all around because of the long head.
The Absence Of The Long Head
Most of the time, the long head doesn't get enough attention when it comes to exercises. Even though the triceps are worked with big compound exercises like the bench press and the close grip bench press, they just won't grow as much as they should. This is because the lateral and medial heads of the triceps are most responsible for extending the elbow under load. This is exactly what these common exercises for pressing do. Without putting a lot of attention on getting that arm up overhead (to stretch the long head more) or back behind the body (to tighten the long head), you won't get the most out of the arm's overall development.
The Cure
That is easy to fix, though. I'll show you three of the most common triceps exercises that can be changed to work the long head more. Three of these will happen when you use more stretch, and the fourth will happen when you use a stronger contraction.
Lying Triceps Extension + Stretch
The first is a triceps extension done while lying down. To do this, it doesn't matter if you use a straight bar or an EZ bar. Two things are important. First, make sure that your arm stays bent backwards all the way to the top of the move. This keeps the tricep tight throughout the whole exercise. The second thing is how much the triceps muscle is stretched at the bottom. If you stop too soon and don't let your arms go back far enough at the bottom, you won't be able to use an extra stretch reflex for a stronger contraction. This was talked about in a recent video, but it needs to be said again.
Pushaway Right Triceps
The triceps pushaway is the next move. This is often done with a cable set up or a band set up. The important thing is not to lean your body too far forward. First, you limit the amount of stretch you put on the triceps once more. When you stand up straighter, you can raise your arm a lot higher. The second difference is that in the traditional version, the force line of the cable is much less straight across from the forearm (which places less tension on the triceps muscle).If you can do the bench press well, especially the close grip bench press, your triceps will not be weak. Since the triceps are made up of fast-twitch muscles, heavy, low rep, explosive lifting works great for them.
But compound presses don't do a good job of working the long head of the triceps. So, if you don't do any exercises that focus on your triceps, their growth will eventually stop.
It's a good idea to start your workout with a heavy press and then move on to exercises like pushdowns, overhead extensions, and skull crushers that focus on one muscle at a time. This way, you'll get the most out of each head of your triceps.
You aren't giving the long head the right training
Many people know that the triceps is a muscle with three heads, but not everyone knows how to train the long head in the best way. Presses don't work the long head very well at all, as was already said.
Since the long head acts on the shoulder joint, you need to do a tricep extension while either bending or extending your shoulder to train it properly.
The most obvious exercise for this is the overhead extension, which works your triceps while your shoulders are bent as far as they can go. This puts a huge stretch on the long head of your triceps.
Few lifters realize, though, that they are missing out on big tricep gains if they don't do kickbacks, a tricep exercise in which the shoulders are extended. Kickbacks are the opposite of overhead extensions because they work your thighs when they are at their tightest, not when they are at their longest.
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