Any arms workout that doesn’t spend at least as much time focusing on the triceps as the biceps is an arms workout that isn’t worthy of you and your (soon-to-be) mighty arms-enal. The triceps make up the majority of the muscle mass in your upper arms, which means if you’re chasing sleeve-busting muscles, you need to be doing triceps exercises regularly.

Training your triceps isn’t just about aesthetics either, as Olu Adepitan, head of fitness at BXR London, explains. “Not only do well developed triceps look good, but they can also enhance sporting performance, because of the association of triceps strength with punch power or throwing a ball at speed.”

Below, Annabelle Breakenridge, head trainer at F45 Peckham Rye, Carl Martin, personal training manager at Equinox, along with Adepitan and our good selves, guide you through a selection of triceps exercises. 

We’ve broken the exercises up into sections based on what equipment they require. First up we have exercises you can do at home using just your bodyweight, then we’ve picked out dumbbell exercises which work your triceps, and lastly there’s a selection of moves that you’ll probably need to do at the gym since they require a barbell, cable machine or other equipment you’re unlikely to have about the house.

But first, a science lesson.

Triceps Anatomy

The triceps—technically triceps brachii—makes up three-fifths of the upper arm musculature, versus the biceps brachii’s two-headed muscle. The triceps comprise three heads, each of which plays a different role in pressing movements and supporting the shoulders and elbows: 

The long head: Running from the shoulder blade down the length of the humerus, this is responsible for the majority of the size of the triceps. The best exercises to target this muscle are those involving a full range of contraction with the arms overhead, such as overhead extensions and skullcrushers. 

The lateral head: This makes up the outer side of the back of the arm, and is the most visible, providing the back of the upper arm with width. The best exercises to target this eye-catching body part are moves with your arms by your side and an overhand grip, such as bench dips and kick-backs. 

The medial head: Located on the inside of the arm, and covered by the other two, the medial head is responsible for providing stability to the elbow joint. The best exercises to target this head are moves with your arms by your side and an underhand grip, such as reverse-grip cable pull-downs. 

Best Triceps Exercises To Do At Home

Bench dip

“Place two flat benches parallel to one another, around 1-1.5m apart (adjust the width to suit your height),” says Adepitan. “Place your hands on the edge of the bench, around shoulder-width apart, and put your heels on the edge of the other bench.

“Keeping your body close to the bench, slowly lower in a dip until your elbows are at the same height as your shoulders. Slowly push back up, squeezing through the triceps. Do not lock out your elbows at the top of the exercise.”

Diamond press-up

“This is similar to the standard press-up, but you bring your hands together and form a diamond shape with your index fingers and thumbs, which puts more emphasis on the triceps as you perform the exercise,” says Breakenridge.

Make sure you keep your elbows close to your sides as you drop down and push back up – this will ensure you are hitting your triceps as hard as possible.

Press-up

The diamond press-up variation may put more focus on the triceps but the classic press-up is still great for your upper arms and you might find you can complete more reps by mixing up the variations you do.

Start on all fours, supporting yourself on your toes and palms with your arms extended and hands under your shoulders. Your body should form a straight line between your shoulders, hips and heels. Take approximately three seconds to lower your chest to the ground, keeping your elbows tight to your sides. Once your chest is roughly 5cm off the ground, press back up with force, taking one second to return to the top position.

Plyometric press-up

This variation is a great way to build explosive power in your triceps. If you love to prove the haters wrong, the sound of the solitary slow hand-clap you’re giving yourself may spur you on to go the extra mile.

Start in the standard top press-up position with your core braced. Lower your chest towards the ground, then push up explosively. As your body comes up, bring your hands off the ground and clap them together, then place them down again before your face hits the floor.

Best Dumbbell Triceps Exercises

Triceps kick-back

Kick-backs are often done with the cable machine, but you can also do them effectively using dumbbells. Doing so works each arm individually, helping to even out any strength imbalances in your triceps. 

“Position yourself on the left side of the bench with your right knee and right hand resting on it,” says Adepitan. “Using a neutral grip, pick up the dumbbell with your left hand. Keep your back straight and look forward. Tuck your left upper arm close to your torso and bend at the elbow, forming a 90° angle with your upper arm and forearm.

“Moving only below the elbow, raise the dumbbell behind you until your arm is fully extended. Pause, and then lower the dumbbell back to the starting position. Repeat this movement for the desired number of reps and then switch to your right arm.”

Dumbbell overhead triceps extension

Using dumbbells rather than the cable machine works each arm individually, helping to even out any strength imbalances in your triceps. The move is done in the same way as with a cable machine. Start holding both dumbbells above your head with your arms extended.

“With your elbows tucked in close to your ears, hinge at the elbow to move the dumbbells behind your head and then extend back fully to the top,” says Breakenridge.

Lying dumbbell triceps extension

“Many gym-goers place an undue amount of stress on their elbow joints,” says Martin, “so if you’re going to do triceps extensions of any kind where you flex the elbow, dumbbells are preferable because they allow a greater range of movement. Lying on a flat bench, press two dumbbells above your head with your elbows facing forwards. Lower the dumbbells towards your shoulders by flexing at the elbow. Once there, return to the start by contracting your triceps and extending your elbows until the dumbbells are back overhead. Don’t fully lock the elbows at the top so that you maintain tension in the muscles.”

Skullcrusher

Hold a weight above your head, then bring it closer to your head. Yep, we’ll file this one under “advanced”. As simple as it sounds, it’s not for beginners.

Lie on your back on a flat bench holding two dumbbells with your arms extended straight up and palms facing. For (hopefully) obvious reasons, choose a light weight while you familiarise yourself with the form and demands of the move.

Keeping your upper arms stationary throughout, bend at your elbows to slowly lower the weights under control towards your forehead, then use your triceps to raise the dumbbells back to the start. You can use an EZ-bar or a barbell, but there’s a greater chance of losing control with these, so only consider them once you’ve truly mastered the dumbbell version.

Best Triceps Exercises For The Gym

Triceps press-down

“Attach a straight or angled bar to a high pulley,” says Adepitan, “and hold it with your palms facing down (overhand grip) and your hands shoulder-width apart. Standing upright with your torso straight, bring your upper arms close to your body and perpendicular to the floor. Your forearms should be pointing up towards the pulley.

“Using your triceps to move your forearms, bring the bar down until it touches the front of your thighs with your arms fully extended and perpendicular to the floor. Your upper arms should remain stationary next to your torso. After holding for one second at the contracted position, bring the bar slowly back up to the starting point. Exhale as you bring the bar down and breathe in as you return to the start position.”

Triceps reverse press-down

“Start by setting a bar attachment (straight or EZ-bar) on a high pulley of the cable machine,” says Adepitan. “Facing the bar attachment with feet shoulder-width apart, grab it with palms facing up (supinated grip) and hands shoulder-width apart. Lower the bar by using your lats until your arms are fully extended by your sides with elbows tucked in.

“Moving your forearms but keeping your elbows and upper arms stationary by your sides, slowly bring the bar attachment up, inhaling as you go, until it is at chest height. Lower the cable bar back to the starting position while exhaling and contracting the triceps.”

Cable overhead triceps extension

“Attach a rope to the bottom pulley of the cable machine,” says Adepitan. “Face away from the pulley and, holding the rope with both hands with palms facing each other (neutral grip), extend your arms until your hands are directly above your head. Your elbows should be in close to your head and the arms should be perpendicular to the floor with the knuckles pointing to the ceiling.

“Slowly lower the rope behind your head as you hold the upper arms stationary. Inhale as you perform this movement and pause when your triceps are fully stretched. Breathe out as you return to the starting position by flexing your triceps.”

Cable unilateral triceps extension

“Stand directly in front of the weight stack in a staggered stance,” says Adepitan. “With your right hand, grasp a single handle attached to the high pulley using an underhand grip so your palm faces up. Pull the handle down so that your upper arm and elbow are locked in to the side of your body. Your upper arm and forearm should form an acute angle (less than 90°).

“Contract your triceps and breathe out as you move your forearm to bring the attachment down to your side until your arm is straight. Squeeze your triceps and hold for a second in this contracted position. Slowly return the handle to the starting position. Complete all reps, then switch arms.”

Bars dip

“Position yourself in dip bars,” says Adepitan. “Bend your knees, slowly lower yourself, then press back up. Make sure to look up, keep your body straight and keep your elbows next to your body so they bend back behind you, rather than out to the sides.”

Close-grip bench 

“Lie with your back on a flat bench,” says Adepitan. “With hands around shoulder-width apart, lift the barbell from the rack and hold it straight over you with your arms locked.

“Lower the bar slowly until the bar touches the middle of your chest, inhaling as you go. Make sure that, as opposed to a regular bench press, you keep the elbows close to your torso at all times in order to maximise the involvement of your triceps. Pause for a second, then press the bar back to the starting position using your triceps muscles, exhaling as you go. Lock your arms in the contracted position, hold for a second and then start coming down slowly again. It should take at least twice as long to go down than to come up.”

Barbell/EZ-bar French press

“The French press is an important exercise for the long head of the triceps,” says Martin, “but if done incorrectly it can place a huge amount of stress on the elbow joint.

“Set a bench on a high incline (90° or a notch shy of). Hold the bar overhead with a narrow grip and your elbows facing forwards. Bend at the elbows, then allow the weight of the bar to pull your arms back until your forearms are next to your head. Then drag your elbows forwards while pressing the bar back up to the start position. Use a controlled motion throughout and make sure your elbows don’t flare during the movement. To help keep tension in the muscles, don’t fully lock the elbows at the top.”

Try These Triceps Workouts Next 

• The gym workout to build bigger triceps
• Tri hard: a tough superset triceps workout
• Train your triceps in the sunshine with this outdoor triceps workout
• The toughest dumbbell triceps workout out there

The full-body triceps press is a move you’ll rarely see performed in the gym, and we reckon that’s mostly down to people not knowing about it, because it’s one of the best triceps exercises going.

Not only does it work all three heads of the triceps but it’s also very easy to increase or decrease the difficulty of the exercise by moving the bar you’re leaning on up or down. It’s a fair bet you’ll need to move the bar up to make the exercise easier when you first attempt it, because the full-body triceps press falls into the “surprisingly difficult” category. Even if you’re regularly doing other triceps exercises like kick-backs, overhead extensions and skullcrushers, the full-body press will exhaust your triceps in rapid fashion.

If you’re using a bar you’ll need a rack to support it during the exercise. A Smith machine is ideal since it’s simple to move the bar up and down using its various rack positions. You can also do the full-body press down using a bench or study table – if you happen to have an adjustable standing desk at home, this could be a whole new use for it since you can change its height easily.

How To Do The Full-Body Triceps Press

Stand facing the bar or bench. Lean forwards and grasp the bar in an overhand grip with your hands shoulder-width apart and your arms fully extended, then walk your feet back so that your body forms a straight line from head to toe. The lower the bar, the further your feet will be from it and the harder the exercise will be, since you’ll be supporting more of your bodyweight with your arms.

Bend your elbows to lower your forehead towards the bar. Don’t bend at the hips or knees – keep your whole body still aside from bending your elbows. Lower until your forehead almost touches the bar or comes just below it, then press back up. 

As mentioned above, the full-body triceps press is a surprisingly hard exercise so don’t be afraid to raise the bar to make it easier and complete your set.

The lying triceps extension is one the best triceps exercise you can do, but it might have the least exciting name of any exercise. Sure, it describes the move perfectly, but it’s long and lacks flair.

It’s a remarkable contrast to the skullcrusher, perhaps the exercise with the most exciting name of all. It’s made all the more remarkable by the fact that the lying triceps extension and the skullcrusher are essentially the same exercise, and provide the same benefits in isolating and strengthening your triceps. 

Are we suggesting that if you do want to do the lying triceps extension, you tell others you’re doing skullcrushers to make your workout sound more impressive? Yes, we are. And since you’ll be doing a kind of triceps extension while lying about the exercise you’re doing, in a sense you’ll be telling the truth anyway… 

How To Do The Lying Triceps Extension

The lying triceps extension can be done with a variety of weights, but a good place to start is with a light set of dumbbells – your triceps will tire quickly during a set and it’s worth mastering the move before going too heavy.

Lie on your back on a flat bench, holding the dumbbells above you with your arms extended. Keeping your upper arms still, bend at the elbows and slowly lower the dumbbells either side of your head, or slightly behind your head. This is the key difference from skullcrushers, in which you lower the weight towards your head (hence its evocative name). With the lying triceps extension you generally risk only a damaged floor, rather than a crushed skull. 

The advantage of doing the exercise with dumbbells is that you work each arm independently, so you can note and remedy any imbalances in the triceps strength of each arm. However, if you use an EZ-bar or barbell you will be able to lift more weight, so it could be worth progressing to a bar once you’re comfortable with the exercise.

You don’t need a rack of dumbbells or cable machine to strengthen your triceps. Whenever you do any bodyweight pushing movements, like press-ups, you’re working these muscles – and cheap, readily-available resistance bands are a worthy stand-in for dumbbells.

This six-move triceps workout comes from Alex Gildea, PT and owner of London boutique gym G:Fit. For half of the exercises you will need a long resistance band. Alternatively, you can use dumbbells if you have them, or just perform the three bodyweight exercises – they will still do the trick.

The workout is made up of three pairs of exercises, called supersets. In this format you complete all the reps of exercise A, and then move immediately to exercise B with minimal rest. Once you complete exercise A and B, rest for 30-45 seconds, then go back to exercise A to start the second set. Follow this sequence until all the sets have been performed, then move on to the next superset.

This approach will keep your heart rate up to help you burn extra calories, as well as giving your muscles less time to recover. As a result, they’ll grow back stronger to handle the overtime.

Gildea has provided a range for sets, reps and rest so you can adjust the difficulty to suit your ability, and gradually increase the difficulty over time.

Home Triceps Workout

1A Close-grip push-up

Sets 2-4 Reps 10-15 Rest 0sec

Start with your hands on the floor, directly under your shoulders. The closer your hands are together, the more work your triceps are required to do. Engage your core and glutes to stop your hips from sagging during the move. Keep your elbows tucked in as you lower your chest until it’s just off the floor, then push back up powerfully.

1B Overhead triceps extension

Sets 2-4 Reps 10-15 Rest 30-45sec

Kneel on the floor with the band looped under your knees. Extend your arms to hold the band overhead with your hands together and elbows pointing forwards. Bend your elbows to slowly lower your hands behind your head. Make sure there’s still tension in the band at the lowest point. Extend your arms to bring your hands above your head again.

2A Chair dip

Sets 2-4 Reps 10-15 Rest 0sec

Stand facing away from a sturdy chair or bench. Place your palms on the seat and walk your feet away. Keep your bum close to the chair throughout to protect your shoulders. Slowly lower your body until your elbows are at 90°, then use your triceps to extend your arms and push your body back up. The straighter your legs, the more weight you will lift, so if you’re struggling, bend your knees and walk your feet closer.

2B Single-arm kick-back

Sets 2-4 Reps 10-15 each side Rest 30-45sec

Start in a split stance, with one foot behind your body and one foot in front. Loop one end of the band under your front foot and hold it in your opposite hand. Hinge forwards slightly at your hips, tuck your elbow in to your body and ensure there’s tension in the band. Move your hand behind you by extending your arm, keeping your elbow locked in to your body. Your triceps should be on fire by the end of the set.

3A Kneeling sphinx press-up

Sets 2-4 Reps 10-15 Rest 0sec

This move can be tricky to execute at first, but it works wonders once you’ve cracked it. Get into a plank position on your knees, with your elbows under your shoulders and your forearms on the floor taking your weight. Press hard into the floor with your palms so you straighten your arms and raise your body, then slowly lower to the start. If it feels easy, move from your knees to your toes.

3B Single-arm overhead triceps extension

Sets 2-4 Reps 10-15 each side Rest 30-45sec

This one’s similar to the earlier overhead triceps extension, but it targets one arm at a time. Hold the band in one hand by your lower back, and extend it overhead with the other. Lock the elbow of the arm you’re targeting in place, and slowly lower so your hand comes behind your head.

Triceps Workout Tips

Take your time

Remember: go slow to grow. “When working on muscles like your triceps in isolation, there’s no need to rush,” says Gildea. “To make the most of these exercises, you want your muscle to be under tension for as long as possible, so take your time.”

Make it easier

Arms ready to fall off after just one set? You won’t be the only one. “Supersets, where you perform moves back to back, are never easy,” Gildea says. “Give yourself an extra 30- to 45-second breather between exercises if need be so you don’t have to tap out mid-session.”

Make it harder

Finding this a breeze? Props to you. “Make it tougher by trying one-and-a-half reps with each move,” suggests Gildea. “For example, with the press-ups, lower all the way to the bottom of the rep, drive up halfway, back down, then all the way up. That’s one rep.” Enjoy the burn.

More Home Workouts To Try

• Use This Biceps Workout At Home To Boost Your Pulling Power
• The Ultimate Home Workout Plan
• Blast Your Whole Body With This Resistance Band Workout

To get big arms you need big biceps. That is the conclusion many people reach. And granted, when looking to build T-shirt-tearing guns, biceps training will take the lead. But like Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption, the triceps, which make up two-thirds of your upper arm, play an essential supporting role.

As is the case with virtually every other muscle in the body, your triceps respond best to a multitude of exercises and training protocols that make use of a variety of angles. The triceps is comprised of three heads – hence ‘tri’ – the lateral head, medial head and the long head. All three require adequate stimulation for optimal results.

Heavy, challenging compound lifts such as close-grip bench presses and weighted dips should provide the focus for triceps training, but a selection of isolation triceps exercises are also worth your time. The triceps kick-back is one of these.

How To Do The Triceps Kick-Back

Place one knee, shin and foot on a flat bench and bend over to keep your torso parallel to the floor. Grasp the head of the bench with your fingertips. In the outside hand hold a dumbbell. Pick a weight with which you can comfortably manage 12-15 reps. Press and hold that dumbbell-holding arm against your side, with a 90° bend at the elbow. Straighten your arm backwards until it is parallel to the floor. Contract your triceps at that top portion of the lift. Slowly lower until your arm is back at the 90° angle. Repeat for 12-15 reps, then switch arms.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

When straightening your arm at the top portion of the lift, be careful not to bend at the wrist. This removes a lot of the tension from the triceps and places it on the forearms. You should also ensure your arm is held up against the body at all times. If your arm drops down, the tension on the triceps will diminish.

Triceps Kick-Back Variations

Cable triceps kick-back

Using a cable machine for the triceps kick-back means that you have to work against steady resistance throughout the exercise, which you’ll especially notice as you lower your forearm back to the starting position in the second half of the movement.

Attach a single handle low down on the cable machine. Hold the handle in an overhand grip and step away from the machine so there is tension in the cable. Bend at the hips so your upper body is parallel to the ground, with your arm by your side and bent at 90° at the elbow. Straighten your arm behind you to perform the kick-back, then slowly bring the handle back to the starting position.

Resistance band triceps kick-back

If you don’t have dumbbells to hand but do have a set of resistance bands, then swap to this version of the kick-back for a triceps tester that’s just as effective. It’s best to do one arm at a time, even if you have a band that’s long enough to do double kick-backs, so you can focus on working the muscles in the right way.

Stand on the middle of your resistance band with your right foot. Hold one end of the resistance band in your left hand and take a step back with your left foot so you’re in a split stance with your right hand resting on your front knee, leaning your torso forwards so it’s at a 45° angle to the floor.

Hold your upper arm by your side and make a 90° bend at your elbow. Keeping your upper arm static, extend your arm backwards to stretch out the band. You should feel the strain in your triceps after a few reps – shorten the length of the band if you need to increase the resistance.

Two-arm triceps kick-back

Don’t have time to work out one arm at a time? Then do both at once. It’s best to lighten the load a little for the two-arm version of the kick-back, which can be done with dumbbells or the cable machine.

Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand. Lean forwards at your hips until your back is parallel to the ground. You upper arms should be by your sides, with your elbows bent at 90° so you’re holding the dumbbell in front of your torso. Straighten both arms behind you simultaneously, then reverse the movement to return to the starting position.

Take a look around at your fellow gym-goers next time you visit the weights room and it’s almost certain that you’ll see one or two of them doing biceps curls or some other laser-focused biceps exercise. 

It’s far rarer that you’ll spot someone paying similar attention to their triceps. That is a darn shame, because if you’re chasing sleeve-bursting upper arms, you need titanic triceps just as much as—if not more than—bulging biceps.

Some of the best triceps exercises, such as the push-up and bench press, work the triceps as a secondary muscle, but the triceps extension puts these muscles squarely in the limelight. As a result of this extra focus, you should find that your triceps get stronger in rapid fashion.

Read on to find out how to nail the dumbbell overhead triceps extension, along with a few other effective triceps-targeting lifts, as recommended by strength and conditioning coach Ryan Horton of Horton Barbell. 

How To Do The Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension

The overhead triceps extension can be performed standing, sitting on a bench set at an incline or decline or lying down. Each variation will allow you to make the exercise slightly easier or harder, depending on your range of movement around your shoulders and upper back. 

You can also perform this move with a barbell, EZ-bar, a single kettlebell or a single dumbbell. The advantage of doing it with a dumbbell in each hand is that you will be able to identify and address any strength imbalances on either side. 

And because it can ruthlessly expose any weaknesses, the overhead dumbbell extension should be considered a tough exercise to be performed carefully and with light weights to begin with to minimize the risk of injury. 

The Set-Up

If new to this exercise, Horton recommends starting out with the overhead dumbbell triceps extension performed in a seated position, either supported or unsupported. 

“Hold dumbbells and sit on the end of a bench,” says Horton. You can do this with a backrest too, just set the bench to just shy of a 90° angle. “Press the dumbbells up to full extension overhead. Try to keep your elbows pointed forwards as much as possible.” Once in position, aim to keep your elbows in the same place throughout. 

The Movement

“Bend your elbows to lower the dumbbells behind your head, before pressing the weights back up to full extension,” says Horton.

Common Mistakes When Performing The Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension

1. Poor Mobility

The overhead dumbbell triceps extension requires a surprising degree of shoulder mobility to do properly. “Most people are probably not going to have their elbows dead ahead when they do this,” says Horton, but that’s what you’re aiming for. 

“If poor shoulder mobility limits your range of motion, it’s going to put everything in a really awkward position and you won’t be able to execute the move properly.” 

To address this limitation, Horton suggests using resistance band shoulder dislocations and similar shoulder stretches to unlock greater flexibility in the pecs before returning to this exercise.

2. Performing Partial Reps 

The second most common mistake concerns range of motion, perhaps because of the aforementioned limitations in mobility, or because you’ve optimistically selected too heavy a pair of dumbbells. 

If you do this, you’ll only be able to perform a partial rep, meaning the muscles aren’t working to their full potential and range of motion is restricted further. 

If you want to shift more weight or struggle with the mobility element, Horton suggests using alternative triceps exercises such as the triceps push-down, dumbbell skullcrusher or diamond push-up.

Benefits Of The Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension

Unlike push-ups and overhead presses, which involve multiple muscle groups working in unison, the overhead dumbbell triceps extension is an isolation exercise that primarily targets the triceps. As such, it’s best served for building strength and size in the upper arms. 

Horton says this can transfer to other exercises too, giving your overall gym game a lift. “Strengthening your triceps will carry over to being able to do more push-ups, bench more weight, and even increase your Olympic weightlifting lifts like the jerk or split jerk,” he explains.

You can also perform this triceps exercise at home—all you need is a pair of light to medium heavy dumbbells. And if you only have one pair of weights, you can easily modify the exercise by slowing down the tempo to make each rep harder, or just use one dumbbell at a time, held in both hands, to make it easier. 

Drawbacks Of The Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension

Despite its many benefits, Horton says there are quite a few other triceps-targeted exercises he prefers to the overhead triceps extension, including dips and floor presses. 

“When you really drill down into it, you can simply move more weight with other triceps movements,” he says, and more weight equals greater strength gains. 

“The dip or close-grip floor press, which restricts range of motion to target the triceps and works the top half of the pressing movement, are fundamentally better triceps strength builders than a really isolated move like the overhead triceps extension.”

Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension Variations

One-arm overhead dumbbell triceps extension

By using dumbbells instead of a EZ-bar for the overhead extension you work each arm separately and ensure one stronger side isn’t carrying the weaker one, but it’s also worth doing the exercise with one arm at a time. This lets you focus on perfect form in that one arm, and also allows for a greater range of motion so you can be sure you’re working every part of the triceps with the move. As with all forms of the exercise, make sure you don’t overdo it with the weight you use and ideally you want to be able to rest the weight evenly in both palms. 

Overhead cable triceps extension

If you use a cable machine instead of dumbbells to perform the exercise, the main benefit is a consistent level of resistance throughout the movement. Attach a handle to the low pulley on the machine and hold it in both hands above your head with your arms fully extended. Lower the rope behind you, keeping your upper arms stationary, then flex your triceps to return to the starting position.

Lying triceps extension

If you fancy a lie-down during your workout, move your triceps extensions to a bench. This can help you focus on the movement of your arms better than the standing variation, and both exercises produce the same benefits – namely bulkier upper arms.

Lie on a flat bench, holding the dumbbells above you with your arms extended and your palms facing each other. Bend at your elbows to lower the weights on either side of your head, keeping your upper arms stationary and making sure you don’t flare your elbows out to the sides. Slowly take the dumbbells back up to the starting position.

If you enter the gym determined to get to work on your triceps, as we all do from time to time, the triceps press-down is likely to be one of the first exercises you plan on doing. It’s a simple isolation move that is as effective a triceps exercise as anything else out there for building muscle on the back of your upper arms.

The triceps press-down is usually performed using a cable machine, but you can also try the exercise at home if you own a set of resistance bands that came with a door anchor. 

It’s also a move with many variations, some of which you’ll find below along with a couple of workouts that contain the exercise, but first here’s a form guide to the standard triceps press-down.

How To Do The Triceps Press-Down

Set the cable machine up with the bar at head height. Grab the bar and stand upright with your back straight and your elbows tucked in to your sides. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, or place one in front of the other if it helps you balance. Pull the cable down until the bar touches your thighs and pause to squeeze your triceps at the bottom of the move. Then slowly raise the bar back to the starting position. Make sure you don’t lean forwards to aid the press and don’t let your elbows leave your sides, otherwise you’ll lose some of the focus on the triceps.

Triceps Press-Down Variations

Rope press-down

Switching to rope handles for your press-down helps intensify the contraction at the bottom of the move because the extra flexibility means you can adjust your grip at that point. Start by holding the ropes with your palms facing one another. Pull the handle down and at the bottom of the move turn your wrists so your palms are facing downwards. Then take your hands back to the starting position and raise the rope again.

Unilateral press-down

As with all unilateral moves, the primary benefit of working one side at a time is that you can identify and even out any strength imbalances in your body. Use a stirrup handle for this version of the exercise and take the arm you’re not using behind you, resting it in the small of your back during the move to help ensure you're not leaning forwards.

Reverse-grip press-down

One of the rare occasions when underhand tactics should be applauded. Holding the bar in an underhand grip for the press-down will move the focus of the exercise to the triceps' lateral head in particular. So if you’re thinking that you’ve not paid enough attention to your triceps’ lateral head lately, here’s a quick way to remedy the situation.

Workouts Which Feature The Triceps Press-Down

Four-Week Arm Workout Plan

If you’re going all-in on your arm training then this four-week plan will help you bulk up in double quick time. The plan contains four workouts each week, including a dedicated biceps and triceps workout that contains the triceps press-down along with other isolation moves. See the arm workout plan

Superset Triceps Workout

The agonist supersets in this workout help you target your triceps in different ways using a combination of two triceps exercises performed with minimal rest in between. It’s a surefire way to exhaust the muscles in your upper arms and force them to grow, but also a challenging way to train, so make sure you’re comfortable with all the exercises involved, including the triceps press-down, before starting. See the superset triceps workout

The bench press deserves its place in the pantheon of barbell exercises – it’s a belter of an exercise for building chest and shoulder strength – but its exalted status shouldn’t make you afraid to deviate from tradition. The dumbbell bench press is preferred by many to build muscle in your chest, but if you want to add size to your arms, the first variation you should try is the close-grip bench press.

As the name suggests, this alternative involves moving your hands closer together on the bar. The standard bench press works your chest, shoulders and triceps, with the chest muscles doing the bulk of the work, whereas the close-grip bench press moves the focus to the triceps. Rest assured your chest and shoulders will remain involved, but the spotlight is on the backs of your upper arms – in fact, this move is one of the best triceps exercises.

To help you understand the ins and outs of the move, we enlisted NSCA-accredited strength and conditioning coach Andrew Reay, who spoke to us on behalf of sports coach booking platform Sport Session.

Benefits Of The Close-Grip Bench Press

The close-grip bench press is a worthy addition to your workout programme on account of its muscle-building benefits, strength-boosting qualities and the performance-related carry-over to other activities.

“It requires more work from the arms, and the triceps specifically,” says Reay. “So if you want good ‘T-shirt arms’, this is a good exercise for you.”

But more muscle isn’t the only positive impact this exercise can have. It can also be used to develop strength that will improve performance in other sports. 

The same review found the muscles used during the movement matched those needed for a chest pass. As a result, “the close-grip bench press could be used to develop the strength foundation needed for the upper-body power demands of court sports such as basketball and netball”. This strength is also useful in contact sports like rugby and American football. 

How To Do The Close-Grip Bench Press

Lie on a flat bench with the bar above your head. “Make sure your head is close to the bar,” says Reay. “If it’s too far behind your head then unracking it will be a limiting factor.”

“Grip the bar so your hands are just slightly outside of the shoulders. If they are too close together, the movement will feel clunky,” says Reay. This will also cause your elbows to flare out to the side, rather than remaining tucked in to your sides, and will also make it difficult to keep the bar balanced.

“With the standard bench press, your upper arm should form a roughly 45° angle with your torso,” says Reay. “For the close-grip bench press they should be tucked a bit tighter to the body – this will take some pressure off the chest and put more emphasis on the triceps.”

When your set-up is sorted, take a deep breath and brace your body, then unrack the bar and retract your shoulder blades. Lower the bar towards your body in a controlled manner until it touches your chest in line with your nipples, then, keeping your elbows tucked in to your sides, push the bar back to the starting position.

Make sure your feet are firmly planted throughout, and push down through the floor during the upwards (or concentric) phase of the movement.

This is an exercise that should be done with a spotter handy, especially if you’re new to the move, but if you are flying solo make sure you use a considerably lighter weight.

Common Beginner Close-Grip Bench Press Mistakes

The close-grip bench press promises plenty of training benefits to anyone including it in their push day plans but, as with any resistance exercise, this is largely dependent on you performing it correctly. We’ve compiled a list of the most common close-grip bench press mistakes to help you plot a pitfall-free course to bigger arms.

Weight: The close-grip bench press switches emphasis from the chest to the triceps. As this is a smaller muscle, you’ll have to leave your ego at the door and drop the weight. “Of the bench variations, your standard bench press is going to be your heaviest lift,” says Reay. “Then your close-grip and incline bench press will be similar to each other, and lighter than the flat bench.” 

Elbows: “A lot of the time, you’ll see a beginner’s elbows flaring out,” says Reay. This takes pressure off the triceps and places undue stress on your shoulders, increasing your risk of injury. “Ideally, you should keep your elbows tucked in to your sides.”

Bar path: Another common mistake Reay says he sees in gyms is people lowering the bar to the wrong position. “The bar often touches either too high or too low on the chest,” he says. “When people use the narrower grip, they sometimes bring the bar down lower on the body and then find themselves stuck in the bottom of the lift.” Instead, lower the bar to the same point as you do for a bench press: the lower sternum, or roughly in line with your nipples.

Brace your body: While the triceps are the star of the show during this movement, Reay says bench press variations should be treated as full-body exercises. “The whole body can be used: retract your shoulder blades, brace your core and keep your feet flat on the floor,” he says. “Put a little bit of pressure through your feet to anchor your body so you can generate more force through the bar.”

Close-Grip Bench Press Variations

Close-grip dumbbell press

If you want to make sure one of your arms isn’t getting a free ride, train each arm individually by using dumbbells instead of a barbell. This will balance out the strength in your body and ensure one side of it isn’t doing more of the work. Lying on a bench, hold a pair of dumbbells together just above your chest with your palms facing each other. Press the weights overhead, making sure you don’t let them move too far apart, then bring them back down to your chest slowly.

Diamond press-up

If the standard press-up is a good bodyweight alternative to the standard bench press, moving your hands closer together under your body creates a press-up variation that more closely mimics the close-grip bench press – and achieves the same effect by targeting the same muscles.

To perform a diamond press-up, get into a press-up position with your hands directly under your chest, positioned so the thumbs and index fingers of each hand touch to form the outline of a diamond. Bend your elbows to lower your chest to the floor, ensuring that you don’t flare your elbows out too much. Pause at the bottom of the move, then push powerfully back up to the top position. The diamond press-up shifts the emphasis of the exercise from your chest to your triceps, making it a great assistance move if you’re struggling with the close-grip bench press.

At last – an exercise with a fun name! There’s nothing wrong with accurate, descriptive terms like “squat” or “dumbbell pull-over” but do they excite like skullcrusher? They absolutely do not.

With that excitement might come a twinge of fear, but rest assured, there will be no actual crushing of skulls during a set of skullcrushers unless things go very wrong indeed. What the exercise does do is work your triceps, making it a good addition to the routine of any gym-goer looking to develop strong upper arms.

The skullcrusher bears many similarities to the dumbbell pull-over and the lying dumbbell triceps extension, and can be done with a variety of free weights and at different bench angles to provide different benefits. First though, we’ll run through a flat-bench skullcrusher using dumbbells, because it’s as good a place as any to start.

How To Do Skullcrushers

Lie on a flat bench and hold a dumbbell in each hand above you with your arms extended and palms facing. It’s very important not to go too heavy with the dumbbells, or the whole skullcrushing thing might start to feel like a possibility well before the end of a tough set.

Keeping your upper arms straight, lower the dumbbells slowly and under complete control by bending at the elbows until they are just above your forehead, then raise them back to the starting position.

The advantage of using dumbbells is that each arm works independently so one side of your body doesn’t compensate for the weaker side. The disadvantage is that you have to use less weight than with an EZ-bar or barbell to avoid losing control. Other skullcrusher variations involve setting the bench up at an incline or decline or altering your grip to put more emphasis on different parts of the triceps.

Skullcrusher Variations

Lying dumbbell triceps extension

We told you that the skullcrusher was similar to both the dumbbell pull-over and lying dumbbell triceps extension, but it’s only the latter that really counts as a variation. The dumbbell pull-over is a great way to work your chest muscles and lats at the same time, but since you don’t bend your elbows as you take the weight back behind your head, it doesn’t really work the triceps.

The lying dumbbell triceps extension, however, undoubtedly does, with the only real difference between it and skullcrushers being that you take the weight to your shoulders or just behind your head rather than lowering it towards your face. Just like skullcrushers, you can do this move with different types of weights and with the bench set at different angles, or even standing up, but we’ll stick with a flat bench and dumbbells for the sake of continuity.

Lie with your back on a bench and press two dumbbells above you with your palms facing each other. Lower the dumbbells towards your shoulders by flexing at the elbows, then contract your triceps to extend your arms and take the weights back above you.

The push-up is often overlooked and considered unworthy of inclusion in many upper-body workouts. That’s a big mistake. Because when it comes to building a bigger and stronger chest, few moves are better than the classic bodyweight exercise that’s still used to separate the army men from the army boys.

This effective chest builder can be done anywhere, any time—and it works your shoulders, triceps and abs too. And there are a number of great variations that mean you’ll never run out of simple moves that sculpt impressive pecs. 

Former Royal Marine physical training instructor Sean Lerwill details—and demonstrates—his favourite push-up variations, as well as his performance and progress tips so you can build a bigger and stronger upper body.

We also have essential form tips from the PT who trains other PTs, Alasdair Nicoll.

How To Do The Push-Up

• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor. Don’t let your hips sag or rise during the set: if they sag, it puts pressure on your back; if they rise, it takes the tension off your chest.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

Tempo

“Far too many people think the push-up is an exercise that is beneath them—they favor barbell bench presses, dumbbell flyes, cable crossovers and other weighted moves to build up their chests instead,” says Lerwill. “But the push-up is a tried-and-tested upper-body muscle builder, and the beauty of it is it can be done any time. To get the gains you want, don’t rush your reps—taking your time to lower and lift your torso. Try a 4010 tempo—a four-second lowering phase, no pause at the bottom, a one-second pressing phase, then no pause at the top—to get your muscles better at controlling each movement. Or try a 3110 tempo that introduces a one-second pause at the bottom of each rep—all of a sudden this ‘easy’ and ‘boring’ bodyweight exercise is a legitimate muscle-building move.”

Push-Up Form Tips

For advice on how to nail a perfect press-up, we spoke to Alasdair Nicoll, personal trainer and tutor at The Fitness Group, which provides personal training courses.

1. Make Sure You Have A Stable Starting Position

“For most people, the hand position should be one-hand width outside of their shoulders,” says Nicoll. “Make sure that your wrist is directly underneath your elbow and your shoulder. The phrase we use is stacking joints. If you stack the shoulder and the elbow and the wrist on top of each other, it creates a really stable base from which to start the movement.

“Your feet should be pretty much in alignment with your shoulders, again to create as much stability as you can, because the more stability that you’ve got in any exercise, the more force production you can have and the greater level of muscle recruitment you can utilize in the exercise.”

2. Form An Arrow With Your Elbows

“You want to make sure that the direction in which the elbows are traveling is right,” says Nicoll. “You don't want them traveling out to the side because that’s going to put unnecessary stress through the shoulder.

“If we were to look over the top of the person, we’d want to see an arrow shape from the head down to both elbows. They should be angling back at pretty much a 45° angle. That would be optimal for prioritizing the chest, and will also help to get a full range of motion through the chest.”

3. Get The Tempo Right

“Make sure that when you go through the motion of the push-up that it's under full control,” says Nicoll. “Not just dropping into the movement, but doing it under control, potentially using a tempo. That could be two to three seconds on the way down, then a slight pause for a half second at the bottom. Then on the way up, making sure that that movement is really intentful. It should probably be close to a second for the powerful concentric part of the exercise.”

Push-Up Workouts

The classic push-up is a great exercise for improving muscular endurance in your pecs, front shoulders and triceps, as well as a fantastic way to work these muscles to full failure to encourage muscle size growth. To do this, perform a set of push-ups to failure after every set of bench presses. So once you finish your set of eight to 10 bench press reps, immediately move to the floor and do a set of push-ups to failure, which means you literally cannot do one more single rep with good form. This will work all those muscle fibers in your chest that don’t get worked by your heavy bench presses so you’ll build more muscle size, strength and endurance.

Push-Up Variations

Diamond Push-Up

Want bigger arms? The diamond push-up is the move for you, because this variation places far greater emphasis on your triceps than your chest to pack on size on your upper arms. To make the most of this move, focus on squeezing your triceps at the top of each rep, and think about how your triceps are contracting when you lower your torso towards the floor, using a good slow and controlled tempo. The more you can focus on a muscle moving during an exercise, the greater the rewards.

• Start in the push-up position but with your hands together so that your thumbs and index fingers form a diamond.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor. Make sure your elbows point back, rather than out to the sides, during the lowering phase of a rep to avoid over-stressing the joint.
• Pause briefly at the bottom.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

“This move is a lot harder than it looks, and that means a lot of people give up quickly because they can’t do many full-range reps,” says Lerwill. “To get stronger so you can do more reps, just do the lowering part of the move, keeping the tempo slow to make your muscles work harder, then kneel back up to return to the start. Alternatively lower yourself in the diamond position, then take your hands back to normal width to push back to the start.”

Wide-Arm Push-Up

Placing your hands wider apart increases the focus on your chest and lessens the involvement of the triceps and shoulders. It’s important to perform the move safely by lowering your torso to the ground slowly and under full control—doing so will both reduce the risk of injury and increase the effectiveness of the move. You want to feel a good stretch across your chest as you move closer to the ground. The quality of the rep is always more important than the width of your arm position – don’t sacrifice form by placing your hands too far apart.

• Start in the push-up position but with your hands about double shoulder-width apart.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

“You need to ensure that your head and neck stay tight and in line,” says Lerwill. “Allowing your head to hang can cause your shoulders and upper back to round, which is poor form and makes the move less effective. This often happens as you get close to failure, so instead of going until you can’t do another single rep, stop once you notice your form suffering, rest on your knees for a count of 10, then do another set of reps. When you hit failure a second time, rest again, then do one final set to build chest strength without risking injury.”

Side-To-Side Push-Up

This variation is a great way of increasing the difficulty of the basic move to make the muscles of your chest, shoulders and triceps work hard to support, manage and move your bodyweight up and down and from left to right, while your core muscles need to be fully engaged to keep your torso level for the duration of each rep. The deeper you go each rep, the more effective it will be. That does make it harder so if you’re struggling, reduce the rep count and focus on quality of movement.

• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
• As you lower, move your torso left so your head is in front of your left hand.
• Keeping your chest as close to the floor as possible, move your torso across so your head is in front of your right hand.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start, moving your torso back to the middle as you do.

“This is a hard exercise, so it can be tempting to rush each rep to get the set finished quickly, but you need to resist that temptation if you want to work the target muscles effectively,” says Lerwill. “As with all exercises, it’s always better to focus on quality reps than quantity. Try to add an extra rep or two per set every time you do this move, but keeping reps slow and controlled is the first priority to increase muscular time under tension and minimize injury risk.”

Spider-Man Push-Up

This heroic variation is a move that’s not just about the chest, shoulders and triceps. Your upper and lower abs need to be fully engaged to draw one knee up to your elbow then back down again, and you’ll activate the deep stabilizing muscles of your core to keep your whole body stable throughout each rep. It’s a hard move, but mastering it will mean better performance and a better physique. Keeping your torso level with the floor, as opposed to rotating as you raise your knee, will keep the maximum amount of tension in your abs.

• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
• As you lower, draw one knee up towards your elbow.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start, straightening your leg as you do, then repeat with your other knee and alternate with each rep.

“The first thing to do to perform this move more efficiently and effectively is to engage your core before starting a set,” says Lerwill. “Do this by pulling in your bellybutton to tense your entire abs and deep core region. Bracing your midsection to keep it strong and stable—and focusing on keeping it tensed—will allow you to draw your knee all the way up while keeping your push-up form perfect to maximise your results.”

Dive-Bomb Push-Up

The very nature of this move means that for the duration of each rep there are a lot of different muscles fully engaged and under tension, which can only be a good thing when you want bigger, stronger and more defined muscles. The down-and-forwards then up-and-backwards movement also makes your chest, shoulders, triceps and core all work in different and more challenging ways from the standard push-up.

• Start with your hands and feet flat on the floor so that your body forms an inverted V-shape.
• Brace your core then lower your head and chest towards your hands, moving your torso and head forwards in a smooth arc as your head approaches the ground.
• Keep moving your upper body forward in a smooth arc until your eyes are looking forward and your chest is up.
• From there, raise your hips to return to the start position.
• Despite the aggressive-sounding name, the key to this exercise is maintaining a smooth movement path—the whole rep should be fluid and performed at an even tempo.

“Don’t worry about completing too many reps of this per set—instead, think about the muscles working at each point of the rep to build a stronger mind-to-muscle connection that will help you train more effectively in every session,” says Lerwill. “The nature of this movement means some areas will be far more difficult than others, with the most likely sticking points coming when your shoulders or triceps are fatigued but your chest is still strong. If that happens, do this variation to failure, then go straight into regular or wide-arm push-ups to keep working the chest muscles with a slow and controlled tempo for faster gains.”

Fingertip Push-Up

This variation is more about your finger and wrist strength than upper-body strength, so it’s best suited to people who want or need stronger fingers and wrists, such as MMA fighters, climbers and gymnasts. If that’s not you but you’re still up for a really big challenge, then give it a go—but don’t get disheartened when you fail! As with anything worthwhile, it takes time and effort to get good at this move, so add one or two reps per session over the weeks and months to build finger strength slowly without risking injury. If you’re unable to perform a rep on your fingertips, you can still develop finger and wrist strength by holding the top position for as long as possible.

• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders but with just your fingertips in contact with the floor.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.

“It’s worth experimenting with different finger positions,” said Lerwill. “We are all anatomically different, so some people find the exercise easier with fingers spread, others with fingers quite close, some somewhere in the middle. It all depends on finger length, size of hands, arm length and many other factors. If you’ve mastered one way, then try another—there are many ways to adapt and progress with an exercise, so don’t be afraid to use your imagination and experiment. Maybe one day you’ll be able to do a dive-bomb push-up on your fingertips!”

About Our Experts

Tricep Workout Tips

Go long

“The best overall triceps exercise is the close-grip bench press,” says body composition expert Tom MacCormick (flatwhitesfreeweights.com). “This creates high levels of muscle activity in the triceps, and also targets the often-neglected long head: muscle activity in this area is greatest when the shoulder is flexed to roughly 90° – the exact position you’re in during close-grip bench presses.”

Fix your hands

“Muscle activation in the triceps varies with hand position,” says MacCormick. “Having your elbows further apart than your hands – for instance, in a close-grip bench – stresses the lateral head to a greater degree. If the hands are closer, more stress is placed on the long and medial heads.” Do moves that use a variety of hand positions.

Move your shoulders

“Changing your shoulder position during isolation exercises like extensions can also influence triceps muscle activation,” says MacCormick. “Having your arms overhead – like in a French press – puts more tension on the long head, while conventional cable press-downs shift the tension predominantly onto the medial head.”

Triceps Workout

1 Close-grip bench press

Sets 4 Reps 6-8 Rest 90sec

Lying flat on your back on a bench, take a shoulder-width grip on the bar. Keep your elbows close to your sides as you lower the weight to touch your chest. Drive the weight back up explosively until your arms are fully extended.

2A Dip

Sets 4 Reps 6-8 Rest 10sec

Use dip bars just wider than shoulder width. Jump up to the top position with fully extended arms and balance yourself. Bend your elbows to lower yourself until your biceps touch your forearms. Lift yourself back to the top by extending your arms. Keep your core braced throughout.

2B Rope cable French press

Sets 4 Reps 6-8 Rest 2min

Set the cable to the lowest setting. Grab the rope attachment and raise it over your head with your palms facing each other. Tuck your elbows in tight overhead, keep your upper arms stationary and bend your elbows so your hands travel behind your head until your forearm and biceps make contact. From this fully stretched position, flex your triceps to return to the start position.

3 Reverse-grip straight bar press-down

Sets 3 Reps 6-8 Rest 90sec

Set the cable pulley to the top setting and grab the bar with your palms facing up. Keep your elbows by your sides and extend your elbow using your triceps. Flex hard for one second at the bottom, then return to the start position.

In the pursuit of bigger arms it’s all too easy to focus on the biceps. After all, most guys think all that’s required to get T-shirt-filling arms is a set of dumbbells and a full-length mirror. But that isn’t the fastest route to success and in fact, neither free weights nor a reflective surface is necessary. You don’t even need to be indoors because a set of parallel bars – the railings of a footbridge are perfect – is all you need to add serious size to your triceps. And the bigger these muscles are, the wider and more impressive your arms look.

How it Works

“This four-move drill goes from hard and heavy to light and easy-ish,” says outdoor training specialist Andrew Tracey. “It gives your body a chance to recover slightly but each round gets harder because of accumulative fatigue.” You’ll tax more triceps muscle fibres by working them to near-complete exhaustion, shocking your body into growth.

Directions

This is a 20-minute every minute on the minute (EMOM) workout. In the first minute do five heavy weighted dips, resting for the remainder of the minute. In minute two do ten bodyweight dips, then rest until the minute’s up. In minute three do 15 explosive incline press-ups then rest, and in minute four do 20 triceps dips then rest. Do this four-minute four-move circuit a total of five times.

Dip Tips

Make it easier: Find bars that are closer together to take the strain off your shoulders and allow you to press with more power. If you start to struggle, focus on the eccentric part of the move by jumping to the top of the move and slowly lowering yourself under complete control.

Make it harder: Target the triceps muscles more by keeping your torso completely upright (reducing the involvement of your chest) and slowing down the tempo of each rep. To really fatigue your muscles, Tracey recommends increasing the duration of the lowering phase of the move to up to eight seconds.

1 Weighted dip

Wearing a loaded backpack, grip the bars with your arms locked out. Lean forward to recruit your chest muscles to help your triceps out. Bend your arms to lower until your elbows are at 90˚ or your hands are level with your chest, then press back up powerfully to full lockout.

2 Bodyweight dip

Remove the backpack and repeat the move. Stay upright to work the triceps more, or lean forward to recruit more chest muscle fibres. If you stop just short of full extension at the top you’ll keep the muscles under constant tension. It’ll be harder but the results will come faster.

3 Explosive incline press-up

Start in a press-up position with your hands on one railing. Lower your chest towards your hands, then explode up fast to bring your hands off the bar. Put them back on the bar to break your fall and continue into the next rep. The further your feet are from the railing, the more power you need.

4 Parallel dip

With your back against one railing, put your palms on the bar with your fingers on the same side as your body. Hook your legs over the other railing and lift your body so your arms are extended and legs straight. Lower until your arms are bent at 90˚, then drive back up.

Everyone wants bigger biceps, and many of us devote plenty of time to training them, but don't bother too much about working our triceps. This is a mistake. Before we can get bigger biceps we need to get bigger triceps – the true power behind the arm.
 

How to do this workout

Do Workout A and leave two to three days before doing Workout B to give your muscles time to recover properly. These workouts are trisets, which means you should do the required number of reps for exercise 1, then move immediately on to exercise 2, then exercise 3. Then rest for two to three minutes before repeating the triset. 

You can add the workouts into a longer gym session or just keep it short and focus on maintaining intensity throughout the three exercises. Warm up with five minutes on a treadmill and some press-ups. Make sure you stretch out your triceps after the workout.

Workout A

1. Close-grip EZ-bar press

Trisets 3  Reps in each triset 8

Target triceps, core

Recruit plenty of muscles to shift serious weight.

• Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent.
• Brace your core and bring the bar up and behind your head, with your upper arms straight.
• Bend your elbows to lower the bar, then press the bar directly above your head.

Why it works: By using a bar, and doing this at the start of the workout when you’re energised, you recruit as many muscles as possible to move as much mass as you can and get the best potential results.

2. Unilateral cable press-down

Trisets 3  Reps in each triset 10 each side

Target triceps, core

Build strength across your triceps' full range of motion.

• Stand in front of a cable machine set on a high pulley with feet staggered for balance.
• Brace your core and then press down on the cable handle with your right hand to straighten your arm.
• Pause for peak contraction and then let the cable back slowly.
• Keep your torso still and your elbow by your side throughout.

Why it works: The cable places constant tension on the triceps so that it builds strength across its range of motion and irons out any weak points, which should improve your bench press limit.

3. Unilateral cable diagonal extension

Trisets 3  Reps in each triset 8 each side

Target triceps

Exercise your arms one at a time to balance your muscle gains.

• Stand side-on to a cable machine set on a high pulley to your left, with feet shoulder-width apart.
• Brace your core and then draw the handle across your body and straighten your arm.
• Pause for peak contraction and then let the cable back slowly.

Why it works: By exercising unilaterally (one arm at a time), you allow each muscle group to work at full effectiveness and promote muscle balance in your arms. The diagonal pull hits the triceps from a different angle to maximise muscle fatigue.

Workout B

1. Triceps dip

Trisets 3  Reps in each triset 10

Target triceps, core, chest

Use your own bodyweight to train your triceps.

• Suspend yourself from two dips bars, with your feet off the floor and arms straight.
• Lower yourself keeping your elbows pointing back, not out to the sides.
• When your upper arms are level with the floor, stop and drive back up again.

Why it works: Lifting your own bodyweight with your triceps trains them to be proportionally strong. This big, compound exercise releases growth hormones and fires up your metabolism for great results. Keeping your torso upright places the load on the triceps rather than the chest.

2. Unilateral triceps cable chop

Trisets 3  Reps in each triset 8 each side

Target triceps, core 

Another cable exercise that produces balanced gains.

• Stand with your back to a cable machine set on a high pulley, with your left foot forward.
• Brace your core and grasp the handle in your right hand with your upper arm horizontal.
• Drive the handle forwards so that you straighten your arm using the triceps only. Pause for peak contraction and then let the cable return slowly.
• Repeat on the other arm.

Why it works: The motion used in this exercise is a functional way to link the triceps in a dynamic multi-joint move and the cable applies tension across the whole range of motion to improve strength without injury.   

3. Unilateral triceps dumbbell kick-back

Trisets 3  Reps in each triset 8 each side

Target triceps

Finally, hit those triceps hard to ensure better muscle gains when they recover.

• Holding a dumbbell in your left hand, place your right hand and knee on a bench and lean forwards.
• Raise the dumbbell with your arm bent at 90° until your upper arm is level with the floor.
• Straighten your left arm without using momentum and lower the weight under control.

Why it works: Your muscles are probably already used to this classic move, but doing it at the end of the triset provides a fresh challenge by isolating the muscle and making sure it’s completely exhausted.