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What would you say if I told you that there were only two tricep exercises you need to do? In this video, I am going to show you the two triceps exercises that should make up the bare minimum of your tricep workouts. Not only are these two exercises great for building big triceps, but they are the two exercises that will cover all 3 heads of the triceps fully.
Some might tell you that you only need two exercises total in order to build a muscle group. I disagree. I don’t think anyone should be limited to picking just two exercises for a muscle group because in the case of a muscle with multiple heads or bellies, the functions that can be targeted individually through exercise selection are going to factor in.
The triceps is a great example of this; it has three heads as well as two separate functions. The first is to simply extend the elbow fully. That’s an easy one. Every single triceps exercise you do is going to put that function in focus. What people miss however is the importance of the additional role of the muscle in shoulder extension, or bringing the arm back behind the body.
It is here that one head in particular stands out most – the triceps long head.
In order to fully develop the triceps you’re going to want focus a majority of your effort on this head since it makes up two thirds of the size of the muscle. Consider further that the triceps accounts for two thirds the size of the overall arm development and you see just how quickly this is something that you don’t want to overlook.
Well, as with any muscle, we know that we can stress it via a stretch tension and by also putting it into a fully contracted state under load. For the triceps the stretch on the long head comes when we place the arm over head and apply tension to the muscle. When we talk about putting it into its fully contracted state, we are going to need to get that arm all the way down at our sides and back behind our body as far as we can with the elbow fully straightened.
The tricep exercises chosen for my “only 2” are going to compliment each other perfectly here.
Big triceps are achieved very nicely with this one two combination of tricep exercises. It starts with a lying triceps extension performed with heavier weight than you might be used to. Too often, people treat this as an isolation exercise for the tris. This is not the case. It involves movement at both the shoulder and elbow joint and allows for the handling of pretty significant loads.
If you perform the lowering of the bar slowly, you can get a great eccentric stretch on the triceps which is known to be a great driver of hypertrophy in and of itself. Full extension of the triceps is going to occur when the bar is extended at the end of the rep. Just make sure to not allow the arms to drift completely over the body since this will take tension away at the top of the rep.
Once reaching failure, don’t put the bar down just yet. Take the set to and through failure by performing a mechanical drop set immediately into a close grip bench press with the EZ bar. Make sure to target the lower chest line and keep those elbows tucked tight so you can fry those triceps one more time to failure.
The next exercise is a variation of the triceps pushdown.
Rather than perform a traditional rope pushdown which has some limitations due to the physics of the exercise, we can opt for a rocking pushdown. It is easy to learn once you understand the goal of what you are trying to achieve for your triceps. The goal on any pushdown is to try and keep the line of resistance (the cable or rope) perpendicular to the moving segment (in this case your forearm) for as long as possible during the rep.
This will make the triceps muscle have to work the hardest and keep the most amount of growth producing tension on the muscle at all times.
Varying your body position in space as shown makes it easy to do that and allows you to most importantly, get those arms behind the body to get that long head in its fully contracted state.
Now, if you want to take your tricep training to the next level that hits every head of the triceps from different angle, there are many exercises to choose from. I don’t think we should ever be limited to just two exercises for a muscle group, the triceps included. But you should at least start with these two exercises to build the foundation of your upper arm growth.
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@Fѧhim Jeff has said multiple times that you don’t need supplements to gain muscle, only a good diet and plenty of rest.
I wouldn’t recommend loading up 1st thing.That’s a joint killer.
@BW13YT Would you like to be bored with the warmup that may or may not be specific to your joint needs?
@Chocolatnave123 truth. Emphasis on rest. The hardest thing to be consistent with myself.
Thank you for all your help. I can see a big difference
Caught me at the gym so had to try the rocking pulldown. Magic…thanks as always, Coach.
Today is my “push day”. I will definitely try that cable pushdown. Thanks, Jeff. You’re a treasure.
Jeff, thank you for making these minimalist videos. You have to be motivated to get back into the gym. Time is extremely valuable to me, so I hate wasting it. The exercises with this approach have given me what I need to get my body back into shape. Please keep these videos coming.
1:15 Lying Triceps Extension -> Close Grip Bench Press
2:25 Rocking Pushdown
4:05 Summary
appreciate the markers as a cut-through — even on a short vid it’s helpful
Mind blown by the rocking push down. Never even thought to extend beyond my hips to keep tension like that
This guy is the best. We were doing HIIT even before it was a known ‘thing’ and I wish we’d known Jeff’s refined moves. We approximated them with experience but he’s really closed the door on correct technique.
HIIT is the worst, all that effort and pain for minimal results , id rather just lift and walk than do hiit
Jeff I’ve been watching your videos since i started lifting in 2015 and i think youre the best most informative youtuber.
Could you make a video about scalpular mobility? As someone who works on the computer i feel like my scapula is always up and my shoulders shrugged, im sure alot of people relate
I think he does have a video on it
Thanks for always putting up content helps me learn more each time Im great full for that ❤ your the best and Jesse too have a wonderful day!
Bro we again think the same way! Just made a triceps home workout guide and u’ve made a gym triceps workout guide! Great job!
I started going to the gym a couple of years ago and had never really done much before but I think this was probably the best channel I could have found. Really good at explaining the different workouts and the reasons why they work, definitely glad we have YouTube these days there’s really no reason why someone should be clueless about things anymore.
Constantly switching between pushups and bench dips, for these last few months, has provided me with amazing gainzzz and definition in my arms.
But, these rocking extensions will be on the agenda, for tomorrow!
Thank you Doctor J! I look forward to using this focus on my early morning training session tomorrow. Your videos this year have been super helpful in getting into a whole new (old) physique at 67 and counting! I appreciate you and praying for you and your family.
Would be great if you could show some modified versions of some exercises that are shoulder friendly for anyone who has shoulder issues. I’ve had 3 shoulder surgeries but continue to work out religiously. Having said that, I need to be careful with certain things like benching.
Can the first exercise (Lying Triceps Extension) be done with dumbbells? Jeff has the body that you just can’t stop looking at….it’s just pure perfection!
Lean back tri bands (no pulleys at home) made me focus more on the extension. Tris are barking this morning!
I’m an old guy, 61 years old. been training for 40 + years. Back in the eighties skull crushers super setted with close grip benches was literally the number one tricep exercise in gyms everywhere. Now no 1 does it except me and I guess you Jeff, they work. If you’re limited on time you can get a lot done with that 1 super set. Great to see someone besides me bring it back