Top Triceps Workouts

Let's face it, even if you're not trying to become a true mass monster, most everyone who lifts wants bigger arms. They are one of the most exposed muscle groups in street clothes—they identify you as an iron warrior. And when it comes to big arms, most bodybuilders focus on the biceps. 

While big peaking biceps are impressive when hitting a biceps pose, they won't bump up your overall arm size like titanic triceps will—especially when your arms are in their natural and relaxed state. In fact, the triceps compose the majority of the muscle mass on your upper arms—as much as 75%—and slapping mass on them is essential to stretching that tape measure an extra inch or two. If you really want to bring out the big guns, you have to hit your triceps with everything you've got.

Triceps 101

The triceps brachii—or “three-headed muscle”—is made up of three muscle heads that start from different points on the arm. These muscles converge onto one common tendon that crosses the elbow joint and extends the arm. The lateral head is on the outer side of the arm; the long head is on the back of the arm; and the medial head is on the inner side of the arm, down close by the elbow.

Because these heads are so distinct, they even appear to function independently of one another. Due to the differences between these heads, they require a variety of movements to target them all.

Both the lateral and medial heads originate from the back of the humerus, or upper arm bone. The long head starts all the way at the shoulder blade. In addition, while the lateral and medial heads receive their signals from the radial nerve, the long head is controlled by the axillary nerve.

Lastly, the composition of each head is unique: The lateral head is made up of large type II muscle fibers; the medial head is composed of smaller type I fibers; and the long head features both type I and type II muscle fibers. Understanding these differences is important to understanding how hypertrophy works.

Type I muscle fibers, also called “slow twitch fibers,” form your endurance muscles. They are composed of smaller, aerobic muscle cells—meaning they largely rely on oxygen for energy—designed to function efficiently during long, sustained efforts. This is the tissue developed through low-intensity steady-state cardio, like distance running. A marathoner’s physique is dominated by these types of muscle fibers.

Sprinters, on the other hand, exhibit far more obvious musculature. This is because short, powerful exertion is the work of Type II “fast twitch” muscle fibers. These fibers are made up of much larger cells containing more glycogen than type I fibers, which is their primary energy source. Because of this they are capable of greater force, but they also fatigue more quickly. However, it’s precisely this fatigue that we’re after.

The combination of mechanical and metabolic stress placed on these muscle fibers by resistance training, including specific methods like pushing past failure and increased time under tension, triggers an increase in mitochondria, capillaries, and glycogen, which is what leads to greater overall muscle mass. It’s the presence of these type II muscle fibers in the lateral head of the triceps brachii and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the long head, that makes them perfect targets for hypertrophy training. 

So what does all of this mean? While the triceps are considered a single muscle group, don't make the mistake of trying a single approach to training them. It takes a wide range of movements to utilize the unique characteristics of each muscle head, and a varying range of motion to maximize the impact of your training. Bigger impact means bigger results.

Cross-Body Triceps Extension

Choosing exercises that hit all three heads of the triceps is critical for balanced triceps mass. That said, the lateral head is the one that sits on the outside of your arm and forms the bulk of what’s known as “the horseshoe”. It also adds width to your arms when viewed from the front. So if horseshoe triceps—not to mention bigger guns, period—are what you’re after, put the lateral head front and center in your arm routine.

While cable pressdowns are great for targeting the lateral head, many guys tend to do more pushing with the shoulders and chest than extending the elbows with the triceps, which defeats the whole purpose of an isolation exercise. This is one reason why I developed the cross-body triceps extension.

The upper arm position this exercise requires takes the shoulders and pecs completely out of the picture and forces you to use only your triceps for better isolation of the lateral head.

Another great benefit of this exercise is that the unique angle you use allows you to hit different muscle fibers in the triceps that you may have been neglecting with standard pressdowns. The more muscle fibers you can stimulate, the more mass you’ll pack on, and the more carved out your horseshoes will be.

To do this exercise, stand in the middle of a cable crossover apparatus holding a rope handle attached to the high pulley in one hand or, if the column is adjustable, set the pulley slightly higher than shoulder height. Start with your upper arm extended out to your side, almost parallel to the floor, with your elbow bent so that your hand is in front of your chest. Keeping your upper arm stationary, straighten your arm until your elbow is fully extended out to the side. Squeeze the contraction hard in your triceps, then return to the start position.

Start position:

Arm-extended position:

For a triceps routine that utilizes this exercise, Download This Workout.

Cable Lying Triceps Extension

The lying triceps extension—done either with dumbbells or a barbell—is a great exercise for building overall mass on the triceps. But a lot of guys complain that they can't really feel the triceps much during this exercise. This is due simply to physics.

When you do the lying triceps extension, your upper arm remains stationary while only your forearm moves by extending at the elbow. The weight ends up moving in a semi-arc pattern, which means there is a combination of both vertical movement and horizontal movement.

The problem is that since gravity only exerts force in the vertical direction, you don't have any resistance when the weight moves more horizontally, such as at the top of the movement. So you can't really get a good contraction of the triceps muscle towards the top of this exercise. This is just one reason why I like doing the cable lying triceps extension.

The cable provides continuous tension so that you get adequate resistance from the bottom all the way through to the top of the range of motion. This will allow you to use more muscle fibers in the triceps, and you will definitely feel that!

To do the cable lying triceps extension, place a flat bench in the middle of a cable crossover station with the head of the bench facing the cable pulley. Lie face up on the bench while holding an EZ-bar or straight bar handle attached to the low pulley using an overhand grip. Your upper arms should be perpendicular to your body, with your elbows pointing towards the ceiling. Your elbows should be bent with the bar attachment just above your forehead.

Keeping your upper arms stationary, contract your triceps to extend your arms at the elbows until your arms are completely straight. Hold this top position for a second as you contract your triceps as hard as possible. Then slowly lower the bar back to the start position and repeat for reps.

Reverse-Grip Triceps Pressdown

The reverse-grip triceps pressdown is a great way to place more emphasis on the medial head of the triceps.

Remember, the triceps is composed of three heads that start from different points on the arm and converge onto one common tendon that crosses the elbow joint and extends the arm. The lateral head is on the outer side of the arm, the long head is on the back of the arm, and the medial head is on the inner side of the arm down close by the elbow. Turning your hands to an underhand grip while doing triceps pressdowns places more focus on the medial head to build better-balanced triceps.

This version of the triceps pressdown also makes it impossible for the shoulders to assist the triceps as can happen with regular overhand triceps pressdowns, so you will need to go much lighter with the reverse-grip, but there is much better focus on just the triceps.

And check out this video for a quick demo on proper form:

Dumbbell Kickbacks

Nothing looks better popping out of a T-shirt than a well-developed triceps lateral head – the part of the horseshoe-shaped muscle that runs down the side of the arm. When it's got some mass to it, it adds width to your pipes. And when it's well defined, it makes the triceps look as if it's carved out of stone. When it comes to triceps, few exercises are as popular as the triceps pressdown.

After all, it's easy to do and you can load up the weight stack with a pretty decent amount of weight. Especially if you do the "full-body" version you see many guys doing. The dumbbell triceps kickback on the other hand, is often viewed as an exercise only done by women, although I’m clearly not talking about women who follow my training programs.

But what if I told you that the dumbbell triceps kickback is one of the most effective exercises that you can do for the triceps? According to research from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, you may want to start adding dumbbell triceps kickbacks to your triceps workouts immediately!

At the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, researchers did a study for the American Council on Exercise (ACE) to discover which triceps exercises best hit the triceps. They placed electrodes on the long head and the lateral head triceps of 15 female subjects and had them do a variety of triceps exercises that included the dumbbell kickback and the triceps pressdown done with a standard bar attachment and a rope attachment. They measured the muscle activity of the triceps long head and triceps lateral head while doing each exercise with 70% of their one-rep max (a weight they could lift for about 10-12 reps).

They discovered that the dumbbell triceps kickback increased muscle activity of both the triceps long head and lateral head significantly more than either version of the pressdown. In fact, the kickback increased muscle activity of the triceps long head and lateral head by about 20% and 50% more, respectively, than the triceps pressdown!

Another surprising finding of this study was that while the pressdown done with a rope attachment increased the use of the triceps lateral head by 15% more than pressdowns with the straight-bar attachment, both versions of the pressdowns were significantly inadequate at targeting the lateral head as compared to the dumbbell triceps kickback and even triceps dips.

Perhaps you're skeptical of kickbacks serving as a mass-building exercise for the triceps. Most people think of it as a finesse move, particularly because it doesn't allow you to go very heavy. But you can still build muscle with light weight; the focus of this move is targeting the lateral head, not building overall size. We're fine-tuning the guns, if you will.

So consider adding dumbbell triceps kickbacks to your triceps workouts. It works both the long head and the lateral head equally and better than most other triceps exercises. I'm not suggesting that you replace the triceps pressdown completely, but consider using both triceps pressdowns and kickbacks in your triceps training regularly.

Here's a quick description of how to perform dumbbell kickbacks properly:

Place your left knee and palm on a flat bench so that your torso is parallel with the floor. (You can also do kickbacks without a bench by simply leaning forward at the waist, keeping your back flat and stabilizing yourself with your off hand on your knee.) Holding a dumbbell in your right hand and keeping your right foot flat on the floor, press your right arm tight against your side with the upper arm parallel to the floor and your forearm hanging straight down so that your elbow is at a 90-degree angle. Keeping your upper arm stationary, contract your triceps to straighten your elbow until it's fully extended. Contract the triceps hard for a second in this position, then slowly return the dumbbell to the starting position. Repeat for reps, then switch arms.

Below is a sample workout that incorporates dumbbell kickbacks. While the routine certainly emphasizes the triceps' lateral head, it hits the other heads sufficiently as well—the long head via overhead extensions and the medial head with reverse-grip pressdowns. Not to mention, it's a solid workout for building overall mass, thanks to the inclusion of close-grip bench press, a multi-joint exercise that allows you to go relatively heavy. Give this routine a try for bigger triceps that have a nice "lateral" flare to them

Download This Workout

Triceps Kickback Workouts

Below you'll find four separate workouts based off my Tip of the Day videos on triceps dumbbell kickbacks (videos below).

• The first workout is a triceps routine with kickbacks performed after two heavier moves (close-grip bench press and lying triceps extension) but before a finisher of cable overhead extensions.
• The second workout is a pre-exhaust routine where kickbacks are performed first, before three sets of dips, one high-rep set of bench dips, and cable pressdowns to finish. For maximum intensity, take all sets of dips to muscle failure, including bench dips.
• The third workout is a triceps-biceps superset routine where prone incline dumbbell curls are paired with supine kickbacks to finish things off with a bang.
• The fourth workout is another triceps-biceps superset, only this time with the prone curls and supine kickbacks done first to serve as a pre-exhaust.

Work these routines into your schedule by doing one each week wherever triceps (and biceps, in the case of the third and fourth workouts) normally falls in your training split. Or, you can do two per week if you normally train arms twice weekly.

Download These Workouts

Cable Triceps Kickbacks

Back in the day, before cable machines were invented and only free weights were available, the triceps kickback was the only way to do triceps extensions with your arms by your sides, which better targets the triceps lateral head. But today you can also do kickbacks with cables. This can be better than dumbbells because it provides continuous tension on the triceps throughout the entire range of motion of the exercise. Plus, you can change the grip you use to alter the focus on the different triceps heads.

Let's briefly review the triceps anatomy. As I mentioned, the triceps are composed of three different heads, the lateral head, the long head and the medial head. Although the three triceps heads work together, the triceps kickback places a good amount of focus on the lateral head, especially when you use a neutral grip. However, you can help the emphasis and more of the focus onto the medial head of the triceps when you do kickbacks by changing your grip to an underhand grip.

Using different attachments help. This is especially true when you use a neutral grip, such as with a rope attachment being used on the cable triceps kickback or with a neutral grip on the dumbbell when doing the dumbbell triceps kickback.

To do the cable triceps kickback, attach a D-handle to a low cable pulley. Step back a couple of feet from the pulley machine to provide tension on the cable in the start position. Bend forward at the hips to get your torso close to parallel with the floor. Use your non-working arm to support your torso against your thigh, and keep you working arm pressed against your side while holding the attachment with an underhand grip.

Extend your arm at the elbow while keeping your arm at your side. Only your forearm should be moving as you extend your arm back. Forcefully contract your triceps in the top position for a second and then slowly return the handle to the start position. Repeat for reps. When you completed all reps on one side, switch arms and repeat in the same manner. A great way to bump up the intensity on cable triceps kickbacks is to switch from one arm to other without resting. Your non-working arm gets a quick rest while the other arm is working. Do this until you have completed 3-4 sets with each arm. Your triceps won't know what hit them!

So be sure to add the cable triceps kickback to your next triceps workout. It makes a great exercise to add towards the end of your triceps workouts.

Reverse-Grip Cable Kickbacks

The best way to go about beefing up your triceps is to make sure you devote at least one exercise to each of the three triceps heads. You likely have your long head covered with one or two varieties of overhead extension, and your lateral head is getting worked with pressdowns, which most guys do on a regular basis.

But the one head you’re most likely to overlook is your medial head, the one that provides mass just above your elbow on the pinky side. Start giving your medial head the attention it deserves by doing cable triceps kickbacks with an underhand (reverse) grip, where your palm faces forward at the beginning of the move then points toward the floor at full elbow extension. This simple flip of the wrist targets that medial head, while the cable provides continuous tension to place more stress on the triceps for better muscle growth.

To work reverse-grip cable kickbacks into your existing triceps workout, simply insert them in place of cable pressdowns every so often, or at the tail end of your routine.

Download This Workout

Close-Grip Bench Press

The close-grip bench press is a great exercise for building mass on the triceps. Because it's a multi-joint exercise that involves the use of several major muscle groups, it allows you to use more weight than single-joint exercises. This places more overload on the triceps and that can instigate greater muscle growth. The question that arises with the close-grip bench press is how close a grip should be used. Many people use an extremely close grip with the hands only inches apart.

One study, however, reported that going any closer than a shoulder-width grip did not further increase the triceps involvement. Yet going closer than a shoulder-width grip did increase stress on the wrists. The take-home point here is to use a shoulder-width grip on the bar and go no closer. That will maximize triceps involvement and reduce the stress on the wrists. When you do the close-grip bench press, keep your elbows tucked in at your sides as you lower the bar to your lower chest/upper abs. Then focus on using the triceps to press the bar back up to full arm extension, contracting your triceps hard in the top position.

For the close-grip bench press, I actually prefer a "false grip" or "open grip," where the thumbs are not wrapped around the bar. This helps to keep the bar low on my palms, which allows for a better contraction of the triceps. I do, however, prefer a standard grip on regular bench presses. This is just how I prefer to do close-grip bench presses. It's a dangerous grip and there's a chance that the bar can slip and drop on your chest. So I don't recommend this grip for everyone. It takes time to get good at using this grip. If you use it, PLEASE be careful!

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Close-Grip Bench Grip Tips

In the video below, I show you how to target the triceps to a greater extent (and minimize chest and shoulder involvement) with some simple modifications on close-grip bench presses: Using a Smith machine, flipping around on the bench for a better path of motion, using a thumbless grip, keeping your hands shoulder-width and your elbows in tight. I explain and demonstrate all these techniques in the video below, so check it out.

But now I'll show you how to put the exercise into an actual workout. Below is a triceps routine that has you hitting the muscle group twice a week. The first time out (Day 1), you'll be doing Smith machine close-grip bench first in the workout, when you're strongest and can use the most weight. This will allow you to maximize overload and encourage greater muscle growth. The second time you train triceps, however, you'll do the close-grip presses last in the workout to pre-exhaust the triceps before hitting them with the compound movement (the first three exercises in the Day 2 workout are single-joint moves, while close-grip bench is a multi-joint/compound exercise).

The rep schemes in these two workouts are a bit different. All sets fall into the hypertrophy window, but Day 1 consists of slightly lower reps (where you should be going heavier) than Day 2. This is most evident on the Smith machine close-grip bench presses: 6-8 reps is a very different feel than 15-20, yet the combination of these two rep ranges will be great for sparking growth. Obviously, you'll need to lighten the weight considerably on Day 2. Just make sure you're going nice and heavy on the close-grip presses (while still using strict form) on Day 1 to really challenge the triceps and force them to grow.

Feel free to do this workout wherever triceps falls in your training split, provided you're hitting the muscle group twice a week. If you do, say, chest and triceps in the same workout, do this routine as the triceps portion. Same goes for if you train biceps and triceps together. This is a simple routine to plug into your existing program.

Also, since both of these workouts are fairly high volume for the triceps, have at least two full days in between them —so if you do the Day 1 workout on a Monday, don't do the Day 2 workout before Thursday.

Crush this routine and let me and the JYM Army know how it went. Find me on my Facebook page or head to the JYM Army Facebook group page.

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Partial Reps for Complete Gains

While isolation movements are a great way to build quality muscle on any body part, basic multi-joint exercises are the best way to pack on overall size and build strength. Two multi-joint exercises the triceps play a key role in are the bench press and the shoulder press. For both, triceps involvement kicks in big time during the last half of the range of motion (ROM).

Because these exercises allow you to load the bar with more weight than the full ROM version, doing them in just the top half of the movement is a great way to overload your triceps, forcing them to grow bigger and stronger. Not only will these exercises get you some big numbers on the tape measure, the strength carryover will get you some big numbers on the bench press and shoulder press.

Close-Grip Half Bench Press

Set up a flat bench in the middle of a power rack. Lie down on the bench to gauge your full range of motion in the close-grip bench press. Place the safety pins at the halfway point between your chest and where the bar would be at full arm extension over your chest. To perform the exercise: Grab the bar with an overhand grip with your hands shoulder-width apart. Unrack the bar and hold it at full arm extension over your chest. Slowly lower the bar, keeping your elbows close to your sides, until the bar just touches the safety pins. Immediately press the bar back up to full extension, holding the top position for two seconds as you flex your triceps. Repeat for reps.

Overhead Half Press

Sit on a low back bench or a flat bench in a power rack and set the safety pins just above your head. Grab the bar with an overhand, shoulder width grip. Unrack the bar and hold it at full arm extension over your head. Slowly lower the bar, keeping your elbows pointing as far forward as possible, until the bar just makes contact with the safety pins. Immediately press the bar back up overhead and hold for 2 seconds at full arm extension while you forcefully contract your triceps. Repeat for reps.

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