![]() ![]() A dipping machine approximates this movement. (Go lower and you risk straining your shoulder joints.) Rest weight plates or chains across your thighs to add resistance. Dip down to where your upper arms are nearly parallel with the floor and rise back up. Your legs are straight and your heels are on a bench or box. It’s performed with your hands slightly behind your back and on a bench or Smith machine bar set low. Second place may be a surprise, because the BENCH DIP has fallen out of favor this century. There is some evidence that pushdowns done with a rope are slightly more stimulative than those done with a straight or angled bar, due to your ability to better focus on contractions by pulling rope ends apart at lockouts. That the PUSHDOWN best activates the showy outer triceps is great news for most of you reading this, because it’s undoubtedly the most popular triceps exercise. In the following chart, we’ve highlighted the top three activators, two for the lateral and medial heads and one for the long head: BEST TRICEPS EXERCISES: LATERAL AND MEDIAL HEADS All triceps exercises work all three heads to some degree, but each exercise also works either the lateral and medial more or the long more. Most of the exercises were triceps isolation lifts (like pushdowns), but the study also included compound lifts, including wide-grip guillotine presses (bench presses to the neck), pushups, and behind-the-neck overhead presses. German researchers conducted a study with 10 resistance-trained young men, measuring, via electromyography (EMG) monitors, the activation of their triceps heads during 11 exercises. We looked at three studies (see “Resources” below), but favored one more than the other two because of its wide variety of exercises measured with 10 subjects. (For this reason, you’ll feel your triceps working while doing straight-arm pulldowns for your lats.) BEST TRICEPS EXERCISE STUDIES While all three heads straighten your arms and keep your arms straight, the long head, because it attaches the forearm to the shoulder, also assists in pulling your arm down and backwards. On the other hand, the long head has a somewhat different agenda. ![]() The long head lies on the inside and attaches at the top to the scapula (shoulder blade).īecause they share similar top and bottom attachments, the lateral and medial heads work similarly. Using your tricep strength, pull the attachment straight out while keeping your upper arms straight, steady, and strong. This exercise mainly works on the long head of your triceps while getting some leg drive from the quads. The medial head lies mostly below the other two heads (it’s visible on either side nearest the elbow) and also attaches at the top to the humerus, below the lateral attachment. The cable overhead extension is a great alternative to cable tricep pushdown that has over 10 different variations. The lateral head lies on the outside and, at the top, attaches to the humerus (upper arm bone). If we start at the bottom, all three triceps heads attach to a wide tendon connected to the ulna (forearm bone).
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