Triceps Development: Science Reveals “The Best (And The Worst)” Triceps Exercises

The triceps, often referred to as the “horseshoes” on the back of your upper arm, are crucial for pushing movements, contributing to overall upper body strength and aesthetics.

However, navigating the vast array of tricep exercises can be overwhelming, leaving you wondering which ones are truly effective and which might even hinder your progress. This article will guide you through the best and worst triceps exercises, helping you build strong and defined arms efficiently.

The Best Triceps Exercises:

1. Close-Grip Bench Press:

This compound exercise reigns supreme for its ability to target all three tricep heads (lateral, medial, and long head) simultaneously. By placing your hands closer together than shoulder-width on the barbell, you shift the focus from your chest to your triceps. This exercise allows you to progressively overload with weights, leading to significant tricep development.

2. Overhead Triceps Extension:

This versatile exercise can be performed with dumbbells, barbells, or cables, providing a variety of options for targeted tricep training. It effectively isolates the long head of the triceps, promoting arm extension and definition. Maintain proper form by keeping your elbows tucked in close to your body throughout the movement.

3. Dips:

Dips are a bodyweight exercise that can be incredibly effective for building tricep strength and size. They primarily target the triceps, with some secondary engagement of the chest and shoulders. However, dips can be challenging for beginners and may put stress on the shoulders. To ensure proper form, keep your core engaged, back straight, and elbows tucked in during the dips. Consider assisted dips using dip bars with weight plates or a dip machine if needed.

4. Seated Triceps Pushdowns:

This exercise allows for controlled isolation of the triceps, making it suitable for beginners and those recovering from injuries. It can be performed using various cable attachments (straight bar, rope, V-bar) to target different aspects of the triceps. Maintain a controlled movement with a slight pause at the peak contraction for optimal results.

5. Diamond Push-Ups:

This push-up variation places your hands close together in a diamond shape, similar to the close-grip bench press. This hand positioning places greater emphasis on the triceps while still engaging the chest and shoulders. Diamond push-ups are a great bodyweight exercise that can be done anywhere, making them convenient and accessible.

The Worst Triceps Exercises:

1. Triceps Dips Behind the Back:

While traditional dips are beneficial, dips performed behind the back place excessive stress on the shoulders, potentially leading to injury. This exercise shifts the focus away from the triceps and can put unnecessary strain on the shoulder joint. Avoid this variation and stick to traditional dips with proper form.

2. Skull Crushers:

This exercise, often performed with an EZ bar or dumbbells, is commonly believed to isolate the long head of the triceps. However, due to the awkward elbow position and potential for shoulder strain, it’s not recommended. Safer and more effective alternatives like overhead tricep extensions exist for targeting the long head.

3. Triceps Kickbacks:

While seemingly simple, triceps kickbacks offer minimal tricep activation compared to other exercises. The isolation of the triceps in this movement is limited, and the potential for lower back strain due to improper form is high.

4. Machine Tricep Extensions:

Machine exercises can be useful for isolation and controlled movements, but for triceps, they often fall short compared to free-weight exercises. Machines can limit the natural range of motion and may not effectively engage stabilizer muscles, hindering overall tricep development.

5. Rope Pushdowns with Body Swing:

Using momentum and swinging your body while performing rope pushdowns is a common mistake. This technique reduces the effectiveness of the exercise by relying on momentum instead of pure tricep strength. Maintain proper form and focus on controlled movements for optimal results.

Triceps are both simple and complex. On the one hand, they have a basic job: to move your arms from contraction (bent) to extension (straight) via a hinge joint. On the other hand, their anatomy is deceptively intricate.

They’re made up of three heads, two of which are similar and one of which goes its own way with a completely different attachment. So, no single exercise does a great job of working all three. But what does the best job of hitting each head? And what doesn’t do a particularly good job of hitting any of them? We’ve read the scientific studies. We have the answers.

Triceps Anatomy

If we start at the bottom, all three heads attach to a wide tendon connected to the ulna (forearm bone). The lateral head lies on the outside and, at the top, attaches to the humerus (upper arm bone). 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 long head lies on the inside and attaches at the top to the scapula (shoulder blade).

“Because they share similar top and bottom attachments, the lateral and medial heads work similarly. On the other hand, the long head has a somewhat different agenda. 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 backward”. (For this reason, you’ll feel your triceps working while doing straight-arm pulldowns for your lats.)

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Study Time

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. 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. 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. 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 For Lateral And Medial Heads

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. 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.

Second place may be a surprise because the BENCH DIP has fallen out of favor this century. It’s performed with your hands slightly behind your back and on a bench or Smith machine bar set low. Your legs are straight and your heels are on a bench or box. Dip down to where your upper arms are nearly parallel with the floor and rise back up. (Go lower and you risk straining your shoulder joints.) Rest weight plates or chains across your thighs to add resistance. A dipping machine approximates this movement.

Bench Dips

Honorable mention goes to the regular DIP, keeping your torso upright, as well as the EZ-BAR LYING TRICEPS EXTENSION (a.k.a. skull crusher).

Best For Long Head

The best exercise for the long head is the INCLINE DUMBBELL KICKBACK, which is performed face-down on an incline bench (set at around 30 degrees) and with your upper arms are parallel to the floor. As we noted, helping to pull your arms backward is another unique function of the long head, and the German study demonstrated that this incline position is about 20% more effective than regular kickbacks, which are done with both your arms and torso parallel to the floor. (Both methods work the long head much more than the lateral or medial heads.)

In second place is any OVERHEAD TRICEPS EXTENSION, whether with an EZ-bar, dumbbell(s), cable, or machine. By starting each rep from a fully stretched position (elbows up), the long head contracts with more force and it take on more work than the other two heads.

By the way, the BEHIND-THE-NECK SHOULDER PRESS, a shoulder exercise, was shown in the German study to be remarkably effective at hitting the long head. We suspect this occurs more at lockouts when the triceps take over much of the work and the long heads fully contract. To turn this shoulder builder into a true triceps grower, try doing these in a power rack or on a Smith machine set up so you only move through the top third of typical reps.

“Worst” Triceps Exercise

The guillotine press scored relatively low in the German study. And yet, in another EMG study, with only one subject (the researcher), the guillotine still ranked ahead of the CLOSE-GRIP BENCH PRESS for triceps stimulation. As that study confirmed, both presses are mostly chest exercises. That’s not to say you should never do presses for tri’s. Presses main advantage is progressive overload; you can lift heavier metal than with other tri exercises.

However, “Don’t do them first in your triceps routine if your main goal is growth and not pressing strength. Instead, pre-exhaust your tri’s by doing presses last after isolation exercises like pushdowns and overhead extensions. In that way, your tri’s give out before your pecs. Also, as with overhead presses, you may want to do the lying presses in a rack, focusing only on lockouts. Pressing can be a valuable way of working triceps, but much more so if you do it at the right time in the right way”.

Sample Routine

When assembling a triceps routine, try to include at least one exercise that better targets the lateral and medial heads and at least one that better targets the long head. Here’s a sample routine that includes two of each:

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