Tricep excersizes

joejoem

Hey, I am unhappy with my tricep development. I have been doing tricep dips each njight Ive been at the gym for the last few months but the growth is very slow compared to my other muscles. I also use dumbell, lieing down with my arm straight up, bending at the elbow, and then on the cable machine with a straight bar, bending at the elbows pushing my hands toward my feet.

What do you find is the best excersise for triceps, I have been doing tricep dips every night I am at the gym (I go to the gym night on, night off, night on etc) and then every second gym night I do all the excersises above, could I be overdoing it? Should I focus on just one excersise?

Cheers

g'em

I would have though you were overtraining the triceps tbh. Dips, push-downs and lying DB extensions are three brilliant excercises for the tricep muscles so you really should be seeing some improvement. About five months ago I started doing tricep work in supersets with biceps one day a week and went from barely being able to hold up my body weight on the dip bars to doing 6-8 dips no prob and great definition. The push-downs were what really started building up the strength for me- keep elbopws tight to the side to isolate the triceps, stand with feet either shoulder width apart or one a little in front of the other, very gently bend the knees and contract the abs on the positive. Don't 'swing' the movement or your shoulders will pick up the slack.

If you have access to an EZ curl bar, try doing incline overhead extensions with it- this helps to hit all three of the tricep muscles better than most other isolation excercises and work as heavy as you can go.

Or try cable rope/ curl bar overhead extensions- haven't tried these myself but they've been recommended and plan to try them in my new program next week.

I'd do 3-4 excercises on triceps with 4 sets 0f 8-10 reps at moderate to heavy weight in each

ronbyrne2005

want bigger triceps? only work them once a week(preferably same day as chest /shoulders) but go heavy doing 5-7 reps by 4 sets of dips (when you can do more than 7or 8 reps increase weight, eat well too ,protein and carbs after workout etc.

amazingemmet

You could be leaning to far forward when when doing you dips adn targeting your pecs more try do your dips while holding half lever and that will work them and you abs really hard. And as ahs been mentioned you could be overdoing it a little

Superdub2

dips are the best no doubt but u need a certaindegree of strenght there to do those.

get the Bodybuilding Encyclopedia by arnie, it has every exercise and diet plan imaginable and has loads of pics. its brilliant and is bout 25 in hodges figgis

Flex

I find 4 sets of Skullcrushers and 3 sets of close grip bench press with a rep range of 6-9 once a week on chest day works great.

joejoem

amazingemmet wrote:

You could be leaning to far forward when when doing you dips adn targeting your pecs more try do your dips while holding half lever and that will work them and you abs really hard. And as ahs been mentioned you could be overdoing it a little

I tried this two days ago, still sore, I think I was leaning too far forward. I was at a stage where I was trying to tie weights around my waist to add to the dips, but when I was leaning back (well my back horrizontal) I could barely get the 3 sets of 8 reps.

I also tried that cable machine one which helped too, I think this will help, will also try giving them more rest. Thanks everyone.

On a seperate happy note, I talked my way out of my Crunch membership, so I can now go to Loughlinstown. Finally, a squat rack and mopre than one weights bench! I will miss the lovely girls that a gym like that brings though.

Dragan

I would still emphasis that doing your triceps every night you are in the gym is too much.

Remember, you don't grow while you are lifting, you grow while you are resting.

Also, the fact that you had been doing the same excercises for months ( or at least this is the impression i got from your post ) was never going to help you. I would suggest you change things up every 8 to 10 weeks.

Bullockshaver

i find when a i do a bicep curl i can really feel a strain on the Tricep when i fully lock my arm full on the downstroke
many People i see doing a tricep curl barely even do 90 degrees of movement

joejoem

Bullockshaver wrote:

i find when a i do a bicep curl i can really feel a strain on the Tricep when i fully lock my arm full on the downstroke
many People i see doing a tricep curl barely even do 90 degrees of movement

Yeah I dont really find my tricep strained at all there, I do one curl at a time, and I start at my hips and bring it all the way up, but stop just before my joint runs out of turn, lets say 135 degrees

Dragan

I would normally recommend that you don't lock your arm out fully, your just putting the pressure on the joint instead of on the muscle. YOu can still get a full stretch coming just short of lock out.

joejoem

Yeah sorry, should have specified, I never lock out my arm in any excersise.

Guv

Dips are okay but they will never isolate the tricep fully.
Try rope pushdowns and all manner of cable movements where the tricep is isolated. Bench will work triceps as well. No need to train them any more than once a week.

Reyman

I notice quite a few people here saying once a week is fine for training the triceps. Is this enough stimulation for small muscles like the triceps?
I can understand this approach alright for the big muscles like the legs but i'm just curious. it goes against the traditional theories of training a muscle twice to three times a week.

Anyone got good results from this approach?

Dragan

Reyman wrote:

I notice quite a few people here saying once a week is fine for training the triceps. Is this enough stimulation for small muscles like the triceps?
I can understand this approach alright for the big muscles like the legs but i'm just curious. it goes against the traditional theories of training a muscle twice to three times a week.

Anyone got good results from this approach?

What traditional theories????

The one from Arnold or other past Mr Olympia's in Flex????

Remember, most people here are training naturally, therefore hitting ANY muscle once a week directly should be just fine for them. ( all your muscles will also be hit indirectly on different days don't forget )

Sure, sometimes i have added 500 calories a day and 2 hours more sleep and hit each muscle twice a week, but only every now and then. For most people, one direct workout, with good form, heavy weight and decent intensity will be enough.

From what i normally see in the gym, very few people lift with decent form of high intensity and should be worrying more about that!!!!

g'em

Reyman wrote:

I notice quite a few people here saying once a week is fine for training the triceps. Is this enough stimulation for small muscles like the triceps?

Anyone got good results from this approach?

like Dragan said, once a week is, and nearly always has been, the approach taken. I didn't start seeing any huge results until I broke up my workout to concentrate on certain bodyparts on certain days, and the triceps have shown most improvement.

Guv

The triceps is not a small muscle group! In most people 67% of your arm size comes from the triceps.

The Triceps Brachii has three heads which connect the humerus and scapula to the forearm bone called the ulna. These heads are known as the Lateral, Medial, and Long heads.

The Lateral head is located on the outward facing side of the humerus. This head is most responsible for the horseshoe shape of the Triceps.

The Medial head is located towards the midline of the body.

The Long head along the bottom side of the humerus and is that largest of the three heads.

Once a week hard is the way to go imo.

Reyman

Points taken! I suspect the key word here is 'intensity'.

You're not going to get anywhere doing a routine 3x8 or 4x6 once a week.
So I take it you have to 'blitz' the muscle with three or four exercise variations at a high work rate for this to work?

Dragan

Exactly, to work the muscle proper, you need to hit it hard, and fast and deep, activating as much muscle fibre as you can, stretching it and breaking it down. It doesn't take long to do this, and despite what anyone tells you there is no such thing as over training ONCE you are only hitting the body parts once a week.

People who talk about overtraining are generally under eating and not resting enough!!!

incisor71

I get the impression that it's taboo to be training any muscle group more than once a week.

Surely that counts just for people who have raised their overall strength level to some bodily balanced level (i.e., no weak links in the chain such as wrists, hand grip etc.)??? Sounds to me like a very advanced-level, hardcore workout architecture.

(Or maybe it's time to have a chat with my trainer and re-architect the split between muscle groups...!)

{Edit: on reflection, I do a lower body weights routine once a week - which is about enough, as it's a fecking killer!!}

Dragan

Once again, it all depends entirely on the goal you are training for. The OP's post led me to believe that he was training to add size to his triceps, and as such, it would be best to hit them hard, once a week and leave it at that.

People can only recover so much, and unless you are running a cycle, that will always be a limiting factor. As i said earlier, i have added 2 hours of sleep to my normal eight, and added 500 calories a day and worked each bodypart twice a week. But that is just what suits me, and only sometimes.

I have a genetic potential for building muscle, but the one advantage i seem to have over others is my recovery. I come back fast and i still won't work each muscle group more than once a week, occassionally twice everynow and then. Not as long as my goal is size.

The difference between training naturally, and training while your "on" is huge. Make sure you information sources are not biased towards the latter.

And remember, that while you may have a trainer, his knowledge is not the be all and end all of what you can/could/should do to acheive your goals. Educate yourself also, ask the question that spring to mind. Ensure you get the best for your money. If you want to try something, but it to him and give your reasons and see what he says.

Always remember that he can watch you and make sure you get 12 reps with good form or whatever, but only you will know how the lift actually feels!

incisor71

Lucky man, with all that genetic potential!

Dragan wrote:

The difference between training naturally, and training while your "on" is huge. Make sure you information sources are not biased towards the latter.

I've read it a few times and still can't grasp what you mean by being "on" in this context.... could you please clarify?

{Edit:

Dragan wrote:

And remember, that while you may have a trainer, his knowledge is not the be all and end all of what you can/could/should do to acheive your goals. Educate yourself also, ask the question that spring to mind. Ensure you get the best for your money. If you want to try something, but it to him and give your reasons and see what he says.

I put questions and suggestions and challenges to my trainer all the time. But with regard to self-education, there's so much damn info out there that it's difficult to sort out the wheat from the chaff, even in books which claim to do just that. So to some extent I still am dependent on him for the last word.}

Dragan

Yeah, im pretty lucky in that regard.

By "on" i am referring to people who will be on a cycle of anabolic steroids in order to assist there training.