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The Best Triceps Exercise

December 29 2009

There are plenty of triceps exercises, but which is the very best triceps exercise?

triceps muscle showing long head & short head

What are the different Triceps muscle heads?

As shown in the pic, the triceps Brachii (cep=head) have three heads (medial head lies beneath other heads) :

  • Long head
  • Medial Head
  • Lateral head

What is the function of triceps muscle?

The major function of triceps or all the triceps head is the extension of your elbow (push your elbows away from you)

On the other hand,  triceps long head is a bi-articulate muscle or crosses the elbow and the shoulder joint and hence has the function of shoulder extension (bring the arm to the rear of the body) too.

So which is the best triceps exercise?

  • The best tricep exercise will be the one which maximally activates all three heads, especially the triceps long head
  • Triceps long head has the greatest volume and length compared to other heads. So you will get the greatest gains if you build your long head than any other triceps heads.
  • You can only maximally activate your tricep long head if you keep your arms over head as in overhead extensions & dumbell french press. Triceps exercises which have your arms down like cable pressdowns do not maximally activate the triceps long head muscle.

    tricep overhead extensions

    All the other heads will be activated with just elbow extension; It doesn’t matter whether your arms are over head or not.

Practical Applications

If you had to pick one triceps exercise, the best triceps exercise would be one which bring your arm overhead, like overhead extensions or dumbell french press.

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Anoop | Tue January 05, 2010  

Hi Jim,

And try using a cable for overhand extensions with both arms.

But instead of the usual where the cable runs from the top and you lean forward, run the cable from the bottom and stand up and pull it straight up ( just like a two hand dumbell overhead extension).

The line of pull is a lot better this way. And the two arms makes sure that you are not compensating and taking the weight off by moving the arm.

Try it and see how it feels.

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