Triceps

MEB11 · May 25th, 2009, 02:46 AM

Trying to increase the overall size of my triceps as well as add definition, been doing triceps push downs as well as dips, I've noticed a little change, but I was wondering what would be the best exercise to accomplish that goal?

**Steel_UK** · May 25th, 2009, 06:48 AM

Skull crushes, dips, pull downs, bench press, incline press, narrow grip bench press, narrow grip incline press, shoulder press, military press. These are to name just a few different exercises that hit the triceps and also work the surrounding stabilising muscle groups.

**Maveaider** · May 27th, 2009, 10:49 AM

Skull crushers, as steel UK said. Make sure to vary your training and mix it up a bit - do you do body weight dips, or do you add plates?

**Old_Fart2** · May 27th, 2009, 11:44 AM

Here's some thoughts I have:

I always work triceps with chest and biceps with back. My reasoning is that the muscle is pre-exhausted with the chest work, then you can easily fatigue the muscle with a couple of more exercises. My favorites are close grip bench, press downs and weighted dips.

If you work triceps on a separate day from chest, you're essentially training the muscle twice (once with chest and once alone). I think that's risking overtraining the muscle and can actually stall growth. One of Mike Mentzer's principles that actually made sense was do the minimum amount of work to facilitate muscle growth. Then let your diet and rest complete the process.

So stick with the basic compound exercises and don't overtrain. You should see gains.

**wil** · May 27th, 2009, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old_Fart2

Here's some thoughts I have:

I always work triceps with chest and biceps with back. My reasoning is that the muscle is pre-exhausted with the chest work, then you can easily fatigue the muscle with a couple of more exercises. My favorites are close grip bench, press downs and weighted dips.

If you work triceps on a separate day from chest, you're essentially training the muscle twice (once with chest and once alone). I think that's risking overtraining the muscle and can actually stall growth. One of Mike Mentzer's principles that actually made sense was do the minimum amount of work to facilitate muscle growth. Then let your diet and rest complete the process.

So stick with the basic compound exercises and don't overtrain. You should see gains.

Exactly. I go for months without even doing ANY direct arm work. With heavy (for me anyway) bench/incline/overhead presses my triceps get plenty of work. And all the rows and pulldowns/pullups will hit the biceps.

**justaguy87337** · May 27th, 2009, 02:12 PM

i noticed a huge difference when I started doing decline close grip bench 4x8 and reverse grip bench 4x8, follow that up with kickbacks and my tris are blown up.

**tooncesthecat** · May 27th, 2009, 06:18 PM

And to the original poster...the definition part...diet/cardio...period!

**Maveaider** · May 28th, 2009, 04:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old_Fart2

Here's some thoughts I have:

I always work triceps with chest and biceps with back. My reasoning is that the muscle is pre-exhausted with the chest work, then you can easily fatigue the muscle with a couple of more exercises. My favorites are close grip bench, press downs and weighted dips.

If you work triceps on a separate day from chest, you're essentially training the muscle twice (once with chest and once alone). I think that's risking overtraining the muscle and can actually stall growth. One of Mike Mentzer's principles that actually made sense was do the minimum amount of work to facilitate muscle growth. Then let your diet and rest complete the process.

So stick with the basic compound exercises and don't overtrain. You should see gains.

This is really interesting - I've always trained my triceps on a different day from chest because of fear of overtraining, so I'm probably mistaken. I'm currently doing shoulders/triceps on the same day and I find that it works best if I start off with shoulder press; my delts and triceps are so fatigued towards the end of the workout that shoulder press is a no-no. This is evidenced in the shower afterwards when I try to wash my hair and can't reach my head lol.

In light of this information I think I'm gonna change my routine so taht chest/triceps are together and also back/biceps. I'll report back with info on gains as I'm currently bulking and looking for the best way to do so.