Building Better Triceps

Posted by Shannon Clark Jan 9, 2007

If your goal is to get big arms than your tricep training is going to be vitally important for you. Your triceps make up a large majority of your total arm mass therefore spending enough time doing the proper exercises will definitely pay off.

One mistake many people make is mostly doing tricep pushdowns as their main tricep exercise. While this exercise is a nice way to isolate the muscle specifically, it unfortunately is not your best option.

If you look at the triceps of male gymnasts, you will find some of the most remarkable muscles around. Then look at the movements they are doing - they include plenty of dip and pressing motions. So, in order for you to develop triceps such as these, you need to include these actions in your workouts rather than those pressdowns that aren't going to get you very far.

Better choices of exercises would include parallel dips, bench pressing using a close grip, decline bench press, and overhead tricep extentions.

Your best bet is to perform 1-2 of these exercises on a day that you work your chest muscle since the triceps will also be indirectly worked any time you work chest as they are a synergistic muscle. This will help to prevent overtraining of these muscles and ensure that they have plenty of time to recover.