Balancing Triceps Exercises

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

What ratio of contraction vs extension exercises have you found are optimal for balanced (and big!) development?

I’ve been pairing weighted dips or decline CGBP with an extension movement, although I’ve been debating the need of exercises like CGBP that don’t target the long head at all, given how many pressing movements I do for chest and shoulders on the same day- I’m just concerned about sacrificing overall size and thickness gains by doing exclusively extension type movements.

I workout out triceps with chest/shoulders twice a week, if you could choose only 2 exercises per workout what would they be?

For example:

Push A

Bench Press
Incline DB Press
Low-to-High Cable Fly
Overhead Press
Cable Laterals
WEIGHTED DIPS
LYING BEHIND-THE-HEAD EXTENSIONS

Push B

Incline Press
Flat DB Press
Incline DB Flyes
DB Laterals
Machine Laterals
DECLINE CGBP
ONE-ARM OVERHEAD EXTENSIONS

Would it be better to drop CGBP in favor of another extension type movement like high-incline french press or even JM Press?

2

[quote]Ivan Fyodorovich wrote:
if you could choose only 2 exercises per workout what would they be?
[/quote]

DB decline skullcrushers
Bench Dips

As long as your elbows aren’t an issue do this each session. I honestly believe that these two movements, done in this order give one hell of a bang for your buck.

S

3

Stu bench dips make my shoulders feel like someone is trying to detach them, it’s a shame as I think they are an awesome movement too.

Have you had any trouble or got any insight on dealing with this kind of thing?

4

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
DB decline skullcrushers
[/quote]
Must try this.

5

Only 2 exercises? Dips and lying triceps extensions. For the LTE?I’d bring the bar behind my head to stretch out the inner tricep head.

6

Incline and Decline skull crushers, Alternate doing one with ez bar and the other with Dumbells

7

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:

[quote]Ivan Fyodorovich wrote:
if you could choose only 2 exercises per workout what would they be?
[/quote]

DB decline skullcrushers
Bench Dips

As long as your elbows aren’t an issue do this each session. I honestly believe that these two movements, done in this order give one hell of a bang for your buck.

S
[/quote]

Thanks for weighing in Stu! I’ll definitely give that combo a go! Could you recommend two more for my second push day?

8

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
DB decline skullcrushers
[/quote]

Stu, I really like these, but I do them ‘pronating’ (I think that’s the word, going from a neutral grip to a grip with my knuckles towards my face) on the way up. Do you do them like this? If not, you should try them, such a crazy contraction.

9

Push A (heavy, low rep)

Weighted Dips
Decline DB lying extensions

Push B (light, Pump style)

Rope Extensions
One Arm Overhead DB extensions

This is be assuming training twice a week

10

I’ve never tried rotating my wrists when doing Db skulls, I simply felt that they were more natural than grasping a barbell, and didn’t place as much stress on my joints once the weights got really heavy.

Bench dips, IMO, are one of the best exercises to really beef up your arms. I always liked doing them angled forward a bit, so that even at the top point of contraction, I was never full resting on my locked elbows. Being 5’8, I would routinely position myself in the squat rack, and throw my feet up on one of the waist level supports, placing my hands on the other one. This gave me the perfect distance to dip away.

My reasoning for placing dips after the skulls is that by hitting the stretched position first, the muscles is primed to really recruit plenty of fibers with a heavy compound, non-locking out movement after. I’m not saying that a good contraction movement like pressdowns is useless, far from it, but I always viewed them as more of a warm up for my elbows before getting to the real meat n potatoes of the workout.

If you wanted a different set of exercises, try a similar approach, with a stretch movement before a compound.
ie. Behind head DB extensions / CGBP

S

11

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
I’ve never tried rotating my wrists when doing Db skulls, I simply felt that they were more natural than grasping a barbell, and didn’t place as much stress on my joints once the weights got really heavy.

Bench dips, IMO, are one of the best exercises to really beef up your arms. I always liked doing them angled forward a bit, so that even at the top point of contraction, I was never full resting on my locked elbows. Being 5’8, I would routinely position myself in the squat rack, and throw my feet up on one of the waist level supports, placing my hands on the other one. This gave me the perfect distance to dip away.

My reasoning for placing dips after the skulls is that by hitting the stretched position first, the muscles is primed to really recruit plenty of fibers with a heavy compound, non-locking out movement after. I’m not saying that a good contraction movement like pressdowns is useless, far from it, but I always viewed them as more of a warm up for my elbows before getting to the real meat n potatoes of the workout.

If you wanted a different set of exercises, try a similar approach, with a stretch movement before a compound.
ie. Behind head DB extensions / CGBP

S[/quote]

Interesting.

Most people I’ve seen (most notable being John Meadows in his article on this site) talk about doing a stretching movement last in the workout in order to have the muscle already pumped full of blood so you protect the joint better (also forcing you to use less weight due to fatigue which puts less stress on your joints).

For what it’s worth, I believe Meadows also stated to perform a heavier compound like dips or CGBP after a “warm up” kind of movement like rope pushdowns so you’re primed, recruiting more fibers and ready to go for the compound. Then do a stretch movement to finish.

I might try out your order sometime soon. Both methods make sense to me, which only leads to more confusion lol. Not with dips cause it seems to kill my shoulders, but DB CGBP yeah.

12

[quote]fisch wrote:
Interesting.

Most people I’ve seen (most notable being John Meadows in his article on this site) talk about doing a stretching movement last in the workout in order to have the muscle already pumped full of blood so you protect the joint better (also forcing you to use less weight due to fatigue which puts less stress on your joints).

For what it’s worth, I believe Meadows also stated to perform a heavier compound like dips or CGBP after a “warm up” kind of movement like rope pushdowns so you’re primed, recruiting more fibers and ready to go for the compound. Then do a stretch movement to finish.

I might try out your order sometime soon. Both methods make sense to me, which only leads to more confusion lol. Not with dips cause it seems to kill my shoulders, but DB CGBP yeah.[/quote]

Obviously people can view things differently, yet still make progress with either approach. IMO any movement where you’re focusing more on pumping, or muscular tension is going to get blood into the muscle. Stretched position exercises always gave me an insane pump, but theorizing the stretch (myostatic) reflex’s ability to subsequently recruit more muscle fibers would increase the productivity of other movements, I played around with the ordering I suggested above. I tried a similar approach by placing incline DB curls before barbell curls, and was always very pleased with the results.

Give it a shot. You’ve certainly nothing to lose :slight_smile:

S

13

[quote]MAsteve wrote:
Stu bench dips make my shoulders feel like someone is trying to detach them, it’s a shame as I think they are an awesome movement too.

Have you had any trouble or got any insight on dealing with this kind of thing?

[/quote]

Dude, I have the same issue - feels like someone is sticking steak knives in my delts when I do them on a bench …

If your gym has a hammer dip machine, try placing the seat down low and doing them backwards (without your legs under the pads, facing way from the machine)

I set my grip like I would doing them on a bench, then bend my legs out in front of me with my lower back “resting” on the edge of the seat … You can’t use as much weight as you are just counterbalanced with your body weight, but it mimics the bench version pretty well - and is much easier on my shoulders

14

[quote]Spidey22 wrote:

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
DB decline skullcrushers
[/quote]

Stu, I really like these, but I do them ‘pronating’ (I think that’s the word, going from a neutral grip to a grip with my knuckles towards my face) on the way up. Do you do them like this? If not, you should try them, such a crazy contraction. [/quote]

And you can also rotate them the opposite way, ending up with knuckles facing away/palms facing towards you. You can alternate the rotation with each rep. I do a strong 2 sec flex with each rep in the extended position.

Tried this yesterday. Felt awesome.

15

What kind of reps are we talking on these bench dips?

16

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
I’ve never tried rotating my wrists when doing Db skulls, I simply felt that they were more natural than grasping a barbell, and didn’t place as much stress on my joints once the weights got really heavy.

Bench dips, IMO, are one of the best exercises to really beef up your arms. I always liked doing them angled forward a bit, so that even at the top point of contraction, I was never full resting on my locked elbows. Being 5’8, I would routinely position myself in the squat rack, and throw my feet up on one of the waist level supports, placing my hands on the other one. This gave me the perfect distance to dip away.

My reasoning for placing dips after the skulls is that by hitting the stretched position first, the muscles is primed to really recruit plenty of fibers with a heavy compound, non-locking out movement after. I’m not saying that a good contraction movement like pressdowns is useless, far from it, but I always viewed them as more of a warm up for my elbows before getting to the real meat n potatoes of the workout.

If you wanted a different set of exercises, try a similar approach, with a stretch movement before a compound.
ie. Behind head DB extensions / CGBP

S[/quote]

How do you load your dips? I encounter problems balancing plates past a certain point.

17

Since I have an ulnar nerve subluxation in the left elbow, I would have to say top half bench or shoulder press from pins plus body weight tricep extensions are good movements that save the elbows.

18

I’ve had my best gains from overhead dumbbell extensions (one dumbbell, two hands). I used to do them seated but lately have been doing them standing in front of the Smith Machine. I raise the bar with the pad to just below shoulder level and get an awesome stretch this way because I can slightly lean back.

Skull crushers with a medium grip (ez-bar) really seem to get the long head as well.

Bench dips kill my shoulders too. I can feel my traps tugging on the joint and it just hurts.

19

[quote]Iron_Made wrote:
How do you load your dips? I encounter problems balancing plates past a certain point.
[/quote]

People don’t usually like my answer to this, but I’ve never bothered piling plates on my lap to add resistance to bench dips. Instead I always relied on the fact that I did them last, along with:
-Always keeping my feet higher than my hands,
-Actually dipping low enough that I get a full stretch in my triceps (almost no one does this),
-Descending very slowly into a full stretch, and exploding out quickly, and
-Never resting on locked straight arms, always keeping my body slightly forward,
to get the most I could out of the movement without needing to worry about adding weight.

It may sound like crap, but I’ve been fortunate to have been able to pick up on the benefits of performing exercises in an efficient manner, and have never really deviated in any quest for strength gains. Just the other night, a friend who actually has a very respectable build was doing bent BB rows. As we were chatting between sets he inquired as to how I like to perform them. Now his form was nothing to ever complain about and his back looks damn good, but when I showed him the few subtle things I normally concern myself with, he couldn’t help but exclaim that he’d never felt his lower lats get hit so directly. I’m certainly not reinventing the wheel with anything I do in the gym, but while everyone does pretty much the same general exercises, HOW they perform them can make a hell of a big difference IMO.

Just try the bench dips with your feet elevated and trust me, it will change your opinion on the exercise.

S

20

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:

[quote]Iron_Made wrote:
How do you load your dips? I encounter problems balancing plates past a certain point.
[/quote]

People don’t usually like my answer to this, but I’ve never bothered piling plates on my lap to add resistance to bench dips. Instead I always relied on the fact that I did them last, along with:
-Always keeping my feet higher than my hands,
-Actually dipping low enough that I get a full stretch in my triceps (almost no one does this),
-Descending very slowly into a full stretch, and exploding out quickly, and
-Never resting on locked straight arms, always keeping my body slightly forward,
to get the most I could out of the movement without needing to worry about adding weight.

It may sound like crap, but I’ve been fortunate to have been able to pick up on the benefits of performing exercises in an efficient manner, and have never really deviated in any quest for strength gains. Just the other night, a friend who actually has a very respectable build was doing bent BB rows. As we were chatting between sets he inquired as to how I like to perform them.

Now his form was nothing to ever complain about and his back looks damn good, but when I showed him the few subtle things I normally concern myself with, he couldn’t help but exclaim that he’d never felt his lower lats get hit so directly. I’m certainly not reinventing the wheel with anything I do in the gym, but while everyone does pretty much the same general exercises, HOW they perform them can make a hell of a big difference IMO.

Just try the bench dips with your feet elevated and trust me, it will change your opinion on the exercise.

S

[/quote]

Thanks I’ll give it a try