Tricep extensions (seated and lying down) were my favorites, but I recently found a bunch of forum posts saying they can lead to elbow tendonitis.
Anyone know of any safe substitutes?
Don’t overdo them, use good form and reasonable weight. Balance your curl and extension volume as well as your pull and push volume and you should be good.
I have some mild tendonitis in my tricep that I initially got from lying tricep extensions. I find that compound movements, like dips and close grip bench presses, and isolation exercises (extensions) with a semi supinated grip (with a rope or a hammer curl bar) do not aggravate it. An overhand or underhand extension seems to hurt it. Just gauge it by how it feels. If an exercise starts to cause you problems, drop it.
I think all the tricep exercises are unsafe if they are not done with proper form.Dont forget overhead presses and chest presses can also build up decent tricep size.
Triceps pushdowns are a nice change of pace and help give my elbows a break from triceps extensions (and heavy benches and close-grip benches).
Pressdowns.
Loaded question. What’s safe for one person with one set of muscle connections, bone lengths, time training, etc, etc may be dangerous for another.
There are things that are best for you, and you’ve gotta figure out what they are. Listen to your body. If it hurts don’t do it, or do it less. If it feels great and you get great results and you can do it 24/7, do that.