I’ve always had issues with most triceps extensions done with dumbells/barbells. For awhile now I’ve used cables for my direct tricep movements and have not had anymore issues. Maybe you could give that a try.
They are a great tricep exercise but I cannot do them either because of the pain I get.
I have noticed my elbows feel like they are going shoot out when I try and stay strict on skull crushers but if I take a straight bar and left my elbows go out more there is much much less pain and the weight in poundage can go up quickly.
There are many people I know a few guys at my gym that dont do them anymore, simply because they have gotten to the point that they can use so much weight in a tough position for that one joint to handle and there are other exercises that dont hurt you and the difference in muscle mass is negligible if any.
Skullcrushers are tough on your wrists and elbows. If your joints hurt when you do them, don’t do them.
Weighted dips is probably the best triceps exercise, and it won’t hurt your joints.
I had to stop doing skull crushers. Gave me sharp pains in the elbow. Pretty scary stuff. Its not like you need isolation movements for the triceps anyways. You would probably make a lot more progress with close grip press, no?
[quote]snewland22 wrote:
Nothing informative to add, just a fairly cool story. Back in my college baseball days, an opposing catcher was out with an injury. I asked him about it and he told me that, while doing skullcrushers, his tricep tore and curled up (like a yoyo would) in his shoulder. Creeps me out to this day.[/quote]
Jeez, scary!
End of thread: if it HURTS, don’t do it. Some tolerate it better than others. And there are DEFINITELY better and safer exercises.
Yeah…im not sure how this thread got revived…it went dead a couple months ago. And to whoever said that weighted dips are the safest, many people experience shoulder pain doing dips.
[quote]rmexico wrote:
Weighted dips is probably the best triceps exercise, and it won’t hurt your joints.[/quote]
Only your shoulders lol
“Doc! Doc! My arm hurts when I move it this way…”
“What should I do?”
“Don’t move it that way…”
Groucho Marx
[quote]sloh wrote:
Yeah…im not sure how this thread got revived…it went dead a couple months ago. And to whoever said that weighted dips are the safest, many people experience shoulder pain doing dips. [/quote]
Skullcrushers also fuck up my elbows when I start getting moderate to heavy weights. All the stress due to the angle takes place right at the elbow joint and it feels like the elbow joint is opening up.
If you were going to do them, I would do very high reps.
Otherwise, screw them. There are plenty of other tricep exercises that work just fine, without pain.
Dave Tate and the westside guys have said that most extensions and cable work “wreck the elbow joint.” I agree to a certain extent.
In Vince Gironda’s “Unleashing the Wild Physique” he says “generally the safest are compound movements like the close grip bench press and parallel bar dips.” Those are the two I’ve been using and they don’t seem to hurt me at all.
The sad part is I think the skullcrusher is an extrmeely effective exercise, the stretch is unbelieveable and the few weeks I have done them in the past my tri’s grew considerably. If you are going to do them I would stick to higher reps.
When you isolate the elbow or knee joint and use it for a single joint exercise there is a greater chance for injury, overuse usually, not acute.
The reason is these joints are not often naturally used in single joint movements for extension purposes, and not really built for it, but the biceps and hamstrings are made to work against torque and handle it much better.
The fact that the triceps and quadriceps tendon is being stretched over the joint instead of just pulling on the tibia and radius/ulna respectively, without that added friction and torque is another example.
[quote]inthego wrote:
rmexico wrote:
Weighted dips is probably the best triceps exercise, and it won’t hurt your joints.
Only your shoulders lol
“Doc! Doc! My arm hurts when I move it this way…”
“What should I do?”
“Don’t move it that way…”
Groucho Marx[/quote]
If your shoulders are healthy but you can’t do weighted dips because they hurt too much, it means your shoulders are inflexible.
I agree that actually both dips and tri extensions(skull crushers), are both excellent exercises, but require focus and attention to thorough warm ups prior to…
Let’s not forget that dips can be done two difft. ways basicly, chest forward and deep for chest, and parallel is fine for tricep mass building…
I find that there is much less ant/delt involved in tricep oriented body positioning,(Head/torso upright), and depth…halfway or parallel…having said that, yes it is still involved and some just can’t do them…
In my own personal exp. I have always had very strong triceps, but when I wasn't working out regularly, from my late 30's for a couple of years..they had to be reintroduced very slowly, due to my delts being too out of flexibility/shape.
Now, they are just as sweet as they used to be, and the only time I do avoid them is if I incur any front/side delt injury...in which case I stop them for the amount of time necessary for the delt to heal..
I'm back now to heavy weighted dips, and if you would have told me that I would be doing this two years ago, I might not have thought that possible..
So, I'm just saying if you take it easy, and ease into them again by not going deep initially, and using weight assistance perhaps to get going again, you can start to utilize them again, as IMO they are indeed an excellent mass/definition builder..
the same goes for tri ext...this is a great movement for mass, and as some have said, you can do them difft. ways, incline DB ext. are nice and effective and may be easier due to the hammer placement of the wrist, compared to skull crushers..and then maybe not..
At any rate, if you want massive tri's, you need to try different ways of getting back to these two great exercises..
otherwise go with the pressdowns done without the aid of the delts, like so many d---fu--s like to do...lol..
seriously though, lots of movements, but honestly, those are the two best overall IMO, and I would just take it easy, leave the ego at the door, and do them light/high rep, for a while to allow your body to adapt, and it will....take it from me..
my humble asshole/opinion.
ToneBone
[quote]InTheZone wrote:
At any rate, if you want massive tri's, you need to try different ways of getting back to these two great exercises..
seriously though, lots of movements, but honestly, those are the two best overall IMO, and I would just take it easy, leave the ego at the door, and do them light/high rep, for a while to allow your body to adapt, and it will....take it from me..
my humble asshole/opinion.
ToneBone[/quote]
I agree, I would say my top 3 tricep exercises are skullcrushers, weighted V bar dips, and close grip BPs. All three blow my triceps up.
Skull crushers, like others said, is an excellent exercise. There are tons of other great exercises for tris if your joints do not like them but skull crushers shouldn’t be avoided completely.
Like someone else said, I like to switch it up from time to time. Skull crushers use to hurt my joints because my joints weren’t up to date with the mass I was able to push off from skull crushers.
WARM UPS for me are a MUST for skull crushers. I’m talking about warming up with a 30lb ez bar with higher reps (12 and up) and moving back to the crushing 100s. Higher reps (8 and up for me) with lighter weight tend to be more comfortable for me.
Everyone by now should know the benefits of fish oil and joint pain.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
lixy wrote:
Anyway, skullcrushers are a must for triceps mass.
That’s a little bit much. I don’t do them at all. It isn’t like the several other exercises for triceps don’t work.[/quote]
Like what? My triceps aren’t puny but the guys with the sick triceps always seem to be doing skull crushers and I can’t do them because of the elbow pain. I do like the cable extensions, but I want something else besides that and the compound stuff. It seems like my triceps get their best pump on chest days when I do all the pressing and dips etc but they haven’t grown much lately and I think it’s because I’m doing compound stuff almost exclusively.
[quote]beebuddy wrote:
Professor X wrote:
lixy wrote:
Anyway, skullcrushers are a must for triceps mass.
That’s a little bit much. I don’t do them at all. It isn’t like the several other exercises for triceps don’t work.
Like what? My triceps aren’t puny but the guys with the sick triceps always seem to be doing skull crushers and I can’t do them because of the elbow pain. I do like the cable extensions, but I want something else besides that and the compound stuff. It seems like my triceps get their best pump on chest days when I do all the pressing and dips etc but they haven’t grown much lately and I think it’s because I’m doing compound stuff almost exclusively.[/quote]
Look, how can you say you can’t do em…?
Load the bar lighter till you can…that’s all, period…
there has to be a weight you can get away with…start there, and keep uppin it little by little…it will happen…slam a ton of fish oil, and frankly, I find the fish oil does better than any of the combos I tried with gluco/chondroitin, msm, etc…
I never got any real results until I started doing massive doses of fish oil...you can't go wrong with it, period..
Anyway, it just requires checkin that ego for a while...whoopedfuckindo...ya know?
then you can start pounding 100lbs+ on your extensions/skull crushers, and get some massive mofo's hangin off your humerus bro..
yeah baby!
bodybuilding.com/fun/glasscut5.htm
Some good advice that I found was from Charles Glass. Skullcrushers messed my elbows a bit too much for my liking, so I tried French Curls instead, and even though they’re similiar, I don’t get elbow pain anymore.
[quote]detazathoth wrote:
bodybuilding.com/fun/glasscut5.htm
Some good advice that I found was from Charles Glass. Skullcrushers messed my elbows a bit too much for my liking, so I tried French Curls instead, and even though they’re similiar, I don’t get elbow pain anymore.[/quote]
They’re very similar just the placement of the down position is deeper, to the middle head, vs. the forehead…
it all comes back to really lightening the load,eh?
there's about 3 or 4 "versions" of the same basic movement...so hopefully one feels better than the rest...it's something to just stfu and work in...
light weight, lots of reps...20-30,...then you have to adjust eventually IMO...slowly add weight, reduce reps etc..
like the nike commercial says,
just do it....