Is there anyone left on this board who likes me enough to help me with my tricep training?
Close grip (18" or less) bench presses. SHould be plenty.
Greg
Maybe my BS meter is in the fritz, but I don’t harbour any ill will. Any way, unless you’re near your mass goal, isolated tri training is basically a waste of time. That said, what’s your situation?
Some people on this board have ill feelings toward me, but luckily it’s not everyone. I always do tricep exercises from the “Top Ten Tricep Exercises” or whatever. I do dips a lot. My problem is the lower part of my triceps. My “horseshoe” part is decent, but my lower part needs work. Is there anything I can do, other than the dumbell tricep extensions where you twist them at the top?
Princess, girl, you have been on this forum long enough!!! grin you KNOW you have to tell us exactly what you’re doing now if you want help with something! So, what are you doing, for how many reps, for how many sets? weight really doesn’t matter, since that’s all relative
Bench & Dips are my fave tricep exercises, but for isolation, my favorite is just a standard cable push-down with a rope, not a rigid bar. That allows for a great range of motion and kills my triceps in ways that nothing else seems to. Make sure you get the full ROM and twist your wrists at the bottom so that they wind up in a pronated position. I really like that exercise and it allows for easy “cheating” on that last one or two reps to really kick the tri’s ass.
I’ll feeling is such a waste of time, i dont know why but perhaps they’ve just got really uncomfortable pants on or something ;-)>. On the triceps side what kind of split are you doing. I made my triceps grow by hitting them with biceps, training triceps first. Do the close grip bench, or if your shoulders are fine dips, but one exercise I really like which has added a lot of size, and almost ‘tendony’(now thers science for you) size. Seated vertical extensions, using a straight bar with a reverse grip, the weight wont be as much and be careful not to overstretch, but you should feel it more in that area. Give a try for a few sets and see how it feels. Be happy and a phrase which i am determined to have tattoo’d on my body at some point, and i repeat every day at work; illigitimi non carburundum - dont let the bastards grind you down. 'aaaight.
Here’s the portion of my upper body
routine that hits the triceps. Now,
I’m giving a workload that’s what
I use when on chemical assistance.
If you’re natural cut this in half.
Med-X Triceps Extension, 2-3 sets.
DB Overhead Presses, 2 sets not leaning
against seatback, 2 sets leaning against
it. This is really for the shoulders
but does exercise the triceps.
Smith Machine Overhead Presses, leaning
against seatback. 0-3 sets, depending
on whether I feel the DB Overhead Presses
and other 2 shoulder exercises (Med-X
Lateral Raise, and Hammer Strength rear
delt row) completely did the job or not).
Med-X Dip, 3-5 sets.
That’s the first workout (the upper body
workout is split into two workouts for
the day.) The tricep exercises in the
second workout are:
Incline DB Bench Press, 3-5 sets (very mild
incline like 10 or 15 degrees, not the usual
steeper incline.)
Close Grip Bench Press, 2 sets
Reverse Grip Bench Press, 2 sets
This has been excellent for my triceps.
Under natural conditions I would not do
more than 2 sets per exercise given this
many exercises, and I wouldn’t do the
Smith Machine presses. And I would not
be hitting the triceps like this 52 weeks
per year either: only sometimes.
love abounds!!! I love all. my opinion would be dips (if you can not do bdwt. dips use the nautilus/medx or hammer machines) superseted with overhead db extentions, sometimes do dips first, sometimes do extentios first. the long head has to be streched and the extentions will do that. chances are you will not notice any big difference in “shape” but if you can build the size this will do it. peace
Normally I work my triceps after doing shoulders. Since I am doing the Maximal Weights program, I’ve been doing heavy sets of dips. (No comment on what ‘heavy’ is). After I do the dips, which is usually 5 sets, I do 5 sets of other tricep exercises, using a pyramid up or down, in the 8-12 rep range. I have been doing seated half presses in the rack, overhead EZ curl tri extensions, close grip, decline close grip, db tri extensions, ez curl tri extensions, and California Presses. They are basically all of the Charles Poliquin exercises for triceps. I probably should also add that I do dips for chest, but I lean forward, as opposed to remaining upright, for tris. I will have to try the exercises you guys mentioned, although I made a promise to myself to not use the smith machine. What is with the back support or non back supported extensions?
With much love for ya princess, I offer my suggestions. First, despite all the variety in the world, my triceps didn’t respond until I increased the amount of weight used. What I could really groove with is dips or close grip, (hands shoulder width apart). initially, to get my strength up I did a Pavel-ian type workout. That is, using 2 sets of 5 reps quiting well short of failure, cycling up the poundages until I realized my reps didn’t go up anymore. coming back off the pounds, I stepped back a little and then added weight each successive workout again. If I topped out again at or near the same weight for a second time. switched over to the other exercise and repeated the process. I did this M-T TH and F. Yes 4x per week. Friday I backed off my weight and did sets of 5 with 1 minute rest and did as many sets of 5 as I could. sometimes 5 1 time 10, usually around 7.
I am not totally convinced that any other exercise beyond what appears natural and normal is really more than a dessert for your main helping of compound movements. I found my natural grip space by trying something an old fart once told me. I walked up to a wall and tried to push it down. The space between my hands didn’t change much with several repeated attempts. Now I didn’t do a scientific study with 100 people, but for three of us did it and our grips, although different than each other, didn’t have much variance from attempt to attempt.
As was previously asked what do you do, how do you do it and when do you do it? (exercises, rep range, frequency, exercise split, etc)
Princess- my advice: prioritize your triceps training (using some of what has been suggested) by training the triceps first in the session.
I found that sometimes ALMOST undertraining a small muscle group like tris or bis, can actually be good for it. I work chest, shoulders, and tris at one workout, and back, bis, legs at another; as I work most muscle groups directly or indirectly at work (not all the time every shift, but regularly). So for most muscle groups, I actually only work 2 sets per exercise (of course sometimes more), as it’s all being worked indirectly with the other muscle groups. I am fresher, stronger, and can start heavier than before. If the tris (or any muscle) get worked hard indirectly with the preceding exercises, they won’t get much out of their own sets.
We all luuuurve you, Princess! Okay, for complete tri’s - here’s my favorite routine: Rack an EZ Curl bar on a bench, and load it with a weight that makes you work (but not max out) for about 6-8 reps on skull-crushers. Do the 6-8 reps, then without re-racking the bar shift your grip a bit and pump out about 6 close-grip bench presses. Rack the bar and run over to the dip station, do 10 reps if possible. (Since you’re female, this last part probably won’t be possible, but you could substitute in bench dips instead.) 2 or 3 circuits should have you screamingly pumped, and, uhhmm (mental image of Princess “screamingly pumped”… must … regain … train of thought … sorry, hold on a sec, everyone, I have to take care of something … OKAY!!!) this routine will give you very complete development. (BTW, you DO keep your upper body straight up-and-down when doing dips for triceps, right? I couldn’t tell from your post above…)
Bill–Do you workout at the Southwest Rec center at UF? I used to when I was there and they have a huge line of med-x machines. Just curious…
just curious Bill, but why do you resort to the MedX equipment and smith machine for your exercise routine? Is it limited equipment? Or are you recovering from an injury?
Lower part?
California press (excentric like a close grip Benchpress, concentric like a Skullcrusher) w/ EZ curl bar, use a slow concentric tempo. 0-0-5
Princess, we all like you! Get over it! 
Hey Bill, why don’t you come to the Gainesville Gym and work out? Or do you prefer the comfort of the UF rec center? hehehehe.
The best ever routine I did to fill out the lower part of my triceps is Larry Scott’s Tricep Routine. Supersetting long pulley tricep extensions and a form of rolling tricep extension/close grip bench press.
Check out his website.
I work out at GHF… I used to work out
at Southwest when I was first at UF but
it was crowded, was closed several weeks
per year, and paying for weekly memberships
at GHF for those weeks was about as expensive
as a yearly membership.
I don’t “resort” to Med-X for the particular
machines I use. They work extremely well.
There is no free weight exercise that works
the same as the Med-X triceps, and while
a free-weight dip is as good, it is no
better and is less convenient. Most of
my exercises are free weights or Hammer
Strength though.