Comprehensive guide and discussion on triceps, its workout and medical issues
Anatomy and physiology of triceps:
Triceps are one of the most show off muscles of the body for a bodybuilder. In your arm almost 2/3 of the muscle mass consists of triceps. They look definitely awesome with tight sleeves or in sleeveless clothes. Triceps workout is a must for your big guns.
Maybe biceps get more love, but if you really want to impress others with your big arms, building triceps is the way to go. Not to mention their supreme importance while heavy pressing and pushing movements like bench and overhead presses.
Triceps muscle is made up of three heads fused to form a tendon. There are three heads to the triceps muscle; the long. lateral, and medial head.
The long head – (situated at the back of the arm) Starts from the infra-glenoid tubercle of the scapula (shoulder blade.) – this form the chunk of the muscle at the back of your arm and adds to the girth.
Thelateral head – (situated at the side of the arm) Starts from the dorsal humerus proximally from the radial sulcus. – this forms the horse shoe shaped part and contributes to the shape and the aesthetics.
The medial head – (situated below the lateral head) Starts from the dorsal humerus distally from the radial sulcus. – this adds to the total volume of the triceps. These are often neglected.
All three heads together form a thick tendon which inserts at the olecranon of the ulna and additionally to the elbow capsule.
The long head crosses two joints, shoulder and elbow. The other two crosses only the elbow joint.
Leaving aside the the technical complexities of anatomy let us discuss the common functions of the triceps muscles.
Main function of the triceps brachii is extension of the elbow joint. (all three heads)
It also has a less important function of extension and adduction of shoulder joint. (only the long head)
Common site of injury of triceps is near the olecranon process at the elbow joint.
In few rare cases injury to the long head can occur near its origin too.
All three heads of the triceps act together. It is normally impossible to isolate one head from the other. But keeps the following tips in mind to stimulate various heads individually:
The lateral head is activated more when the grip on the bar is overhand and the arms are on the side of the body.
The medial head is activated more when the grip on the bar is underhand and the arms are on the side of the body.
The long head is activated more when the arms are overhead and the long head of the triceps is in a pre-stretched condition.
To get peak contraction of the long head of the triceps, the elbow needs to be extended fully.
The wider grip with arms going diagonally away from you body, activates the lateral head more. (think rope push down)
Neutral grip is the most comfortable for the wrist in all types of triceps movement. That is why it is easier on the wrists to use an ez bar or triceps bar or even a rope/V bar (for push downs)
Narrow grip on the bench or incline press stimulates the lateral head of the triceps more and has the capacity to overload it. Close grip/diamond push ups also have similar function.
Common exercise for the triceps are as follows:
Triceps push downs: This can be done in a high pulley with arms at the side and elbow fixed to the torso. Push it down, keep the peak contraction for a moment and then go back slowly. Do not use shoulders for the movement. Commonly a straight rod (both overhand and underhand push downs), V bar (more functional for the elbow), Ropes (gives more flexibility and peak contraction as can be brought more to the sides) etc. The underhand grip in straight bar is the way to go for medial head.
Skull crushers: Lie down on a flat or slight inclined bench. Keep you arms at 90 degrees to your body and fixed with fully extended elbow. Carefully lower the bar to just above the forehead. Slightly inclined bench with bar little behind the head give even better triceps contraction. (Careful, don’t crush you head, as per the name!)
Close grip bench press: This is simply like the classical bench press movement where the grip on the bar is inside shoulder with. (use much lesser load for this)
Overhead triceps extension by rope: This is done by standing and extending the rope attachment. Rope is attached at lower pulley. It can be also done by upper pulley rope attachment, by leaning and taking one step forward. It can also be done one arm at a time with lower load.
Overhead barbell or triceps bar extension: There are a hell lot of options for the barbell use. Besides triceps or egg bar (more functional grip and lesser shoulder strain), both straight and ez bars can be used. This movement can be done by both sitting and standing position.
Overhead dumbbell extension: Besides barbell (ez or straight bar) dumbbells can also be used. Normally one dumbbell can be grasped by both hands, hanging down (puts more strain on shoulders due to abduction and internal rotation of the arms) or even two dumbbells can be used. Dumbbells can also be used singly using one hand at a time.
Dips (both parallel bar and bench dips): During parallel bar dips the torso should be more upright and don’t lean forward much (leaning forward more stimulates the chest fibers more). Bench dips are good too but keeps the shoulders in a vulnerable position. Try to avoid it if you can do parallel bar dips. For the weaker people, machine dips are commonly used, sitting and pushing down, keeping arms fixed.
Close grip push up: Aka ‘diamond push up’ where the hands are kept almost close, maybe touching each other. Hands kept apart stimulates the chest fibers more during push up.
Dumbbell pullover: It is a compound exercise. If the elbow is kept flexed behind the head, it activates triceps more. Pull the dumbbells from behind head to over your chest.
Triceps kickbacks: This is done leaning on a bench, on arm at a time where elbow is fixed and extension done. Use lower loads and don’t move the arm. This is done slowly, for peak contraction with hold for moments and ‘burn’ in long sets.
Machine preacher bench triceps extension: This is a fancy machine used in gyms. It does the opposite of preacher curl, keeping arms fixed on preacher bench. This can be used for longer and slow sets.
Important tips to be kept in mind while doing triceps exercises:
Keep abs contracted, push shoulders down (no shrugging at all!) and lean a bit at your hips for effective pushdowns. Try to keep the whole upper body tight, throughout.
Movements like bench dips and overhead both hand single dumbbell extension can be taxing for shoulders. Avoid if you feel uncomfortable.
Do not use too much weight for triceps kickbacks. This exercise is meant for burn and longish sets.
Always try to do triceps workout during pushing/chest day if you have splits like that. Almost all pushing exercises involve triceps, keep that in mind while selecting workout splits.
Do not flare arms too much during close grip bench press with heavier loads (not good for your rotator cuff muscles).
For advanced trainers supersets with biceps can do wonders. Also use rest pause, drop sets, going for burn etc. to hit triceps hard. (commonly used to avoid plateau).
Concomitant chest and anterior deltoid exercises are needed to help triceps growth too. Normally these three muscle groups act together in pressing movements.
If overhead pressing or pushdown are irritating for the wrist, use triceps bar, V bars or even ez curl bars for it.
Triceps contain both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. Thus they respond for longer sets with light weights (like the pushdown, kickbacks) and also heavy sets with fewer reps (like close grip bench press). Vary the workout patterns in different sets for best results.
Don’t think of only isolated movements described above for triceps building. Actually those heavy pressing movements are the key to triceps mass. Heavy bench press or incline presses are great stimulations for triceps as they can be progressively overloaded easily. Can you remember any heavy bench er guy with small triceps? Never…
Do not think triceps workout is not possible without weights. TRX and diamond push ups can be effective hand free methods. Advance people can use declinedpush ups to even headstand for triceps growth. Even parallel bars can give great triceps stimulation (think dips). Remember how the gymnasts have such big triceps.
Women should also do finisher triceps sets. These are not for building big arms (like those big gym guys, women do not have enough testosterone for that). Triceps are stabilizers of the shoulder and elbow joints and needed for most upper body pushing movements.
Precautions and safety issues to prevent injuries:
Normally triceps injuries and tears are rare. Injuries have occured in accidents and sports while falling on outstretched arm, suddenly bearing body weight on impact.
Partial tear and strain of triceps can occur which can be treated initially by RICE method (rest, ice, compression and elevation). Complete tear is rare and is an emergency, needing early surgical intervention.
In road traffic and fall accidents, triceps tear occur near the elbow by the olecranon
During heavy lat pull downs, sudden release of heavy weight can also sprain and tear triceps (the long head)
Triceps injury also occurs by olecranon bursitis, steroid intake, body contact sports etc. These are relatively rare.
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