1. Barbell Lever Pushdowns
This is a great way to isolate the triceps using very simple equipment, especially if you don't have access to a cable machine or bands. It's going to give you an excellent "at-home" pushdown setup.
Unconventional Training with Nick Nilsson
Tricep Exercises
Big, thick horseshoe triceps make up 2/3 of the mass of the upper arms. If you want to maximize your tricep size and shape, these exercises will help you do just that.
2. Barbell Tricep Rollouts
This exercise is going to ATTACK the long head of your triceps...like literally attack it. You'll be using bodweight and a strong stretch to put massive tension on that long head.
3. Bodyweight Scissor Tricep Extensions
This exercise is fantastic for hitting the horseshoe of the triceps (lateral and medial heads). All you need is your bodyweight and a bar to do it.
4. Close Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press
If you want big, strong arms, you need to press, and you need to press HEAVY. That's where this exercise comes into play...it's a variation of the Close Grip Bench Press, the classic mass-builder for the triceps.
5. Dumbbell-Leverage Close Grip Bench Press
This exercise is a GREAT one for targeting the contraction of the triceps. It uses the principles of gravity and leverage to focus the tension directly on the triceps at the lockout position of the press, keeping the tension on when normally it would be almost completely lost.
6. Bodyweight Tricep Extensions to Hindu Push-Ups
This one is a killer tricep combo exercise and all you need is a bench to do it on. It's a combination alternating between a bodyweight tricep extension and a butchered Hindu push-up. This hits overhead stretch and peak contraction in one set.
7. Bodyweight Tricep Extensions on the Bar End
If you want to build serious tricep mass, you need to focus on building the biggest of the three heads...the long head. This bodyweight extension setup puts massive stretch-loading on the long head for an incredible muscle-building effect.
8. Build Tricep Mass With Vertical Bumper Plate Push-Ups
You're going to take advantage of the round surface of the bumper plates by strategically rolling the plates during the close-grip push-up exercise. This puts serious muscle-building tension onto the triceps on each rep.
9. Get a Monster Tricep Contraction With Facing Away Incline Bench Pushdowns
This pushdown variation is done lying on an incline bench, facing away from the pulley. The body and cable angle you get gives you near-constant tension and forces a monster contraction on the triceps at the bottom of every rep.
10. Isolate your Triceps With Rolling-Wall Skullcrushers
When doing direct tricep work, isolating the muscles without bringing in other muscle groups is critical. This version of the skullcrusher gives you the stabilization benefits of a machine while keeping some of the freedom of movement of free weight.
11. Two Barbell Landmine Bodyweight Tricep Extensions For Building the Long Head of the Triceps
This exercise has a long name because it combines two forms of movement into one exercise...a bodyweight exercise combined with a weight exercise...and it will light up the long head of your triceps.
12. Behind-the-Back Band Dips For Building Tricep Mass
Parallel Bar Dips are one of the best exercises you can do for building tricep mass. This unique band setup allows you to add directional resistance in two directions to the top of the exercise...up and back...exactly what works best for the triceps.
13. Pump Your Triceps Up With Cable Resisted Close Grip Push-Ups
This exercise will literally DOUBLE the muscle-building tension you get with bodyweight close-grip push-ups. It'll change the exercise from a high-rep burnout movement to a real mass-builder.
14. Loaded Pushdowns For Using More Weight With Better Form
As you get into heavier loads with pushdowns, form gets more easily compromised due to the ratio of the working weight versus your bodyweight. This loading method fixes that, allowing you to use more weight with better form.
15. Mixed Height Dumbbell Push-Ups For Building Triceps Mass
This is an excellent bodyweight mass-building exercise for targeting the triceps very strongly both through a full AND a partial range of motion, for greater overall loading.
16. Rotating Handle Plate Bodyweight Tricep Extensions For Maximum Tricep Stretch Tension
Put massive stretch-loading on your triceps with this setup for the Bodyweight Tricep Extension exercise. It has some major advantages over the original...including less elbow stress, greater stretch on the triceps, and no bar to get in the way of your head.
17. Band-on-Bar Dips for Dual-Resistance Continuous Tension Tricep Training
Not only are you going to get the workload from full-range dips for triceps, by adding the continuous band tension, your triceps will get NO break for the entire duration of the set without the extra torque on the shoulders from adding weight to your body.
18. Chest-Supported Kickbacks for a Monster Tricep Contraction
Like a chest-supported row, this is a simple way to increase the strictness of your form on the dumbbell tricep kickback. With your chest supported, you can focus on just using tricep action to perform the movement, with no extra body movement.
19. Roll-Up Bodyweight Tricep Extensions For Massive Stretch Tension Loading
This method is a BEAST on the triceps, specifically the long head. You're going to be holding a bodyweight tricep extension position while then doing a "wrist roller" style of movement, raising weight up off the ground. This engages the triceps very strongly in a stretched position...over and over.
20. Build Monster Triceps With In-Set Supersets With the EZ Curl Bar
This is one of the best hypertrophy exercises for the triceps I've ever found. You'll be alternating reps between two exercises for the triceps that share the same end position. This allows you to cover more muscle fibers for greater overall tricep work in one set.
21. Elevated Neutral Grip Tiger Bends - Bodyweight Training For The Lateral Head of The Triceps
This is a monster bodyweight exercise for building mass on the triceps, especially targeting the lateral head of the tricep "horseshoe." The positioning of your body and hands puts maximum loading on the triceps at the bottom, stretched position.
22. Triangle Band Pushdowns for a Massive Tricep Contraction
The band pushdown is a great finishing exercise...this version adds in horizontal resistance while you're doing the pushdown to increase the contraction on the lateral head of the triceps.
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About Nick Nilsson
Flying in the face of conventional wisdom, he’s known around the world as the "Mad Scientist of Muscle” for a reason.
An expert in kinesiology, physiology and anatomy, Nick helps people just like YOU create the body you want, especially when nothing else seems to do the trick.
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