The most effective tricep exercise for building the tricep muscles is the Triceps Extension because it allows us to perform it with either dumbbells or a barbell, allows for progressive overload directly to the triceps and is easier on the wrists and elbows if you use an EZ curl bar.
The Results
Porcari and his team reported that muscle activity was greatest while subjects performed the triangle push-ups, which made it the gold standard of triceps exercises.
One should do 3 exercise for biceps and 3 exercise for triceps. More than that is not required. because biceps and triceps are smaller muscles and they also work with the major muscles of their group. So doing so many exercises for smaller muscles is the waste of time.
How many tricep exercises should I do? You should do 3-5 tricep exercises per training session, making sure to choose exercises that hit all 3 heads of the triceps, put the long head of the triceps on stretch, and hit overlapping strength curves.
The best triceps exercises put you in a good position to make use of the muscles' primary function: extension of the elbows. There are few better (or tougher sounding) moves to do this than the skull crusher.
Skull crushers work all three heads of the tricep and can be a helpful tool for building strength and size in the arms. Working your triceps will help to improve pushing movements like the bench press, and can help build overhead throwing strength.
We can use a mechanical superset to take advantage of mechanical differences between exercises to allow us to take a muscle to failure and then train it beyond failure. The best mechanical superset for triceps is the Pancake Pushup into a Divebomber Pushup into a Diamond Cutter Pushup.
How Long Does It Take to Build Big Triceps? Building bigger muscles can take anywhere between 6-12 weeks, depending on your training program, experience level, and nutrition. In that time, you can expect to gain ½-1inch on your arms or more.
If strength is your goal, do 3 to 5 sets of 6 to 12 reps with moderate to heavy weights. To focus on tricep power (which will help when you need to exert force in a short period of time — for example, when shooting a basketball), do 4 to 6 sets of 1 to 5 reps with relatively heavy weights.
Rest between set durations should be based on sets/exercise (volume), and not load or training goal. General recommendations include moderate (2 min) rest between sets if performing 2 sets/exercise, long rest (3 min) if performing 3 sets/exercise, and very long rest (> 4 min) if performing 4 sets or more/exercise.
Exercises that target your triceps include tricep overhead extensions, kickbacks, and dips. You can also tone your triceps and other muscles with push-ups, bench press, and Turkish getups. Strong triceps are important for everyday movements that involve pushing, pulling, reaching, throwing, and lifting.
Overhead Cable Triceps Extension
Nippard mentioned a 2023 study where overhead extensions caused 40 percent more triceps growth than pressdowns (1). “Getting that long head into a more lengthened position seems to be doing something important for muscle growth,” says the exercise educator.
With skull crushers, the most common mistakes that lifters make include improper weight selection, grip, and/or elbow alignment, says Tunde. For one thing, it's important that you don't use too heavy of a weight when trying skull crushers, which can compromise your form.
Within a training session, we recommend including between 1 and 3 different triceps exercises, but no more than that in most cases, as doing more than 3 triceps movements in one session is likely just a needless burning of potential exercise variations you can save for later mesocycles.
Due to the nature of the training, it is easy to put strain on your elbows, so you need to be careful not to lose your form or set too much weight. Although it is common to use a barbell in the Skull Crusher, you can reduce the risk of injury by using an EZ bar, which is less likely to hurt your elbows.
Skull crushers are another exercise that can increase triceps strength; however, the close-grip bench press might be the better alternative if you have elbow issues. Performing the close-grip bench press promotes overall muscle balance as both muscle strength and gains are increased progressively and simultaneously.
For any isolation exercises, you could do just 1-2 sets per exercise and get the job done well. There's no harm in spending more time in the gym, though. If you have the time and ambition, you could start with 4 to 8 sets per muscle per week, and work your way up to 8 to 12 sets.
The triceps are one of those muscle groups that like to be stubborn. They require sweat, consistency and high-intensity exercise. It's not one of those workouts where you can turn on your tunes and put your brain on cruise control. You have to reach your limits and push.