Thread: Best exercises to achieve a "horse shoe" look on your tris

i'd try a routine such as:

Diet X 90%

3 sets close grip bench
OR
3 sets skull crushers

reverse pressdowns

I love close grip benches, but only diet, combined with actually having muscle - will show them off.

I 'discovered' CG Bench Presses about two months ago and I think there is no better triceps exercise. It allows you to use a massive amount of weight (per individual) while not relying on stabilizing the body (standing exercises) or putting excessive stress on joints (extensions).

I don't really directly feel my triceps being worked while i do close grip bench thats y i never do them. do you guys know why?

I like to superset cg bench or skulls with bench dips,I still have to figure out a good way to balance some weight on my lap to do them though,but even doing them with body weight works good when doing supersets

Originally Posted by pumpthatiron

I don't really directly feel my triceps being worked while i do close grip bench thats y i never do them. do you guys know why?

Probably off on the form. Grip should be about shoulder width, do them slowly until you feel your triceps doing most of the work. If aiming for triceps only, you can avoid going all the way down, the last 4-6" are not neccessary IMO.

Originally Posted by Mudge

If aiming for triceps only, you can avoid going all the way down, the last 4-6" are not neccessary IMO.

Well Ill be damned..I didnt know that! Mudge, ure just a wealth of constant info!

triceps are my favorite muscle group. In order to build your triceps how you want, you have to understand the anatomy of the triceps, then you can just look at your arm and build towards where you want it to be.

tri = three, obviously. you have three heads to the tricep muscle. the Lateral head (the one you see from front view that makes a bulge out to the side), Medial head (lies mostly underneath the long head, no need to try and isolate this one) and the Long head (the largest of the tricep heads, you see this one when looking at your arm from the side, its that enourmous meaty section that makes big arms look big ).
they all insert across the elbow down on the olecranon process of the ulna (your elbow joint on the forearm side) . what is important to know, is where each head originates. the lateral and medial head originate up on your humerus (upper arm), but the Long head, and this is key, actually orginates on your scapula (shoulder blade), infraglenoid tubercle to be exact. So that big fat Long head of the triceps orginates on the lower outside edge of your shoulder blade.

most guys i see at the gym are missing the long head development on their triceps. they press down there life away and curl their life away but never get very big arms because they are missing out on one aspect of one simple muscle.

how do you train that long head ? put it on a strectch. this means elevating your upper arm away from your body. straight out ahead of you or overhead. excercises that do this are

close grip bench
skull crushers
behind the head dumbell press
(dips are in there, but arent such an isolation)

and thats pretty much it. everything else is just a variation on the classics.

one hand overhead dumbell extensions are good for building definition, the above mentioned exercises work best with both arms working together.

i built my triceps into some serious shoes with heavy duty skullcrushers mostly. i'd do em like i do bench pressing, 4-5 working sets where i fail on the last one or two reps of the last one or two sets.

did i mention tri's were my favorite muscle group?

I had the same problem, bro.

What you gotta do is, when doing skullcrushers or pressdowns or whatever, is sorta "twist" your elbow in as far as possible. The best way i could describe it is say you are in handcuffs and your hands are out in front of you. it's like your trying to break out of them. your elbows go in, and your wrists go out. that's what you wanna do.

I've been doing this now for a few months, and feel it AND see it in my bi's and tri's more than ever before (even when on the juice).

give it a shot...

Skullcrushers!

I find it takes me a few warm up sets to get the CG bench form happening. The first set (warm up) is a bit wobbly and inconsistent, then each set gets better. By the time I do my working sets I have a nice smooth and consistent action going.

I do rope pushdowns, and then weighted bench dips. But sometimes I switch up my routine and swap the dips for skull crushers or cg bench.

Close gripped benching works best for me. I keep my hands close together--about 2" of separation-- and use a full rom. I prefer heavy weight and low reps: 8 down to 3 reps as sets progress.

There is no reason to have the hands so close together. The tricep serves to extend the arm, forcing your wrist at an unnatural angle does nothing to help make it more triceps intensive.

Originally Posted by Mudge

There is no reason to have the hands so close together. The tricep serves to extend the arm, forcing your wrist at an unnatural angle does nothing to help make it more triceps intensive.

Mudge, first off, thanks for having the clip of you doing deadlifts. That has helped me considerably.

For the close-gripped presses, I adjust my grip on the bar so that no pain or unneeded strain occurs. The angle of my grip/wrists is not severe b/c I use an ez curl bar. This method is something I've arrived at over the years and it works for me. Psychologically, I'd hate to give it up.

Originally Posted by Mudge

There is no reason to have the hands so close together. The tricep serves to extend the arm, forcing your wrist at an unnatural angle does nothing to help make it more triceps intensive.

I agree. I keep my hands placed so that my arms are fully tucked it, but no more than that. I basically use military style pushup grip width. This is definitely an awesome tricep exercise.

I really like tate presses and JM presses too. Both are sort of hybrid pressing and extensions movements that are popular among powerlifting circles.

Thats not me in the clip by the way, I have hair, and I'm not 5'8" 260.

I haven't close gripped with an EZ bar in ages, not conducive to using enough weight. I close grip with up to 315 depending how heavy I am going, I dont want to do a clean with that before I lie down on a bench.

The ez curl bar has a 200# capacity and I exceed that by 60 pounds. Dangerous. I know I'm going to have to try the straight bar for cg. With a straight bar and a somewhat wider grip (about 1 foot) I do use much more weight but my arm size suffered. My strength improved, but I'd drop size. I can't explain it.

I didn't know that wasn't you in the vid Mudge. sorry.

I do reverse grip benchpress on a smiths machine, that really hits your inner triceps

Heavy skulls crushers gave me 2 torn legiments on my left elbow 4 months ago. One on the bottom part of the elbow and one on the upper part of the elbow. If you what to experience some pretty nice pain for a couple of months, just continue lifting like i did. Then you'll see some devastating loss in how much weight you can push. Because of the above i lost over 100 lbs on my bench and still fighting to get it back. I believe now it's a mental thing and more afraid to do heavier weight then whether i can really lift it. It really fck up any pushing movements.
NO SKULLS FOR ME!

Originally Posted by DAcre

I do reverse grip benchpress on a smiths machine, that really hits your inner triceps

I am very intrested in reverse grip bench press, can anyone elaborate more on how this is differn't in an anatomy sort of way? What muscles are being taken out of this compared to the regular bp, and which are more utilized?

I do reverse grip benchpress on a smiths machine, that really hits your inner triceps

Horse shoe would be several things: muscle mass, fat obscurity (that noun may be inappropriate) and genetics. Figuring out an exercise will only help one of those three variables.

Originally Posted by Tough Old Man

Heavy skulls crushers gave me 2 torn legiments on my left elbow 4 months ago.

Thats how Dorian seperated his tricep. Skullcrushers wont be found in most powerlifters routines, if a light weight is used they aren't the worst movement but I dont do them myself.

Originally Posted by Mudge

Thats how Dorian seperated his tricep. Skullcrushers wont be found in most powerlifters routines, if a light weight is used they aren't the worst movement but I dont do them myself.

Didn't Dorian also tear his bicep?

Yep.

That dude is hardcore.