Thread: Most effecitve excercise for building tricep strength????

Those are two excellent movements for tricep strength.

For isolation movements:
pushdowns, overhead elbow extensions, skull crushers, but they pale in comparison to dips+close grip bench.

yeah i dig the skull crushers as well, thats usually my third excercise in my tricep routine or the rope tricep extensions. I usually rotate those two.

Post your routine.

Might be overtraining.

Close grip bench is heads and shoulders above the rest for me personally. I improved that and my bench definitly improved.

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Post your routine.

Might be overtraining.

Ok here goes. I train chest and tris together. Here is what that day looks like, and I always hit the largest body part first.

Chest
Flat Dumbell Press 3x10
Incline Dumbell Press 3x10 (I alternate incline and decline each week)
Dumbell Flys 3x10 (I alternate in cables each week)

Tris
Skull Crushers 3x10
Close Grip BP 3x10
Rope Pull Downs 3x10

Cardio for 25-30 minutes and out.

Its a pretty high intensity work out with limited resting, I am in and out in 1:15 typically. The goal is buil muscle mass and at the time shed 55lb of fat. The diet is under control and I'm really getting used to it now.

Now I will say that this is my area where I could use the most strength. Even when I was younger and worked out a ton I weighed 173lb and could only bench 185x6 and I was spent. I have this mental goal of being 200lb and benching my body weight x10.

Way too much triceps work! Besides, you can't bulk and cut at the same time.

Can I ask in what movement you'd like to strenghten your tri's.Is it for the bench or Overhead work.The reason I ask is because the 2 would differ in priorty of the excersises.For example if the bench is what your looking for then I can't honestly say dips would be better than say close grip,board presses,floor press some rack lockouts from different heights and even skull crushers.
What I'm trying to say is to get better at something you have to devote time on that specific thing.

Well I can't do dips so well and I can't bench for shit right now. Thats why I am trying to work both angles.

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Way too much triceps work! Besides, you can't bulk and cut at the same time.

Perhaps bulk was the wrong term I'm lifting heavy with the idea that muscle burns calories, the more you have the more you burn. The diet is taking care of the weight loss for me. At least it has proven that way so far.

Id agree on the volume being too much for the triceps. Consider reducing this by half or so while maintaining if not increasing intensity.

Oh, and def CG and dips for tri strength in general.

Originally Posted by Witchblade

Way too much triceps work! Besides, you can't bulk and cut at the same time.

That may not be too much volume. Everyone is different. Some people take a lot of sets to make the triceps grow and others (will call them assholes) don't have to do any direct triceps work.

But if that routine isn't working for him, he does need to change things around. Maybe he should do his triceps work before his chest work. Maybe he should have a dedicated triceps day. Hell, maybe he needs to stop do any direct work altogether.

Hello DOMS you can call me asshole,

Seems kinda pointless if you ask me...oh wait you didnt.

3 compound lifts (this includes CG BP)
3 isolations lifts.

At least knock out one of the isolations. Re-evaluate your volume too.

Originally Posted by Double D

Hello DOMS you can call me asshole,

Asshole.

If you want strength for triceps you should stop training in such high rep ranges. Lower it down.... 10 reps is way too much if ur really concerned with power!

Originally Posted by LexusGS

If you want strength for triceps you should stop training in such high rep ranges. Lower it down.... 10 reps is way too much if ur really concerned with power!

Yes and no. I normally lift in the rep ranges of as low as 1 all the way aas high as 6 on compound lifts. However every now and then you do need to jump into that higher rep range to give your muscles that shock that will make you stronger.

Ok going to try doing triceps before chest next week and see how it works, a buddy of mine has used that with success when his tri's were weak.

After chest two days ago I did tris and could only do 100lbx6-3 for Close grip BP. I was out of strength and out of energy. When I got home I was playing with my daughter who is 18lb, 5 months old, adorable, and it took effort to hold her up over my head and do airplane games with her. Moral of the story, I'm running out of energy too quickly and my muscles are getting fatigued mid work-out.

I may need to examine the diet and load a few more complex carbs in the gun on workout days.

Weighted dips and tricep rope pressdowns are my favourite.

Originally Posted by Spud

Weighted dips and tricep rope pressdowns are my favourite.

I do the press downs but I'm not yet strong enough to do dips. I'
m working on it though.

Originally Posted by Double D

Yes and no. I normally lift in the rep ranges of as low as 1 all the way aas high as 6 on compound lifts. However every now and then you do need to jump into that higher rep range to give your muscles that shock that will make you stronger.

I do the same thing every now and then. But his primary focus should be to do low reps.

Originally Posted by Uthinkso

I do the press downs but I'm not yet strong enough to do dips. I'
m working on it though.

Have you tried doing close grip pushups? Doing those in high school provided a great foundation for my chest and triceps.

Try them with your hands at shoulder width, just under your collarbone, and your elbows extending straigh backwards.

Originally Posted by Spud

Have you tried doing close grip pushups? Doing those in high school provided a great foundation for my chest and triceps.

Try them with your hands at shoulder width, just under your collarbone, and your elbows extending straigh backwards.

I was just gonna suggest that as well. If your just getting back into training (which I think I read in an earlier post of yours) Doing variations of push-ups will really help your shoulders, chest and triceps in terms of stability for when you start to use the bench press. Here's a good article (off topic) about how push-ups can really help shoulder impingements.

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1426252

My shoulders tend to be the weak link too and often feel like they may give way with heavy weight. Perhaps I need a little foundation work.

Thanks for the link.

I was reading this thread and I was thinking the same..... close grip or diamond pushups. You can usually get a lot of reps on these, so have a workout partner put a 45 pound plate on your back. When my son was younger, I would have him sit on my back while I did these.

Remember this, the movements where you move your body thru air are usually the most effective. Think about it.... squats, deadlifts, chins, pullups, dips, and yes, pushups.