The key to well-developed arms is to work on building the triceps muscles. Here’s a versatile triceps exercise that can be done on a bench, on the floor or on an exercise ball.
The Set-Up
- Lay on a bench with your feet up off the floor to take pressure off the lower back.
- With your arms straight, hold the dumbbells directly above the shoulders. Your wrists, elbows and shoulders should form a straight vertical line.
Performing The Triceps Extension
- Bend the elbows and lower the dumbbells towards your head.
- Be sure to keep the upper arms – from the elbow to the shoulder – straight up and down and still. Only your lower arm – from the elbow to the hand should be moving.
- Stop the dumbbells when your hands reach a point in-line with your temples, or where your hands are just in front of your face.
- As you do the exercise, keep your elbows in-line with your shoulders. If you allow your elbows to move out, you place stress on the joints of the arm.
- Pause briefly at the bottom of the movement to maintain control and prevent momentum from being used.
Performance Tips
- A common mistake when doing the triceps extension is to move the elbows back towards the head at the same time as lowering the weights. Doing this takes the focus off the triceps and engages the chest and shoulder muscles. Plus it creates momentum with the weight, so less effort is required to raise the dumbbells.
- A sign that your elbows are moving is your hands end up by your ears when you lower the weights.
- Another common mistake is to collapse the elbows and lower the elbows towards the shoulders. This error in form puts great stress on the elbows. If done too long, elbow pain and discomfort may develop.
- As with all exercises, proper breathing technique is important. When doing the triceps extension, breathe in while lowering the dumbbells and breathe out as you raise the dumbbells back to the starting position.
