Here are the tricep exercises I’ve experimented with this week:

  • Close-Grip Incline Bench (done)
  • Close-Grip Flat Bench
  • Dips
  • Overhead Rope Extension
  • Single-Arm Overhead Cable Extension
  • Reverse-Grip Pushdown
  • Straight-Bar Pushdown
  • Rope Pushdown

Before this month, I always struggled with elbow pain whenever attempting tricep exercises. But 2 weeks ago, I discovered “elbow circles” warmup exercise which has thankfully fixed that. But now, every tricep exercise feels extremely awkward in one of two ways:

  1. It feels impossible to find a tricep exercise with a weight heavy enough to figure out my “6-rep max” (i.e. a weight which I can barely do 6 reps but not 7 even if my life depended on it). The limiting factor is always discomfort rather than the limiting factor being tricep strength (while keeping great form). This is less of a problem if I opt for more reps at lower weight, but I strongly wish to continue the “grease the groove protocol” method which has worked wonders for me the past 3 months and allowed me to move up in strength relatively quickly.
  2. Even when the exercise feels “okay-ish”, I rarely get that feeling of my triceps clearly doing the work. It often feels like my shoulders, elbows, joints, or just general awkwardness are the main thing I’m noticing instead. Despite tons of effort & exertion, I tend to notice that exertion everywhere else but not the triceps.

For someone in my situation, are there 2 or 3 beginner-friendly tricep exercises that feel natural, stable, and easy to progressively overload? I strongly believe that if I choose 1 or 2 tricep exercises to focus on daily (at low weight, low volume, just mastering the movement), that eventually it will feel comfortable and I can eventually grind my way up to higher weights once I practice letting my triceps familiarize with the movement pattern. I just want to skip the guesswork and only pursue the 1-2 most promising candidates.

Lastly, if you were teaching someone how to learn to feel their triceps working on a particular triceps exercise, what cues or form tips would be most helpful or educational?

  • Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.orgEnglish
    2·
    9 hours ago

    Basic simple exercises, repeated consistently ad nauseum for years.

    As a beginner i wouldn’t really focus on feeling the muscle, just trying to keep form somewhat ok and consistent and just keep pushing in the usual repeat range ~8-12. IMO, feeling the muscle shouldn’t come at the expense of intensity. If the form is somewhat correct, the right muscles are working regardless of how much one can feel those.

    My personal favorites for triceps are skull crushers due to how easy those are to overload and cable single arm overhead extensions. Can’t do it with both arms anymore, ran out of stack on the cable machine. Tricep pushdowns are good as well, but I’m getting to the point where it’s hard to keep myself down instead of pushing the weight down. Probably have to cross over to tricep dips soon.

  • cøre@leminal.space
    2·
    14 hours ago

    I do these and feel it after the workout

    • skullcrushers

    • dips using a workout bench

    • cable pulldown. I don’t have a machine but I do have a power tower. I tie a resistance band to the pullup bar then grip the hanging bands of the loop one in each hand and pull them down. Find the grip height that you like that gives you good resistance. 3 sets of 15 really burns

    • I also do diamond pushups, which work triceps

  • Nednarb44@lemmy.world
    3·
    1 day ago

    My two favorites are the single arm overhead cable extension, and what a call a dumbbell hammer crusher. I do those on an incline of 45 degrees and use a neutral grip. The second being my preferred. I’ve found that easiest on my elbows and I can really feel my triceps doing the work.

  • Matty_r@programming.dev
    14·
    2 days ago

    Have you got a cable setup? I high recommend Cable Tricep Kickbacks. Doesn’t need a lot of weight to get a good pump going.

  • chrash0@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 days ago

    i went a long way with just dumbbells doing single arm extensions. you may also be limited by stuff like grip strength and your joints. 6 reps is great, but if you can’t challenge your target muscle you might look into more like a 12-20 reps range until you can round out those weaknesses.

    here’s some that i do that aren’t on your list:

    • single and dual arm dumbbell extensions
    • skullcrushers, dumbbells and barbells, seated or lying (standing can be a waste of energy, by some accounts)
    • alliwantsoda@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      5 hours ago

      but if you can’t challenge your target muscle you might look into more like a 12-20 reps range until you can round out those weaknesses.

      Thanks for the reply. It’s entirely possible that since I’ve been avoiding triceps all year, that maybe I forgot what it’s like to start training a new muscle group. My premise may have possibly been flawed (that I should feel the muscle being targeted on day-1 of a new exercise). I did 2 working sets of tricep cable kickbacks yesterday (10+ reps) and 2 working sets of rope pulls today (10+ reps).

      Tomorrow I will try the single & dual arm dumbbell extensions, as well as the skullcrushers but wanted to ask first if you use the “suicide grip” (with your thumb on the same side of the barbell as your fingers) or the “safe” barbell grip when doing barbell skull crushers? I forget the advantage of the suicide grip, which I won’t try right away but might transition to after a few weeks.

      • chrash0@lemmy.world
        1·
        4 hours ago

        i haven’t paid much attention to my grip for that heh. i may do a mix of both. i’m mostly doing dumbbells with a hammer grip for skullcrushers. i have other grip/forearm exercises so i haven’t thought much about it here.

        tbh, i don’t want to really speak with authority. i’ve only been lifting with intention for about 3 years, doing mostly calisthenics and high rep dumbbell exercises for 3 years before that. i subscribe mostly to some lifting influencers that try to profess a “science-based” approach, synthesizing stuff that makes sense and what works for me. but this does feel like a part of life that people will speak with authority on regardless of nuance, like diet.

        that said, time working on it (with respect to rest time) and consistency is what makes progress. trying is progressing; i think that applies to a lot of things.

  • vapordays@leminal.spaceEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    I would suggest to continue experimenting with dips, especially with a more straight up posture which targets more triceps vs a leaning forward posture which targets more chest.

    You can progressive overload forever by adding weight = weighted dips.

    As a bonus, they are a great all-around upper body compound exercise.

    • Matty_r@programming.dev
      2·
      2 days ago

      You can use bands looped under your feet, to a bar overhead to also help get started. This can also help stabilise and make the movement easier.

      I would say though, if you’ve had troubles with elbow pain in the past Dips are going to hit that pretty hard - also shoulders.

      • alliwantsoda@lemmy.worldOP
        1·
        5 hours ago

        You can use bands looped under your feet, to a bar overhead to also help get started. This can also help stabilise and make the movement easier.

        Is this still worth looking into if my gym already has an assisted dip/pullup machine? I have to use about 85 pounds of assistance currently for my working sets on the pullups and required even more weight assistance on the dips, which have caused elbow pain in the past (before I discovered elbow-circles warmup exercise).

        One of my goals for the next 18 months is to do 1 unassisted pullup and so I’ve been training with negatives lately, which have skyrocketed my strength. So fast in fact, that I plan to quit doing the assisted pullups and purely do negatives after I focus on a couple other tweaks first.