Fig a.
Triceps anatomy
Before getting into what type of exercises will help you grow your triceps first let us understand the triceps anatomy.
As the name depicts itself “tri-ceps” meaning three-headed muscle which is present at the back of your arm, with three different attachment points from where it originates.
Triceps are nearly about 2/3rd of your arms total mass whereas biceps only consists of 1/3rd of your arms mass.
Keeping that in mind if you want to get bigger arms, a big triceps will increase the overall size of your arm.
Sorry for the image quality, I did not edit the background in this picture as I wanted to keep this image of mine as real as possible!
What are the three heads of the triceps?
a. Long Head
Fig b.
Long or Inner head of the triceps originates from the back of scapula to the back of your forearm and to really target those muscles you have to keep it in a stretched position.
So, whenever you keep your arm in front of your chest or take your arms over your head you will put more emphasis on inner head of triceps.
b. Lateral or Outer Head
Fig c.
Now if you’ve understood the long head, lateral head of the triceps is not that complex.
The lateral head originates from humerous and crosses the elbow joint.
So, in case of lateral head, you have to keep your triceps in a relaxed or neutral position at the sides of your arm.
Which triceps exercise hit which head?
Lateral head tricep workouts
My favorite exercises for the lateral head are:
Rope Triceps Pushdown
Fig. d
Parallel Bar Triceps Dips
Fig. e
Weighted Bench Triceps Dips
I usually do bench dips as we don’t have parallel bar dips in our gym if done executed properly you can feel your outer head throughout the movement.
Fig. f
Diamond Pushups
Fig. g
Medial Head Tricep exercises
One Arm Reverse Grip Cable Push-down
Fig. h
Cable Triceps Kickback
Fig. i
Incline Bench Cable Triceps Press down
Fig. j
Long Head Triceps Workout
Close Grip Triceps Bench Press
Fig. k
Skull Crushers
Fig. l
Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extension
Fig. m
Rope Cable Overhead Triceps Extensions
Fig. n
Dumbbell Overhead Extension
Fig. o
Commonly Asked Questions
How many sets of triceps should you do?
I personally do 4 sets of 20,10,10, 15 repetitions keeping my form strict.
In total, I include one to two exercises of each triceps head in my workout routine to target and focus on them individually.
How many days a week should you train your triceps?
Triceps have Type 2 muscle fibers which recover slowly and it takes 48 hours or 2 days to recover.
Fast twitch muscle fibers are explosive in nature so keep your rep range anywhere between 6-10 which will help you to grow them.
As I have mentioned my rep range lies anywhere between 10 to 20, so if you want you can try them too.
Image Credits
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