Triceps Training

Triceps Muscle Group

Triceps muscles are an integral part of the upper arm, responsible for extending the elbow joint and providing stability to the shoulder joint. A well-trained triceps not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of the arms, but also plays a vital role in overall upper body strength and functionality. 

The triceps are the three thick muscles behind your upper arm. These are responsible for extending your forearm, pushing away from your body. These muscles are ⅗ of the bull in your sleeve. Targeted training is vital. 

Yes, triceps get used in other pushing motions, but targeting them is what we need to do to fill out our sleeves. There are nearly 50 different exercises that isolate or include triceps. This piece will look at isolating them as opposed to using the muscle group as part of a compound movement. I believe that, by isolating muscles after a compound exercise, one can get better and fuller development. 

There are various exercises that can be incorporated into a training routine to target the triceps muscles effectively. Some isolate the muscle group while others incorporate them into a compound movement.

Here is a short list of triceps isolation exercises::

Lying Triceps Extension or Skull Crushers — lay on your back on a bench with the weight at arms length above your chest, lower the weight towards or slightly behind your head, control the weight so as not to bounce at the bottom, extend your arms to bring the weight back to its starting point.

Overhead Extensions — via bar or cable; start with the weight or handle at arms length above your head, bend at the elbow to lower the weight behind your head, pause at the bottom to stretch the muscles some, with control contract the triceps to extend the weight to its starting point.

Push Downs — to include various attachments and grips; this has multiple handles to choose from which include a rope, V-Bar, and a straight bar; you can vary your grip with overhand or underhand; with your elbows locked at your sides push the handle down until you fully contract your muscles, hold for a few seconds before allowing the weight to slowly return to the starting point at which your forearms are above parallel to the ground

Dumbbell Kickback — bend over and support your body with one hand on a bench; take a dumbbell in your hand, lock your elbow at your side; contract your triceps to lift the weight until your arms is straight and parallel to the ground; moving from the elbow lower the weight until your arm is at a 90 degree angle. 

These exercises isolate the muscle group and do not, for the most part, rely on other muscles to complete the movement. What does a solid tricep workout look like? 

Presumably, you have already completed your compound exercises. You may have done incline bench, flat bench, and shoulder press. By now, your triceps are likely feeling smoked. This is when you isolate the triceps. You select any of the above exercises and complete your sets and reps.

For me, this example is what I do for triceps:

Bench Press

Shoulder Press

Tricep Push Downs

The way I have engineered these begins with drop sets for bench and shoulder press. I do four drops right now giving me five total sets for each compound pressing movement. Then, I isolate my triceps with a straight three by 10 for the pushdowns. I do these with a straight bar as I feel the movement more fully with this handle. You may prefer a rope or v-bar. Try them all to see what works best for you. 

At other times, I have included close-grip bench press and dips as part of a Push Day routine. That is not the case at this time. My training cycle does not have the room for that. 

I want to take a moment and dispel a myth. You can NOT isolate one head of the triceps completely. There are ways to put a larger proportion of the load on a part of the triceps, but the muscle group contracts as a unit. Why do people say that you can isolate one head of the muscle group? Likely, it is to sell articles or drive traffic. Physiology shows that the muscle group contracts together. 

It is important to note that while training triceps, proper form and technique must be maintained to avoid injury and ensure maximum muscle recruitment. Progressive overload, where the weight or resistance is gradually increased, is also crucial for muscle growth and strength development. Additionally, incorporating tricep isolation exercises into a comprehensive upper body training program can help to improve overall muscle balance and prevent any muscle imbalances or weaknesses. With consistent and proper training, the triceps muscles can become stronger, more defined, and contribute to an overall well-developed upper body. Look up all the exercises that are available to target your triceps and try what looks challenging and interesting. Keep them in your memory so you can vary your training and avoid boredom and monotony. 

In the comments, share your favorite triceps blasting routine.

Training Splits

Lifting weights has a multitude of benefits. Stronger bones, reducing loss of muscle tissue in older demographics, and improved mood are just a few of these benefits. Training schedules come in nearly the same variety as trainees. 

Cycling or changing up your lifting routine is important as the body is highly adaptive. Training is actually breaking down of muscle fibers and, as a result, traumatic to your body at that moment. Recovery, ilwhich is talked about later in here, is vital to growing stronger. During recovery our bodies repair the broken muscle fibers, this is how we grow stronger, faster, or bigger & more powerful. 

We adapt to the stresses of a routine. In this way muscle growth stagnates. Changing how you train every three to four months keeps the body guessing and from becoming stagnant in the routine. 

Why split training? Why not just workout daily? Recovery is when we get stronger and bigger, not during the workout, as stated. Splits allow for us to rebuild and recover after we tear ourselves apart in the gym. I am going to go over three splits with you. The three-day, four-day, and six-day splits. Each day of the split is a road map to your strength and health.

THREE-DAY SPLIT

The first and most common split is to work the full body three times a week. This allows for varied intensity at each session. For instance, one can lift with moderate intensity on Monday, do a light effort on Wednesday, and then go for broke and do heavy intensity on Friday. This allows for two days of recovery. The moderate intensity keeps your training schedule and growth going. The light day allows you to train and keep things moving, too. The high intensity day gives you two days to recover before you train again.

This split has you training benchpress, squat, and rowing as well as the accessory or support muscles. This includes, but is not limited to:

Squat or Deadlift (I’ve been coached to not do these on the same day)

Benchpress 

Bent or Seated rowing

Dumbbell press

Pectoral flies

Triceps extensions

Tricep push down 

Standing curls

Decline dumbbell curls 

Abdominals 

This split can be worked with a wide range of sets and repetitions. You can set it up as 3x10, 5x5, or tailored to your needs and desires. It works the major compound movements as well as isolating the supporting muscles. By integrating dumbbells, like the dumbbell press, you can increase the range of motion for a worked group. The dumbbell press pairs well after benchpress. By working deeper in your natural range you will find it easier to benchpress out of the bottom of the range of motion.

FOUR-DAY SPLIT

Another common split is a four-day routine. It breaks training into push and pull days. This, as I have done, schedules two push days and two pull days each week. It could also be a lower body one day and upper body the next. Get creative and see what you can arrange with this split as there are many routines you can write or find to fill this need.

The exercises may vary, but they generally focus on big compound movements first, then the smaller support exercises. Monday and Thursday would be push days. These would start with squats and benchpress. I’ve also kept shoulder press on these days. Then, the routine brings in the support muscles. This way you also get to hit deltoids, chest, and triceps as individually targeted muscles.

Pull day is set up similarly to push day, but for pulling exercises. Start off with deadlift. Then, do bent and upright rows. Add shrugs and movements to isolate lats and biceps and you have a full routine. 

When I did this split, it looked like

MON/THURS

Squat

Leg curls

Leg extension

Calf raise

Benchpress 

Shoulder press

Dumbbell flies for pecs

Lateral raises

Skull crushers 

TUES/FRI

Deadlift

Bent row with underhand grip (focus on lats)

Bent row overhand wide grip (focus on rhomboids and mid traps)

Upright row (deltoids and traps)

Lateral raises (also deltoids and traps)

Shrugs

Curls

Decline dumbbell curls

This provides for a solid level of effort and enables you to have adequate rest time between sessions. 

SIX-DAY SPLIT

Then, there is a six-day split. Like the four-day routine the body is fully worked out twice each week. This schedule allows for a greater focus on core lifts and the supporting muscles than the other two splits. One of the benefits of this schedule is that you do not need to spend two or three hours, or more, in the gym at each session. For instance, my workouts are 45 minutes to an hour. Overall, with six days in the gym, I am spending less time in the gym each week than with the other two splits. 

This split is designed to work each body part twice each week. It can be done with varying techniques and/or intensity levels. Each day is easily tailored to fit your schedule. The primary format for this is squat and legs, back, and then chest each on different days. 

MONDAY, THURSDAY — squat and legs or deadlift and legs

TUESDAY, FRIDAY — rowing, upper back, shoulders, and biceps.

WEDNESDAY, SATURDAY — benchpress, chest, shoulders, and triceps

Abdominals are not specifically listed, though I do work abs four days out of the six. This split allows two to three days recovery for each body section worked. Pick your preferred ab routine. 

For each specific day put in support or isolation exercises. These will specifically target the muscles that you worked in the compound movement. For clarification, let’s look at Monday and Thursday since those will be leg day. 

Squat or Deadlift (alternating these in the week enables you to have experience with the deadlift and allows a high intensity leg day on Monday with a moderate intensity on Thursday, or reverse that as you like)

Stiff legged deadlift

Bulgarian split squats

Leg curl

Leg extension

Calf press/raise

RECOVERY

Alternating muscle groups is by design. This workout begins with one or two compound exercises. Then, it progresses by isolating the muscles already worked for targeted training. This works by over exerting the targeted muscle group through thorough training. It hits from the larger compound movements and specifically focuses on the other muscles within said compound movement. Simply put, it works the whole and the parts synergistically. The two to three days off between body parts allows for a full recovery. 

The intensity levels used can vary based on your personal recovery capacity. This capacity is impacted by many factors. Some of these factors include your age, diet, other stress factors in your life, and sleep. When you go into the gym these factors will impact how much you can give in training. What I do is the first three days of the cycle are worked with maximum intensity. I try to achieve all sets and proscribed reps so that I can increase the weight. The second three days are done with moderate intensity. This is to work through the soreness and keep the body moving. This aids recovery. When I do not achieve the next weight increase, I log how many more repetitions I completed as opposed to the last session. 

Tracking reps in my log and showing also how many more I completed each session motivates and encourages me. I can see when, where, and how I’m growing stronger. Tracking progress is vital to success.

Keep cycling and keep your body growing. Train hard and train smart.

Drop Sets: What and How

 Why do we workout, lift weights, or run for miles at way-too-early in the morning? In some small manner we are each trying to attain an Atlas-esque physique. In our minds we are trying ot be something like Steve Austen or Jamie Sommers, the bionic sci-fi duo of the 1970s. We are training to be stronger, faster, better than before.

 

That is the crux of training, is it not? To be stronger, larger, faster in some respect than we were before? It is. It most certainly is. We all train in our given arena to become more athletic and more aesthetically pleasing to someone. The issue is that, due to the microwave oven mentality, we want those results now and have little patience for the journey.

 

It is along the journey that we use a multitude of training tactics and techniques known by different titles. In this piece we will look at a few principles written by Joe Weider. He has left us numerous training principle to learn and grow with.

 

Weider Principles

Joe Weider, the Master Blaster himself, gave us a plethora of training principles. This list was built through trial and error over hours in the gym and in talking with exercise scientists as well as physicians. Among those is included Drop Sets. The premise and practice are quite simple. You do an exercise to failure, lower the weight, repeat. Why? To overload and fully exhaust a target muscle group for full development is why.

 

These are also called rack runs. You may have a few colorful terms for them of your own that the uninitiated would not understand. But, to what end? Do these really work? Is there a benefit to this style of training?

 

A 2018 study published through the National Institute of Health looked at the effect of drop sets on growth of muscles. It was found that drop sets increased growth in muscle tissue in trained muscle groups. This was most likely due to the higher amount of stress on the targeted muscles.

 

The technique trains both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. Slow twitch fibers are associated with more endurance activities. These take longer to fatigue. Fast twitch fibers, conversely, are associated with strength and power. Fast twitch are larger fibers than slow twitch.

 

Drop sets have the unique capacity for training both slow and fast twitch muscles in one session. There is also another aspect of drop sets which some may overlook. They include an increased time under tensions.

 

Time Under Tension-This refers to the amount of time a muscle is under direct tension during training. The concept is that the longer a muscle is under tension the greater the gains in strength. Time under tension has benefits to a degree. I am not going to tell you that a three minute curl is going to give arms the size of Schwarzenegger.

 

There is something to be said about slower, more controlled movements for a more thorough training of a muscle group. By properly increasing the TUT, time under tension, a trainee can see several benefits. Among these benefits are mind-body connection, stronger muscles, and better form which results in better training. One positive aspect is that by going slower you reduce the risk of injury due to bad form. Another benefit is that, by prolonging the TUT, you more thoroughly exhaust the target muscle.

 

By dropping weight and continuing your sets past regular muscle failure, as in drop sets, you can maintain proper form with the lighter workload. Training with proper form for greater periods trains in better habits. More specifically, we are looking at the increased TUT. This technique is a continual depletion of the amount of muscle fibers in the fast twitch group.

 

Each set is presumably to failure. By lowering the weight at the point of failure you can continue to train without stopping. This fatigues more muscle fibers with each set. In this, you can see how strength fibers are being exhausted and endurance fibers are being engaged and trained as well.

 

There is a limit as to the amount of muscle fibers that a given exercise can exhaust before the trainee can no longer do that given exercise. This is positive failure. By lowering the amount of weight used, the stress load on the muscle fibers is lowered. This allows the trainee to continue to do the exercise thus firing or tearing more muscle fibers. In so doing repeatedly, the trainee goes to positive failure multiple times throughout the drop set resulting in a more complete exhaustion of muscle fibers in the targeted muscl group.

 

This dual fiber training in connection with the continual dropping for fast twitch fiber training will, after recovery, provide the trainee with larger and stronger muscles. These results will also be seen in shorter periods of time according to studies. Most training cycles run 12-weeks. Drop sets are recommended to run for 6-weeks for results.

 

Overload

Progressive Overload is the idea that you will continually and gradually increase the weight you are training with in order to increase the stress on your muscles. This results in larger and/or stronger muscles upon recovery. How this applies to drop sets is simple.

 

When training with drop sets as your main exercise routine you will still need to increases the weight you are lifting. The method I use is taken from the Russian Squat routine. It is simple and straight forward. Each workout, increase the starting weight by five to ten pounds. In this way, each workout is an overload as it is an increase from the last session.

 

Growth in Size and Strength

Due to its capacity for training both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers simultaneously this method is effective and efficient in producing muscle growth. Growth occurs when the body recovers after training. The training is traumatic to the body as it tears muscle fibers. The body then compensates by rebuilding more fibers than there were before. What we see as the result is larger, denser, stronger muscles. The technique of drop sets brings results in as little as six weeks according to studies.

 

Science Says

In review, the National Institute of Health studies have shown that drop sets are very effective for increasing size and strength as well as endurance. This training method is, in this author’s experience, fast, effective, and efficient. It is also highly enjoyable.

 

Conclusion

Drop sets are fast and efficient as a training technique. Using them as a foundation for your workout is an advanced technique. Even at advanced levels you will experience muscle soreness for days afterwards. Increasing your nutritional intake of protein and carbohydrates is likely to provide you what is needed to repair the damage done through training.

 

This author has done several 12 week cycles of drop sets and enjoys them thoroughly. At the time of this writing, this author is one month in on a drop set cycle. The technique is not easy in practice, but worth doing. The gains you will achieve in size and strength are worth pushing through. The gains will not come steadily as you will hit the wall at some points. This is natural.

 

When you cannot do all the reps per set as you design, do not increase the weight for the next session as designed. Rather, replicate said workout at the next session and hit the reps per set at that workout. You will get there so long as you persevere.

 

If you have not yet tried drop sets, you should give them a go. The first few sessions will be painful the day after. Stick with it as the results will be worth the initial pain.