3 Best and Worst Tricep Exercises for Stronger Arms
Your triceps are one of the most noticeable features of your arms. More than the biceps, the triceps make up the majority of the upper arm and are key to achieving a powerful, muscular look—even underneath long sleeves.
More importantly, a stronger triceps translates to greater pushing power, allowing you to lift heavier weights during pushing exercises like bench presses that have a carry-over impact on your chest muscles.
However, many fitness enthusiasts often overlook this muscle group or do not pay much attention to how to effectively add muscle bulk and strength to this region.
In this article, we’ll explore the best and worst exercises for each triceps head to maximize muscle growth, prevent injury, and achieve balanced, sculpted arms.
The triceps are a powerful muscle group that contributes to arm size and plays a vital role in upper body strength and stability.
The triceps are essential for pushing movements, stability in the shoulder joint, and developing a well-rounded arm.
Parts of the triceps
- Long head
- Lateral head
- Medial head
Targeting each head with specific exercises helps promote balanced growth and prevents muscular imbalances.
We’ve chosen the best and worst triceps exercises based on their ability to stimulate muscle growth through constant tension, ability to progressively overload, maximizing range of motion, and safety.
This is the largest part of the triceps, located at the back of the arm. It helps extend the elbow and contributes to shoulder extension, making it key to building bulk and enhancing the back view of the arm.
While the dumbbell skull crusher is commonly included in tricep routines, it’s far from optimal for targeting the long head.
The long head of the triceps benefits most from exercises that place the arm overhead, which stretches the muscle and allows for maximum activation. However, the dumbbell skull crusher keeps the elbows in a lower, more neutral position, which limits the stretch on the long head and reduces its overall engagement.
The movement path of the dumbbell skull crusher is also less stable than barbell or cable variations, leading to potential control issues that can further detract from effectively targeting the long head.
The overhead cable extension allows a full stretch in the long head by lifting the arm overhead. This setup provides continuous tension in the stretched position while allowing the triceps to generate more force and promoting long-term muscle growth. More importantly, it also effectively targets all the heads of the triceps, making it the best triceps exercise out there.
Research has shown that the triceps show greater potential for hypertrophy when performing overhead cable triceps extension by 1.4 times, especially when put under stretch. The key to success for this exercise is to perform it with controlled movements, and full extension at the top.
Other great exercises for the long head of the triceps:
Found on the outer part of the arm, the lateral head gives the triceps its defined, “horseshoe” look. It’s often activated in pressing movements and helps create a visibly lean and muscular arm.
The reverse grip pushdown doesn’t offer any added biomechanical benefit for the triceps. It also often limits the amount of weight you can lift, thus hindering progressive overload. Turning the palms up reduces the strength output and can make it harder to maintain stability without any added benefit for what this exercise is trying to accomplish.
With the reverse grip, you may experience grip fatigue faster before you experience fatigue in the triceps.
Using a bar for triceps pushdown gives you enough stability to ensure maximum isolation of the triceps while minimizing shoulder involvement. Additionally, it provides consistent tension throughout the range of motion, making it a staple lateral head activation exercise for the triceps.
It is also worth noting that it is better to prioritize this exercise over the rope variation of triceps pressdown. While triceps pushdown, using a rope can effectively target the lateral and medial head of the triceps, you won’t be able to load as much tension to the triceps without breaking your technique and form, especially at higher weights or loads.
Other great exercises for the lateral head of the triceps:
Located deep within the triceps, the medial head stabilizes the arm and contributes to the thickness of the upper arm. This part is crucial for providing control and stability during elbow extension.
While popular, the triceps kickback often fails to provide the necessary tension in the stretched position for optimal long head activation.
More importantly, the kickback’s resistance is weakest where the muscle is most stretched, leading to limited stimulus for muscle growth.
For most lifters, triceps kickback can be challenging to overload, especially with heavier weights. People tend to swing the arm and use momentum instead of isolating the triceps, which not only reduces effectiveness but also puts the shoulder joint at a higher risk of strain and injuries.
Generally, it is better to use a cable variation of triceps kickbacks to maintain consistent tension while making progressive overload more viable.
The close-grip bench press is an excellent compound movement that has an incredible capacity to support heavy loads, provides consistent tension, and is highly effective for progressive loading.
Generally, you can consistently train your triceps and add more weights weekly using this exercise.
Other great exercises for the medial head of the triceps:
Include isolation exercises for the triceps
Isolation exercises are essential for effectively targeting each head of the triceps and addressing any weaknesses or imbalances that compound exercises may overlook. Aim to include 1 or 2 isolation exercises for each tricep head.
For example, incorporate tricep pushdowns to emphasize the lateral and medial heads, and overhead extensions to isolate the long head, ensuring balanced and comprehensive tricep development.
Here’s a plan for men that will help you build stronger triceps and balanced body:
And for women:
The long head of the triceps has a unique function—it crosses both the shoulder and elbow joints, meaning it not only helps extend the arm but also assists in shoulder extension. For this reason, the long head is best activated when the arm is placed overhead, stretching it fully.
Research supports that exercises placing the muscle in a stretched position, like overhead extensions, can lead to greater muscle growth over time. By incorporating overhead movements, you allow the long head to reach a greater range of motion, maximizing its engagement and growth potential.
Each head of the triceps is best activated at different shoulder angles, so varying your exercises to hit these angles ensures more comprehensive development.
Your triceps workout routine should at least have 1 exercise for each head:
- Long head - arms overhead
- Lateral head - arms at the sides
- Medial head - arms closer to the body
By including exercises from multiple angles, you avoid overemphasizing any one head and achieve a balanced, proportionate look for the entire tricep.
For effective tricep development, select exercises that provide a deep stretch, and consistent tension, and are safe to perform with proper form. Aim to hit each tricep head with exercises that align with their unique functions and use variations to keep workouts balanced.
Focus on progressive overload, and remember that slow, controlled movements will yield better results over time. Consistency, patience, and adherence to proper form are essential to achieving strong, well-rounded triceps.