Skillpill
When you train your arms in the gym, the muscles that are stressed are mainly the biceps and triceps. Training your triceps is of primary importance regardless of the purpose of your weight room sessions. At the level of hypertrophy – i.e. increasing muscle mass – it plays a fundamental role in terms of arm volume, even more than the biceps; as far as strength training is concerned, the triceps add an important contribution to all pushing exercises such as flat bench, dip and military press; in the same way a well-trained triceps will be important during explosive gestures, such as throws and pushes.
It is not uncommon to see triceps exercises performed with large overloads, this can happen because you are doing a good job of intensity, or because you are making compensations and execution errors, which facilitate the use of a greater load. It seems obvious to specify that compensate with other muscular groups is ineffective to improve the level of training, when not dangerous because of the muscular and articular tensions created.
Now we discuss about one of the most famous exercises for the triceps, explaining the correct execution and showing the main mistakes that are made.
Speaking of training for triceps this is the first exercise that comes to mind: it is used to stimulate muscle hypertrophy and eliminate excess fat on the back of the arms. It is composed of a pure elbow extension with an erect or slightly tilted forward torso; the humerus is along the hips with a flexion ranging from 0° to a few degrees (about 20°- 30°).
There are many variations of this movement that can be done with dumbbells, barbell, sitting, standing. Each variant corresponds to a different muscle activation and its own execution, so it is essential to understand if the choice is consistent with the training objective. The exercise consists of a flex-extension of the elbow starting with the shoulder flexed at 90°. With the dumbbells, it is performed with a neutral grip, where the palms are facing each other.
The reverse grip makes the exercise more difficult, as it is necessary to have a good dose of coordination and stability of shoulder and elbow in order to perform the exercise correctly and smoothly. This translates into a work more devoted to stabilization. Sometimes small details, movements of a few centimeters or changing an angle of a few degrees can make an exercise more effective or more difficult: you should choose the variant best suited to your training focus and level, avoiding overloads.
