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The triceps is the triceps muscle of the upper arm and belongs to the posterior group of muscles in the upper arm. It covers the entire posterior surface of the arm between the shoulder blade and the humerus and the ulna.
Triceps – function in the body
Triceps basically the triceps muscle (Latin musculus triceps brachii) is a large, thick muscle on the dorsal part of the arm. The main function of the triceps is to straighten the forearm at the elbow joint, which counteracts the action of flexors such as the biceps. At rest, with the arm slightly bent in flexion, the biceps crosses the triceps. Along with extending the forearm at the elbow joint, the triceps can also stabilize the elbow joint as the forearm and hand make small movements, such as typing.
It consists of three heads – medial, adjacent to the humerus, long and lateral – lies on the medial one. The head is long forces movement in the shoulder and elbow joints. It is the strongest extensor of the shoulder joint and a strong adductor of the shoulder. Lateral and medial head they are the heads responsible for the extension movement in the elbow joint. The strength of the extensor muscles of the elbow is less than that of the flexor muscles of the elbow.
Exercises for triceps
On the bodybuilding pages you can find both tips for exercising on triceps at home and at the gym, using professional equipment. Why is it worth exercising? Strong, trained triceps it is useful in many situations, e.g. for physical work. It also has some effect on the overall condition. Therefore, it is worth spending some time on it from time to time.
Before you start exercising, you need to warm up properly. It is worth doing two or three series of starting exercises triceps and getting them used to work. It’s good to start your training with general exercises for large muscle groups in which tricepsy can play an auxiliary role. Only then can you move on to the actual exercises.
Sample exercises
Diamond pumps
Push-ups are a fantastic exercise to increase strength, endurance and muscle tone. In addition, doing push-ups and similar pressure movements has been shown to activate triceps even more than isolation exercises.
To properly perform a diamond pump, start in the tall plank position with your hands close enough that your thumbs and forefingers touch to form a diamond (diamond) shape. Then slowly lower your body to your hands, keeping your elbows close to your body, and vigorously return to the starting position.
This exercise requires us to be as focused as possible in order to be able to do it correctly. If we are beginners, we can start with the traditional push-up and adopt a slightly broader posture.
Straight Bar Dips
Single Bar Push-ups are a triceps, chest, and shoulder exercise and can be performed with any bar, bar, or equipment that can safely support your body weight.
We start out by holding your body over a bar with your arms fully extended and a grip that is slightly wider than shoulder width. We need to engage our core during this exercise as it will help us keep our balance. We lower the body at a controlled pace, bending the arms at the elbow until the lower part of the chest touches the handrail, then return to the starting position for one repetition. Our feet should not touch the ground at any time while performing this exercise.
Bench Press
One of the basic exercises in gyms around the world. The bench press is an exercise for the chest, triceps and arms (when done correctly).
We start by lying on a bench with arms outstretched, palms slightly wider than shoulder width. A good way to check that you are holding the bar well is to keep your forearms upright with the bar at its lowest position. Then squeeze the shoulder blades so that the chest, triceps, and front of the shoulders are facing forward with the feet firmly on the ground. Now we have to bend the arms and lower them to the sides until the barbell touches our lower chest. Our elbows should form a 45-degree angle with the body. Then we push the barbell up to the starting position to complete one rep.
Pressing the bar while standing (Push Press)
This exercise uses the momentum of the legs to initially push the barbell away from the body, then the triceps play a major role in lifting the barbell and fully extending the elbows in the second part of the movement. A unique advantage of the bench press is that the use of the legs allows you to lift heavier weights, thus further challenging the triceps during the second part of the lift.
We start by standing straight and resting the barbell on the shoulders, grasping it a little wider than the width of the shoulders. We start the movement by slightly bending the knees and pushing the weight away with the legs and moving the bar away from the shoulders, keeping the vertical movement as much as possible. We continue the movement until the bar is in a position above our head and the arms and legs are completely straightened. Then slowly lower the weight back to the starting position to complete the repetition.
Triceps – how often to train?
It all depends on what the goal of our training will be. Training will vary greatly depending on whether you want to maintain good overall health, lose weight, tone your body, or simply look great in a sleeveless T-shirt.
As with any other muscle group, you should stick to a precise exercise schedule to avoid overtraining and increasing your risk of injury. Since most athletes realize that triceps are bigger than biceps, they mistakenly assume that they should train that muscle part harder. However, it is worth knowing that the triceps is also trained when the chest and arms are trained, thanks to which it is much more loaded without enough time to regenerate. According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), triceps should be trained at least twice a week on non-consecutive days. Triceps are actually relatively small muscles, so you should keep your rep range between 8 and 12. If you are also doing chest or arm exercises, you should reduce that one step. One set per group of muscles is usually enough to strengthen them, but two to three sets may be more effective assuming there is time in a tight schedule.
Toning and strengthening the triceps
If we want to train triceps to increase muscle strength and tone them, we will likely need to do multiple resistance training sets. Doing two to three chest exercises during triceps training two days a week will make you stronger rather quickly. You should then train 8 to 10 repetitions, but add more sets (maximum 12 per training). For example, our chest training routine might include doing three sets of dumbbell flyes while lying on a horizontal bench and three sets of dumbbell presses lying on a horizontal bench. The addition of two sets of straightening the arms on the lift while standing and pressing the “French” dumbbell sit-down with both hands will also load the triceps muscles accordingly. As we get stronger, we can slowly increase the number of sets and increase the weight we lift to better tone the arm muscles.
Burning excess fat and calories
Strength training for triceps can also help speed up your metabolism and burn more calories to shed excess fat from your body. Adding triceps exercises to a whole body workout two to three times a week will increase the number of calories we burn, but also improve the health of our cardiovascular system and increase our endurance. For best results with weight loss, we will likely need to complete two sets of chest and triceps exercises three days a week, ranging from 10 to 15 repetitions. It is recommended that you maintain relatively short rest periods of less than 30 seconds to maintain proper fat burning. Or, consider using a chest press and triceps overhead extension machine to easily focus on these muscles right from the start.
However, keep in mind that patience is key to developing the triceps muscles without overloading the muscle fibers and causing damage to them. Of course, how much rest our triceps will require varies greatly depending on the typical volume of training. The longer we exercise, the more damage the muscles will suffer and the more regeneration they will need to strengthen themselves. If there are three or fewer sets, the triceps will likely need 48 hours to recover (72 hours recovery for more sets). Taking the time to rest is almost as important as taking care of high-quality arm training, because the muscle fibers cannot stand the constant bullying without leaving them to heal themselves. We may feel like we are losing strength while waiting, but during the resting period, the triceps really start to get stronger.
If we plan to train triceps and they still hurt us, we can postpone the training for one day to additionally rest.
Changing exercises during triceps training
No matter how committed we are to our exercise schedule, you will surely reach a plateau (a temporary lull in the training process; this is the period where exercise results remain at the same level despite continued training) of muscle growth and weight loss. As this can result in a severe loss of motivation, all necessary precautions should be taken to avoid a plateau. This can be done by changing the order of exercise, the number of rest periods, and the exercise routines.
It is recommended to mix the exercises in such a way as to effectively affect the long, side and middle heads of our triceps. Every time we try a new exercise, make sure to start with a lighter weight to learn the appropriate technique before adding weight. Performing the exercises incorrectly technically will only make us more tired, but it will not make us progress faster, but in extreme cases it can lead to injuries that may eliminate us from further exercises for a long time.
Triceps – injuries
Injury can occur both during training and physical exertion triceps: tears, tendinitis, or acute pain. They arise as a result of too much effort, overstretching or being forced triceps for violent work – e.g. lifting the bar too quickly.
Inflammation of the triceps it’s actually a triceps tendinitis. It manifests itself with pain when straightening the elbow and when trying to stretch tricepsas well as palpation. In this situation, it is recommended to cool it with a cold compress every two hours, and if the pain does not pass – contact with a physiotherapist will be necessary.
A muscle tear is the breaking of a small amount of muscle fibers (more than 5%). It usually occurs where the belly of the muscle becomes the tendon. Symptoms are pain (mild, moderate or severe), inflammation, tenderness and hematoma. Often tearing is confused with stretching. After tearing occurs, avoid limb movements, apply a cold compress, and contact a physiotherapist for special therapeutic exercises. You should also limit physical activity for a few days (5-7) and avoid straining the torn muscle during this time. Convalescence can be accelerated by phonophoresis, laser therapy or magnetotherapy.
To avoid injuries triceps, do not forget to warm up your muscles before exercise.