How to Sculpt and Build Your Tricep Muscles

Did you know that the triceps make up about two-thirds of the arm? So if you wish to get big and powerful arms, you cannot miss out on training your triceps.

For those that may not know, the triceps are a three-headed muscle group that is located at the back of your arm. They are used for movements where you are required to push something using your arms.

For example, when you push something overhead, or push a heavy table, your triceps come into play. Therefore if you have weak triceps, then you won't be strong in any activity that requires you to push.

For those that don't care about functional muscles, but only aesthetics, it helps to know that without training your tricep muscles, you'll have loose and flabby arms.

MoreTop 6 Exercises to Tone Your Arms

The best way to build the tricep muscles is to strength train and hit them hard at the gym. For this you can choose bodyweight and weighted exercises to get the job done.

Some trainers will suggest that you do a lot of pressdowns and dumbbell kickbacks to build your tricep muscles, but to be honest that approach involving only isolation exercises is unlikely to deliver serious results.

First of all it needs to be understood that the triceps often get a lot of indirect work with many other compound-strength exercises like the overhead press, bench press and push-ups. In fact, some will say that these indirect triceps exercises work and develop the muscles much better than the direct isolation moves, and that you don't need any extra triceps work.

Here are the top indirect exercises:

  • Bench press (take a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip)
  • Overhead press
  • Parallel bar dips
  • Push-ups

MoreTop 5 Exercises to Gain Muscle Fast

  • 1
  • of
  • 2
NEXT

About the Author

Arnav Sarkar

Arnav Sarkar is a strength and conditioning trainer who relies on simplicity in his training method for achieving the best results. He also writes for various websites and magazines on training and nutrition. Visit www.sarkartraining.net to learn more.
Arnav Sarkar is a strength and conditioning trainer who relies on simplicity in his training method for achieving the best results. He also writes for various websites and magazines on training and nutrition. Visit www.sarkartraining.net to learn more.

Discuss This Article