If you’re like a lot of guys then you might find that it’s hard to get a good burn in your triceps. Really tricep workouts have become pretty routine for a lot of us, seeing as there’s not really that many different moves available compared with something like the chest.
Most tricep regimes consist of tricep kick-backs, push downs and extensions… and that’s it. Maybe the diamond push ups put in a weak showing toward the end but let’s be honest – no one really likes those!
Whatever the case, it doesn’t have to be that way! Actually you can get some serious burn on the triceps as long as you know how to mix things up. And that doesn’t necessarily mean changing the exercise: it just means changing the structure of your workouts, the pace of your routines and the speed of your repetitions. That’s something you should be noticing a lot if you’ve been reading this site for a while now.
Here’s one routine that takes full advantage of that concept to really get those triceps hurting…
Warm Up
You’ll start with a warm-up set. The very best kind of warm-up set to use here is simply to perform the same type of exercise you’re going to be doing for working sets, but just with lower weight. This also has the nice added bonus of helping you to improve your technique. Firing those neurons involved in the movement will ‘excite’ the neurons involved, allowing you to recruit more muscle fiber when you perform the move ‘for real’.
Here then you’re going to be performing light reps of narrow grip bench press.
Close Grip Bench Press 3 Burn Sets – 10 Repetitions
Now move onto the narrow grip bench press, except with ‘burn sets’. This means that you’re going to go to near failure on each set. And then when you get to the end, simply ‘bounce’ the weight up and down slightly to completely exhaust any strength you have left. This is a brutal way to increase the TUT and at the same time, flood the muscles with blood.
Overhead Tricep Extensions 3 x 10
Now we’ll be moving onto something a bit more classic that works the triceps in a different way. Make sure you go through the full range of motion, fully lowering the weight behind your back each time you perform a rep.
Weighted Dips Followed by Dips
Finally, you’re going to end with dips. Dips are excellent for training the pecs, triceps and shoulders. We’re mostly interested in the triceps here though, so make sure you’re really feeling them work and that you angle your body appropriately to that end.
To make life harder for yourself, you’ll be performing these weighted – try throwing some heavy chains around your neck. The real challenge though will come next, when you’re going to continue pumping out more sets now without the weight. This means you can go to failure and then perform a slight drop set!
