HOME WORKOUTS FOR TRICEPS

WHY DO WE TRAIN OUR TRICEPS MUSCLES?

The muscles on the back of our arms, the triceps, comprise roughly 2/3 of the upper arm mass. Bodybuilders may flex the biceps more often, but they know the value of the triceps for upper arm girth.

Apart from developing muscle mass and definition for posing, the triceps are important for pushing movements in sports and for strength in general. Also, stronger muscles give better support to our joints and bones.

The triceps muscle extends our elbows, pulls our arms backward and pulls our arms closer to our bodies. We use the triceps when we close the trunk of a car, climb a tree, throw or dribble a ball, sweep with a broom, vacuum or replace things in a cupboard.

The triceps is composed of three “heads”, the long head, lateral head and medial head. See below.

Women like firm triceps for the aesthetics of looking good in tank tops or swimsuits. Also, women like to be confident in their daily activities, such as placing baggage in the luggage compartment on a plane trip, moving a sofa or picking up their kids. Neither women nor men want to have flab on the back of their arms.

TRAINING THE TRICEPS

I have been to many public gyms and have found excellent weighted machines or devices that call for us to press down against resistance. Also, it is well known that bench presses work the triceps, particularly if we use a narrow grip on the barbell.

When I began weight training at age 18, I did heavy bench presses and military presses with barbells, nothing else for triceps. Later, I began to do lots of parallel bar dips.

Fortunately, there are many exercises that involve the triceps and we can thoroughly work them at home. We can do push-ups for triceps and chest development. Very little strength? Do your push-ups on your knees. The strength will come as you progress.

The picture below shows the muscles involved in a push-up position. The horseshoe shaped muscle at the back of his arm is the triceps.

The best push-up hand position I have found for triceps is called the “diamond”. Instead of placing your hands at shoulder width, make a triangle with your thumbs and fingers. This directly stresses the triceps, but don’t do this if you are a beginner.

In my home workouts, I do a variety of triceps movements, though not in the same workout. I find it more valuable and less monotonous to change my routines. Here are a few that I like:

• The push-up, whether the close diamond hand placement for triceps or a wider grip if I want to work chest and triceps together
• The “kickback” with a dumbbell – leaning over and pushing the dumbbell backward by straightening my elbow
• The kickback with resistance bands anchored from my door
• The triceps extension with a dumbbell. I hold the dumbbell with both hands behind my neck while standing. Then I straighten my elbows against the resistance as I extend the weight upward.
• Using loop bands to push downward with one hand while holding the other end with the other hand
• Several form of push-downs with the Bullworker Bow Classic

Here is a 10 minute home workout video, showing the diamond push-up, other push-ups, the kickback with dumbbell, the triceps extension and others. Male demonstrator.

This video shows a similar 10 minute workout, with female demonstrator.

HOME EQUIPMENT

Amazon is loaded with fitness equipment for home workouts. These are small tools that do not take much space and are easily stored.

I am an Amazon customer and associate. As an associate, I may place their links within my posts and may earn from any sales conversions from those links. This is affiliate marketing. See my upper menu “Become an affiliate marketer” for complete information on how this works.

The links will show full information, images, prices, reviews and suggestions for other links to similar items. Look around.

Here are some relevant links for equipment that I use.

Push-up board – with designated hand positions for the muscle group being trained. Also, there are handles that give more depth to the push-ups.

Adjustable dumbbells – 15 lbs. to 90 lbs. Different resistances within only two pieces of equipment.

Lighter dumbbells – set of 5, 8 and 12 lb. weights with storage rack.

Resistance bands with handles – 10 to 50 lb. resistances. These were chosen as the top brand in their category in my recent post.

Loop resistance bands – also known as booty bands. Less than $9.

Adjustable parallel bars – for home use.

Bullworker Fitness offers home workout tools that are ideal for both isotonic and isometric modes of resistance. I am also an associate of Bullworker and use both the Steel Bow and Bow Classic. Both or either of these fitness tools give us several means to develop triceps, including press down exercises.

For Bullworker, see my permanent link at the side of my website and click on the red link for information on all of their products. These are high quality workout tools.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Our triceps are much more than nice horseshoe shaped muscles for bodybuilders to show as they pose. Triceps are used daily in our routine activities when we push things away from us. Such as the dessert table?

Let’s keep our arms in good shape, especially as we get older.

Please leave me any comments or questions in the “Comments” section below. Or email me, richard@myworkoutathome.com.

Be well!