You want big arms. Most people go straight for the biceps because they’re the "show" muscle, but honestly, that’s a massive mistake if you actually care about size. The triceps brachii makes up roughly two-thirds of your upper arm mass. If you’re ignoring them, or just throwing in a few lazy sets of cable pushdowns at the end of a chest day, you’re leaving about 60% of your potential gains on the table.
Training is hard. Training correctly is even harder.
To understand how to workout the tricep, you have to stop thinking about the arm as just one big chunk of meat that moves up and down. It’s a complex piece of machinery with three distinct heads: the long, lateral, and medial. Most guys at the gym hit the lateral head—the one that creates that "horseshoe" look on the side—and completely neglect the long head, which is the only part that crosses the shoulder joint. If you aren't stretching that long head under load, your arms will always look flat from the side.
The Anatomy of a Thick Arm
Let’s get technical for a second, but not in a boring textbook way.
The triceps is a three-headed monster. The lateral head is on the outside. The medial head sits deeper and lower, near the elbow. Then there’s the long head. This is the big boy. Because it attaches to the scapula (your shoulder blade), it’s the only part of the tricep that cares about where your elbow is in relation to your torso.
If your elbows are pinned to your ribs, you’re mostly hitting the lateral and medial heads. If your arms are overhead, you’re finally putting that long head on a stretch. This is why you see people with decent definition but zero "hang" or thickness when their arms are at their sides. They aren't doing enough overhead work.
Research, like the 2022 study published in the European Journal of Sport Science, suggests that training muscles at longer lengths—basically, when they are stretched out—can lead to significantly more hypertrophy. For triceps, that means overhead extensions are non-negotiable.
Stop Doing These Things Immediately
Most people treat tricep day like a checklist of ego lifting.
One of the biggest sins? Flaring the elbows. When you’re doing a heavy skull crusher and your elbows start pointing toward the walls instead of the ceiling, you’re shifting the load onto your chest and shoulders. You’re cheating yourself. Keep those elbows tucked. It’s going to feel way heavier, and your ego might take a hit when you have to drop the weight by 20 pounds, but your triceps will actually grow.
Another thing is the "partial rep" epidemic. You see it on the cable machine. Someone loads the stack, leans their entire body weight over the bar, and moves it about four inches. That’s not a tricep extension; that’s a weird standing crunch. You need a full range of motion. Lock out at the bottom. Squeeze the muscle like it owes you money. If you don't feel a slight cramp in the back of your arm, you probably aren't finishing the movement.
The "Big Three" Movements You Actually Need
Forget the fancy machines with the flashing lights. You really only need three types of movements to fully cook the tricep.
1. The Heavy Compound Press
You can't get huge arms by just doing isolation movements. You need to move some actual weight. The Close-Grip Bench Press is the gold standard here. By bringing your hands in to about shoulder-width (not touching, as that wrecks your wrists), you force the triceps to take over the lockout.
Don't overthink the grip. If your wrists hurt, you’re too narrow. Just slightly inside shoulder-width is the sweet spot. Aim for the 6-8 rep range here.
2. The Overhead Stretch
As we talked about, the long head needs to be stretched. The Overhead Dumbbell Extension (using both hands or one) or Cable Overhead Extensions with a rope are vital.
When you do these, don't just drop the weight behind your head and bounce it back up. Sink it deep. Feel the stretch in your armpit area. That’s the long head screaming. Hold that stretch for a split second before driving back up. It’s uncomfortable. It’s supposed to be.
3. The Constant Tension Pushdown
Cable pushdowns are great because, unlike dumbbells, they provide tension throughout the entire movement. Gravity only pulls down, but cables pull wherever the pulley is set. Use a rope attachment. At the bottom of the rep, pull the ends of the rope apart. This "flaring" action at the bottom intensifies the contraction of the lateral head.
Why Your Elbows Hurt (And How to Fix It)
If you’ve been training for more than a month, you’ve probably felt that stinging, nagging pain in your elbow during extensions. This is usually tendonitis or "lifter's elbow." It happens because the tricep tendon takes a beating, especially with movements like French presses or skull crushers.
Listen: stop doing skull crushers with a straight barbell.
Use an EZ-curl bar or dumbbells. The slight angle allows your wrists and elbows to track more naturally. Also, try doing your pushdowns before your heavy overhead work. This gets blood into the joint and warms up the synovial fluid. It’s like oiling a rusty hinge. Never go into a heavy tricep session "cold."
Programming: How Much is Too Much?
You don't need 20 sets of triceps.
Since the triceps are heavily involved in every pushing movement (chest press, shoulder press, dips), they get a lot of "passive" work. If you’re doing a dedicated arm day, 8 to 12 direct sets is usually the "goldilocks" zone for most lifters. If you’re hitting them after chest, 4 to 6 sets might be plenty.
Vary the rep ranges.
- Power: 5-8 reps on Close-Grip Bench.
- Hypertrophy: 10-12 reps on Overhead Extensions.
- Metabolic Stress: 15-20 reps on Cable Pushdowns to get that skin-splitting pump.
The Role of Dips
Dips are the "squat of the upper body." If you can do them, do them. But there’s a trick to making them tricep-dominant. Keep your body upright. If you lean forward, you’re doing a chest exercise. If you stay vertical and keep your elbows tucked close to your sides, you’re hammering the triceps.
If bodyweight dips are too easy, strap a plate to your waist. If they're too hard, use the assisted machine. Just don't skip them because they're "hard." Hard is where the growth happens.
Real-World Nuance: The Mind-Muscle Connection
It sounds like hippie gym science, but the mind-muscle connection is real, especially for triceps. Because you can't see the muscle working in the mirror as easily as the bicep, it’s easy to let the shoulders and back take over.
Try this: next time you do a pushdown, don't grip the handle with your fingers. Use the "heel" of your palm to push the weight down. Focus entirely on the back of your arm straightening. Think about pushing the weight away from you, not just down. It changes the mechanics just enough to fire up those dormant fibers.
Nutrition and Recovery for Arm Growth
You can't build a house without bricks. If you’re in a massive calorie deficit, your triceps aren't going to grow, period. You might get more "defined," but they won't get bigger.
You need protein. Aim for roughly 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. And don't fear carbohydrates. Carbs replenish glycogen, and glycogen makes your muscles look full. If you’ve ever noticed your arms look "flat" after a week of low-carb dieting, that’s why.
Sleep is also when the actual repair happens. If you’re smashing your triceps but only sleeping five hours a night, you’re spinning your wheels. Your body releases growth hormone during deep sleep. Get your eight hours.
Strategic Variations to Break Plateaus
Eventually, your body gets bored. If you've been doing the same cable pushdown for six months, stop.
Try Cross-Body Cable Extensions. Instead of facing the machine, stand sideways or use both cables at once, crossing your arms in front of your face and extending out to the sides. This lines up the cable with the actual orientation of the tricep fibers better than almost any other movement.
Or try JM Presses. This is a hybrid between a close-grip bench and a skull crusher. It was popularized by JM Blakley at Westside Barbell and it’s responsible for some of the biggest triceps in powerlifting history. It allows you to use heavy weight while putting the tricep in a position of maximum mechanical advantage.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Workout
- Start with a "Primer": Do 2 sets of 20 light cable pushdowns just to get the blood flowing. No failure, just movement.
- Move to a Compound: Hit a Close-Grip Bench Press or Weighted Dips. Focus on the 6-10 rep range. Lock out every single rep.
- Add the Stretch: Choose an overhead movement. Whether it's a seated dumbbell extension or a cable overhead rope pull, make sure your elbows are pointing up. Do 3 sets of 12.
- Finish with Isolation: Pick a movement where you can really feel the squeeze. Single-arm cable work is great here because it allows you to focus on any imbalances between your left and right arm.
- Track Your Progress: If you did 50 pounds last week, try 52.5 or 55 this week. Or do one more rep. Growth is a slow game of math.
The triceps are stubborn, but they respond to intensity and variety. Stop treating them like an afterthought. Give them the same respect you give your chest or your back, and you’ll find that your shirts start fitting a lot tighter in all the right places. Success in the gym isn't about the one "secret" exercise; it's about doing the boring, basic stuff with perfect form and unrelenting consistency.
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Focus on the long head, keep your elbows tucked, and don't be afraid of the heavy weights. That’s how you actually build arms that command respect.