Most people think bicep curls are the fast track to big arms. They’re wrong. Honestly, if you want your arms to actually look thick from the side or pop when you’re wearing a t-shirt, you need to focus on the back of the arm. Specifically, you need to target the long head of the tricep. It’s the powerhouse.
The triceps brachii has three heads: the lateral, the medial, and the long head. While the lateral head gives you that "horseshoe" look on the side, the long head is the only one that crosses the shoulder joint. This is a big deal. Because it attaches to the scapula, it’s responsible for more than just straightening your elbow; it also plays a role in shoulder stability and extension. It’s the largest of the three sections. If you neglect it, your arms will always look "flat," no matter how many sets of pushdowns you do.
The Biomechanics of Overhead Extensions
Why do most gym routines fail to grow the long head? It’s simple. People stay in their comfort zone with their elbows glued to their ribs. When your arms are down by your sides—like in a standard cable pressdown—the long head is in a shortened position. It’s working, sure, but it’s not being challenged at its strongest point.
To really bias the long head of the tricep, you have to get your arms overhead. When your humerus is elevated, the long head is stretched across both the elbow and the shoulder. This is called "passive tension." Research, including a notable 2022 study published in the European Journal of Sport Science, suggests that training muscles at longer lengths leads to significantly more hypertrophy. Basically, the stretch is the secret sauce.
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Think about the overhead dumbbell extension. You sit down, grab a heavy weight with both hands, and drop it behind your head. You feel that deep pull near your armpit? That’s the long head being forced to work from a disadvantaged, stretched position. It’s harder. It burns more. And it’s exactly what triggers growth.
Stop Doing "Junk Volume" for Your Arms
I see it every day. Someone spends forty-five minutes doing five different variations of the same cable pushdown. It’s a waste of time. Your triceps are a relatively small muscle group compared to your legs or back, and they get hammered during every pressing movement you do. If you’ve already done heavy bench press and overhead press, your lateral and medial heads are likely fried.
The long head, however, often stays relatively fresh because it isn't the primary driver in a short-range bench press. This is where strategic exercise selection comes in. You don't need ten exercises. You need two or three that actually matter.
The French Press and Beyond
The EZ-bar French press is an old-school staple for a reason. By laying on a bench and letting the bar drift slightly behind your head (rather than directly over your forehead like a traditional skull crusher), you maintain constant tension on that long head. If the bar is directly over your eyes, the tension drops to zero at the top. Move it back four inches. Suddenly, the set becomes twice as hard.
Why Shoulder Position Changes Everything
Let's get technical for a second. The long head originates at the infraglenoid tubercle of the scapula. Because of this attachment point, the position of your shoulder dictates how much the long head can actually contract.
If you want to feel this right now, put your arm straight down by your side and flex your tricep. Now, pull your arm back behind your body (shoulder extension). You’ll feel a much tighter cramp in the back of your arm. That’s the long head reaching "active insufficiency," where it’s so shortened it can’t produce much force. Flip that logic for growth: move the arm away from the body to create the ultimate stretch.
Many lifters swear by the "cross-body cable extension" popularized by coaches like Joe Bennett (the Hypertrophy Coach). While this is great for the lateral head, if you want the long head, you should actually look at things like "Dumbbell Pullovers." Wait, isn't that a chest or back move? Technically, yes. But because the long head resists shoulder extension, it’s working like crazy to stabilize the weight as it moves behind your head.
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Common Mistakes That Kill Your Gains
- Flaring the elbows: If your elbows fly out to the sides during an overhead extension, you’re shifting the load to your joints and your chest. Keep them tucked. It’s okay if they move a little, but don't let them wingspan out.
- Using too much weight: This is an ego killer. The tricep tendon is notoriously finicky. If you go too heavy on overhead movements without a proper warmup, you’re asking for tendonitis.
- Short-changing the range of motion: If you aren't going all the way down to feel that stretch, you’re missing the entire point of training the long head.
Real-World Programming
You don't need a "Tricep Day." Honestly, that's overkill for most people. Instead, tag two specific long-head movements onto the end of your "Push" or "Upper Body" days.
Start with a Behind-the-Neck Overhead Cable Extension using a long rope. The rope allows your wrists to move naturally, which is way easier on the elbows than a straight bar. Do 3 sets of 12-15 reps. Focus on a 3-second descent. The slow eccentric (the lowering phase) is where the muscle damage—and subsequent repair/growth—happens.
Follow that up with something like an Incline Dumbbell Kickback. Now, hold on. Most people hate kickbacks because they use a 5lb dumbbell and swing it. But if you lie chest-down on an incline bench and keep your upper arm parallel to the floor, you're hitting the long head in its fully contracted position. It’s the perfect "finisher" to flush the muscle with blood.
The Role of Recovery and Nutrition
You can't grow what you don't feed. It sounds cliché, but triceps respond remarkably well to high-volume pump work, which requires glycogen. If you're on a zero-carb diet, your "pump" will be non-existent, and your strength in those overhead positions will crater.
Also, watch your elbows. The long head connects near the olecranon process (the pointy part of your elbow). If you start feeling a sharp, "needle-like" pain, back off the heavy skull crushers and switch to cables. Cables provide a constant tension curve that is much friendlier to the connective tissue than free weights.
What Most People Get Wrong About Cable Pushdowns
We’ve all seen the guy at the gym leaning his entire body weight over the cable stack, slamming the bar down. He thinks he’s destroying his triceps. In reality, he’s using his pec minor and anterior deltoid to move the weight.
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To make a pushdown hit the long head even a little bit, you need to stand back from the machine and allow the cable to pull your arms slightly forward and up at the top of the rep. This creates a tiny bit of that shoulder flexion we talked about. It’s not as effective as an overhead move, but it’s a heck of a lot better than the "lean-and-slam" method.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Workout
Don't just read this and go back to your old routine. If you want to see a difference in your arm measurements in the next 8-12 weeks, you need a plan.
- Prioritize the stretch: Make your first tricep-specific exercise an overhead movement. Whether it’s a cable, a dumbbell, or an EZ-bar, get your elbows above your head.
- Fix your form: Record a set from the side. Are your elbows staying relatively still, or are they swinging back and forth like a pendulum? Stability equals growth.
- Control the negative: Spend more time in the bottom half of the rep. That deep stretch is where the long head is most active.
- Vary the resistance: Use cables for high-rep metabolic stress (15-20 reps) and free weights for moderate-rep mechanical tension (8-12 reps).
The long head of the tricep isn't just another muscle; it's the key to the "3D" arm look. It takes up the most real estate on the humerus. Treat it like the primary mover it is, give it the stretch it needs, and stop treating your arm training as an afterthought to your bench press. Give it its own focus, and the results will show up in your sleeves soon enough.