6 Best Triceps Exercises at Home

The triceps brachii muscle functions as an extensor of the upper limb and responds well to even the slightest load. It is easily hypertrophied and recovers quite quickly. Moreover, you can load the triceps either by straightening the elbow joint directly, performing isolated exercises, or using various classic presses, using the deltoid region of the shoulder in parallel. This muscle group occupies 2/3 of the arm volume and plays a significant role in many basic movements. Many professional athletes pay enough attention to small muscles like the triceps, which helps them progress in their main activity.

Today we will look at the six most effective triceps exercises that both men and women can perform at home.

Triceps exercises for men
Triceps exercises for women
Triceps stretch

Narrow push-ups (diamond)

A classic exercise that equally loads all triceps heads. In the diamond version, the emphasis is shifted to the long head of the muscle.

Take a position lying on straightened arms.
Place the brushes at a distance of 10-15 cm from each other.
As you inhale, lower your body down, bending your elbows.
As you exhale, push yourself off the floor.

When performing the exercise, bending your elbows, try to keep your hands as close to your body as possible.

Perform 4 sets of 15-20 repetitions.

Basic triceps exercises in the gym and on the street

The following “classic” compound exercises will serve you well in building muscle structure.

Push-ups on a bench

Stand with your back to the bench. Rest yourself on the edge of the bench with your arms straight, shoulder-width apart.
As you inhale, slowly lower your body, bending your elbows. As you exhale, straining your triceps, straighten your arms and lift your body back up.

Push-ups on a bench

Dips

Keep your body at arm's length. As you inhale, slowly lower yourself, keeping your body straight and upright. Bend your arms to a right angle, keep your elbows close to your body. As you exhale, concentrating on your triceps, straighten your arms back.

Dips

Narrow push-ups

Lie face down on the floor and place your arms in a narrow position. As you inhale, lower yourself down almost to the floor; as you exhale, lift your upper body to the starting position. Elbows point back. Hold for a second, then repeat the exercise.

Narrow push-ups

Multi-level push-ups

Take a lying position so that one hand is located at waist level, and the other under the shoulder joint.
Bend your arms at the elbow joints until your chest touches the floor and straighten them back. Point your elbows along the body. The whole body should be like a single line.
Perform the required number of repetitions on one side, then on the other, switching hands.

Multi-level push-ups

Deep triceps push-ups

Place the barbell in a rack position at chest level. Grab the bar with an overhand grip, shoulder-width apart, and step back a little. Lean on the bar with your arms outstretched. Bend your arms and lower yourself towards the bar. The head should be under the bar. Pause and straighten your arms.

Deep triceps push-ups

Exit to straight arms from plank position

Get into plank pose. With your palms on the floor, straighten your elbows and lift your body off the floor. The whole body should be tense. Slowly bending your elbows, lower your forearms to the starting position.

Exit to straight arms from plank position

Reverse bench/sofa push-ups

At home, the bench can be replaced with a sofa/chairs, which will perfectly replace the bars.

Place one or two chairs behind you and one in front.
Sit down and place your hands on the chair(s) behind you, bending your elbows.
Place your feet on the chair in front of you.
As you exhale, push yourself away from the support.
As you inhale, return to the starting position.

Just like in the first exercise, try to keep your elbows as close to your body as possible.

Lower yourself smoothly without throwing yourself down.

Perform 4 sets of 15-20 repetitions.

Elbow push-ups (“Cricket”)

An excellent exercise that develops explosive triceps strength and strengthens the tendons of the elbow joint.

Take a classic plank position on your elbows.
As you exhale, straighten your arms, straightening your elbows.
As you inhale, gently return yourself to your elbows.

Return yourself to your elbows as slowly and gently as possible.

Avoid hitting your elbows on the floor.

The negative phase of the exercise (lowering) should be 2-3 times longer than the ascent.

Perform 4 sets of 15-20 repetitions.

Contraindications to exercises

Strength exercises are used to pump up the triceps. They are contraindicated for people with diseases of the musculoskeletal system (joints in particular): arthritis, osteochondrosis, arthrosis, etc.

Exercise is also not advisable for people with osteoporosis, cartilage abnormalities and some types of scoliosis. People who are prone to heart attack, stroke, vein thrombosis and hypertension should avoid strength training. The risk group for cardiovascular diseases includes men over 40 years of age. They should definitely check with a cardiologist before training.

Take your training seriously! Before visiting the gym, you should at least visit a surgeon. It is advisable to undergo a full medical examination. This way you can be sure that your training will only be beneficial.

French press

Yes, the French press can be performed without special equipment. For this we again need a chair or stool. When performing this exercise, the lateral head of the triceps takes on more of the load.

Lie down on your back. You can lie on the floor or on the bed, so that there is space behind your head.
Hold a chair or stool with your arms straight in front of you - grab the base of the legs.
As you inhale, smoothly lower the projectile down behind your head, bending your elbows.
As you exhale, return the projectile to its original position, straightening your arms at the elbow joint.

Perform 4 sets of 10-12 repetitions.

Dumbbell Bench Press

You will need a narrow bench. You can put 3 stools in a row and put an elastic thin rug on top of them.

This exercise imitates a close-grip barbell press, but is performed with dumbbells and is suitable for home workouts.

Lie down on an improvised bench so that your head and pelvis are supported, legs apart so that your position is stable.
It’s better to take dumbbells this way: when you pick them up from the floor, you’re still standing. Sit on a bench with your knees apart and the dumbbells on your knees. Next, take a horizontal position, while simultaneously raising the dumbbells above your chest and straightening your arms.
Unfold the dumbbells as if their bars were one continuous line and bring them closer to each other. The outer ends can be raised a little - it will be more convenient.
Now, while inhaling, lower the dumbbells to your chest near its bottom. And as you exhale, lift the dumbbells up to the starting position. We try to bring the elbows towards the body; they do not need to be spread to the sides as in chest presses.

Perform the exercise 8-10 times in 4 approaches. You can replace it with this variation or alternate approaches:

Rotate the dumbbells so that your palms are facing each other. That is, the vultures are parallel to each other.
Press your elbows to your body, lower the dumbbells to the bottom of your chest again as you inhale, and lift them as you exhale.

Note that in this position the load is better removed from the chest and shoulders, and more on the triceps. Afterwards, you can rotate the brushes to their original position for variety.

The main thing is not to twist your wrist and do not lower the dumbbells below your chest. In the latter case, a significant part of their weight will go to the front deltoids.

We work slowly, lifting the weight as we exhale, and lower the dumbbells back as we inhale. No throwing weight on your chest, no pushing.

If you are trying to push the weight to the top or bending, the chosen weight is too heavy for you. Remove excess weights from dumbbells

Army press

This exercise is sometimes called the Arnold press. In addition to the triceps, the deltoid muscles of the shoulder are also stressed. To perform this type of bench press at home, we again need a chair or stool, which will place more emphasis on the triceps due to the width of the working grip.

Sit on a chair (preferably with a backrest).
Grab another chair or stool by the frame on both sides.
With your elbows bent, place the projectile in front of you.
As you exhale, press the barbell up.

Lower the projectile frame just below eye level.

At the top of the press, do not fully straighten your arms at the elbow joints.

While performing the exercise, always keep your forearm in one plane - perpendicular to the floor/ceiling.

Perform 4 sets of 12 reps.

California press

In simple terms, this is a close grip bench press. Since everyone is training at home these days, we will once again use an indoor chair or stool instead of a barbell. And considering that the latter are many times lighter than even an empty bar, we suggest combining the Californian bench press with the French one. This will increase the load and load all the triceps heads to the maximum.

Take a supine position.
Grasp the projectile by the base of the legs near the frame.
Lower the projectile by touching the floor with your elbows.
As you exhale, press up.
As you inhale, lower the weight behind your head, bending your elbows (French press).
As you exhale, straighten your arms.
As you inhale, lower the projectile again, touching your elbows to the floor.

Perform the negative phase of the press twice as slow as the positive phase.

Perform the French press movements in a regular model.

Try to touch the floor as softly as possible and immediately perform the press (without pausing at the bottom point).

Perform 4 sets of 10 repetitions (5 - California press; 5 - French).

Push-ups from elbows to knees (“Cricket”)

Take a classic plank position on your elbows.
Shift your support from your toes to your knees.
As you exhale, straighten your arms, straightening your elbows.
As you inhale, gently return yourself to your elbows.

Return yourself to your elbows as slowly and gently as possible.

Avoid hitting your elbows on the floor.

The negative phase of the exercise (lowering) should be 2-3 times longer than the ascent.

Perform 4 sets of 12-15 repetitions.

Wall push-ups

You can do push-ups not only from the floor, but also from the wall. Moreover, when using a vertical support, you can perform the exercise with one hand, which will increase the intensity and load the target group more.

Stand near a wall at arm's length.
Place your feet wider than your shoulders.
Bring your palms towards each other so that they are on the projection of the sternum (middle of the chest).
Place one of your hands behind your back with the back of your hand or simply lower it.
As you inhale, bring your body towards the wall, touching your chest with your hand near the wall and at the same time rising on your toes.
As you exhale, push yourself off the wall, returning your entire sole to the floor.

Perform 4 sets of 10-12 repetitions with each arm.

Reverse push-ups

Place one or two chairs behind you and one in front.
Sit down and place your hands on the chair(s)/sofa behind you, bending your elbows.
Step forward a little and bend your knees (half squat), placing your weight on your heels.
As you exhale, push yourself away from the support.
As you inhale, return to the starting position.

Try to keep your elbows as close to your body as possible.

Lower yourself smoothly without throwing yourself down.

Always support your heels.

Perform 4 sets of 10-12 repetitions.

Dumbbell press from behind the head

Sit on a chair with a rigid vertical back. Rocking chairs are definitely not for you. Take dumbbells and place them on your knees - from this position it will be convenient to throw them up.

It is more convenient to do this exercise with one hand, since you can help install the dumbbell to the starting position with the other. This way you can take more weight on your hand than with the synchronized double version. By the way, the single option can help you in cases where one hand is stronger than the other.

Therefore, consider the option with one dumbbell:

Raise your arm with the dumbbell bent at the elbow so that your elbow points toward the ceiling. With your other hand, comfortably grasp the working one, helping to fix it in a stable position. You can take your elbow with your palm on top - whatever is more comfortable for you.
When you bend your arm, the dumbbell will not go back, but to the side behind your head.
When performing the movement, make sure that your working arm from elbow to shoulder does not change its position.
Smoothly lower and raise the weight.

Perform 10-12 repetitions of this exercise in 3-4 sets for each arm.

If you cannot straighten your arm on your own during the last repetitions, help with your other hand. But the working arm must be able to withstand controlled bending under the gravity of the dumbbell itself. This is work “for the negative”.

This is allowed only on the last repetitions. If it starts from the very first repetition, the weight is too heavy. It should be reduced, otherwise you risk getting a sprain.

There is a variation of this exercise that affects both hands:

In this case, you need to grab the dumbbell with both hands so that it passes between your thumb and index finger. Straighten your arms with a dumbbell above your head.
Slowly lower the weight behind your head and return to the starting position. With this option, the dumbbell goes not to the side, but back. And you should try to bring your elbows towards your ears.

It is important to control your elbows so that they are fixed and do not move during the movement. This is easier to achieve in a lying position, so consider the following exercise.

Triceps stretch

After each triceps workout, be sure to do one or two stretches. Below we have given examples of two classic options.

Vertical stretch

Place one of your hands behind your head, placing your palm on one of your shoulder blades or on your spine.
With your free hand, grab your elbow and bring your triceps to a comfortable tension for you.
With each exhalation, try to gradually increase the tension.

Do two minutes on each arm.

Horizontal stretch

Wrap one of your arms around your opposite shoulder.
With your free hand, grab your elbow and bring your triceps to a comfortable tension for you.
With each exhalation, try to gradually increase the tension.

Conclusion

Separate training of muscle groups such as triceps, even once a week, will significantly increase the effectiveness of your training process. We should never forget about small target groups, because the foundation is laid brick by brick and built gradually. Strong triceps will help you with many compound exercises. Even track and field athletes specialize in triceps, which helps them run better. In the future, we will provide you with a selection of effective exercises for other muscle groups.

Editor and proofreader: Farida Seidova

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