Triceps in Five Stages – Develop Robust Arms!

The three-headed arm muscle is composed of three heads and is situated on the posterior aspect of our arm. The three heads of this structure are: the central head – monosyllabic, forming a deep layer of the head, the short head – single head, superficial, the outer portion of the shoulder, covering the central head, and the long head – double head, superficial, the inner portion of the shoulder, covering the central head. The three-headed muscle is primarily a powerful extensor of the elbow joint and participates in the work of the arm. The long head has its attachment on the lower scapula, which aids in extension and adduction of the shoulder joint. Research has shown that the triceps displays morphological differences, with the long head containing more slow-twitch muscle fibers than the other heads. This information can have a significant impact on the selection of training parameters.

The selection of physical exercises is a critical component when devising a training plan, and several factors that should complement each other need to be considered.

The triceps exercises should engage all three muscle heads, they should be operating at their full length during these exercises. Thanks to the information from the first chapter, we understand that the tricep is involved in the extension of the elbow, but also is active during the work of the shoulder joint. The first group of exercises will be focusing solely on the extension in the elbow joint, targeting the development of the lateral and central head of the tricep, such as pulling the upper cable, extending the arm in the trunk. The second group of exercises will include the work of the elbow joint and the shoulder joint, especially bending the shoulder joint causes stretching of the long head, which leads to its involvement. These include exercises such as pushing the barbell/dumbbell in lying/standing position, French pressing, dips on the bars. It is also important to perform each exercise in the broadest and appropriate range of motion possible, although there are advanced methods that shorten the range of motion, which we will discuss below.

The purpose of electromyography tests is to record the electrical excitation of the motor units of the muscle undergoing training, which may indicate the level of its activity. The higher the result, the more the motor unit of a specific muscle is excited by a stronger signal from our nervous system, enabling the muscle to respond to the load during training. However, it is important to note the differences in the execution of tests between individuals, resulting from anthropometry and the biomechanics of the human body and technical differences between the performed exercises. EMG tests are not the only factor in choosing the best exercise, but they are valuable and helpful in this regard. The EMG measurement shows that the exercises causing the greatest activity of the triceps are: - Bench press/Standing with barbell, - Narrow grip bench press with barbell, - Diamond push-ups, Arm extensions in trunk flexibility, Reverse push-ups.

Our body under stress (e.g. physical exercise) takes appropriate measures to both reduce stress and adapt to it. This includes the release of adequate amounts of stress hormones for the purpose of building up our muscle fibers, i.e. increasing hypertrophy. We can distinguish two factors that increase our body's production of hormones: high muscle tension and metabolic stress. How does this relate to training? High muscle tension can be achieved by lifting heavy weights, which is possible during compound exercises such as bench press/standing. If we want to induce metabolic stress and increase local growth factors, we should introduce an extended time under tension (TUT) in the maximum range of motion. Such a combination can be achieved during isolated exercises, where we can fully control both variables. In order to gain muscle mass, we should choose exercises that cause high muscle tension and also those that induce local metabolic stress. Considering all of the above, we should focus on exercises such as bench press (engaging all heads of the triceps, good EMG result, high muscle tension) and reverse push-ups (engaging all heads of the triceps, good EMG result, isolated exercise, through which we can apply an extended TUT and contribute to the growth of local growth factors).

Among the training parameters, we distinguish the number of repetitions, number of exercises, tempo, and style of progression. More information can be found here. Here the matter is simplified a bit. Considering that the triceps is a fast-contracting muscle, its training should be based on higher loads and faster exercise execution. Therefore, we choose a smaller number of repetitions, less than 6, a short tempo, e.g. 2 0 1 0, a longer break time, about 120 seconds, and a progression such as an open or closed ramp or a wave (wave loading). We should remember that according to point 2, we can use large loads in multi-joint exercises. It is not the best and most reasonable choice to use such training parameters in isolated exercises, in which it is not possible to lift a large weight. If we are talking about isolated exercises, we can direct them to cause metabolic stress, we should use a time under tension of more than 35-50 seconds, which corresponds to 10-12 repetitions in the tempo from 3 0 1 0 to 4 0 2 0/5 0 1 0, and the break time should be 30-60 seconds with a progression such as a closed ramp.

Here we present several variations of advanced techniques that can be utilized for the development of the triceps muscle. I would like to highlight that these are advanced techniques for individuals with high motor awareness and training experience, whose primary goal is muscle hypertrophy. The first solution may be the combined series of techniques proposed by Charles Poliquin. With this, we can induce greater metabolic stress and significant muscle tissue micro-damages.

Technique should be the top priority – we often face situations where isolated exercises are performed technically incorrectly. Offloading, round back posture or forced movements are frequently observed during exercises aimed at muscle isolation. As a result, tension is transferred onto other structures, which leads to the muscle that is our training target not developing as we would like it to. During isolated exercises, let's leave our ego behind and aim to achieve the proper range of motion, time under tension, and control of movement, both during the eccentric and concentric phases. In this way, we will achieve the expected result. Although it is a less common and somewhat controversial solution, we can incorporate some exercises, such as push-ups on an unstable surface (e.g., TRX push-ups), push-ups on gymnastic handles, or on a Swiss ball, into our training to add variety. In this way, we can achieve very good activation of the triceps before the main exercises, which can serve as a very good warm-up. The triceps is a strong muscle, as seen in specialized sports, such as weightlifting, where special clothing helps the athlete in the initial phase of lifting, but the end of the movement falls mainly on the triceps, which is subjected to overmaximal effort. The triceps should be trained with high loads, both due to its morphology and its function. Let's ensure that we incorporate at least 2 heavy exercises for the triceps in our training plan.