Triceps Thriller

TRICEPS THRILLER

When you think of big arms, what do you think of? I bet most of you would answer "biceps'. The truth, of course, is that triceps make up most -actually, 2/3- of your upper arm size. While triceps training may not be quite as much fun, it's critical for balanced, huge arms.

While it makes the most sense to train triceps with chest and shoulders, because triceps are directly involved in the lifts used to work those muscles, I'm not as big a fan as I used to be of this combination all in one session. I mean, if you train hard enough, you should be pretty burnt by the time you get to triceps.

This is why I recommend that you use the following split:

Day 1 - Legs, abs
Day 2 - Rest
Day 3 - Rest
Day 4 - Chest, triceps
Day 5 - Rest
Day 6 - Back, biceps
Day 7 - Rest
Day 8 - Shoulders
Day 9 - Rest
Day 10 - Repeat

If you notice, there's enough time between chest and triceps day to shoulders day that there is no chance of over training those body parts due to indirect stimulation. There's no worry of coming to do shoulders with sore chest and triceps muscles. Additionally, you have more than enough energy to hit these body parts hard. This approach works especially well for older bodybuilders.

As for triceps, here's two great routines that will definitely add some size:

SAMPLE TRICEPS ROUTINE 1

EXERCISE 1 CLOSE-GRIP BARBELL BENCH PRESS
3 SETS OF 6-8 REPS

Use a heavy weight, do the movement in a continuous motion, no pausing. There's a variation of this exercise I came up with to take some of the tension of the elbows - it works great and puts a lot of stress on the triceps.

Instead of holding your elbows close to your sides, allow them to flair out, as if you were trying to form a triangle shape. Keep them lined up nice and straight with each other and lower your whole arm to perform your reps.

EXERCISE 2 TRICEPS PUSHDOWN
2 DROPSETS 6-8 REPS

You will be doing 2 drop sets, 5 weight drops per set, 6-8 reps per weight level. Here's how to do drop sets: perform the set until you fail, have a training partner remove just enough weight to allow you to continue doing the set - this should not take more than a couple of seconds.

It's important you don't rest until the set is over. I use 10 lb plates for this exercise, they can be removed in no time.

This can be a brutal technique, your triceps should feel like you've just burned them off when you get done!

SAMPLE TRICEPS ROUTINE 2

EXERCISE 1 STANDING OVERHEAD BARBELL TRICEPS EXTENSION
2 SETS OF 6-8 REPS

Get a full stretch at the bottom of this, do the reps in a continuous motion style.

EXERCISE 2 INCLINE BARBELL TRICEPS EXTENSION
2 SETS OF 8-10 REPS

Use a high incline and again, get a full stretch at the bottom. Pause at the bottom, then complete your reps.

EXERCISE 3 TRICEPS PUSHDOWN
2 SETS OF 6-8 REPS

Drop set style as in the first routine, for 2 drop sets.

Alternate these routines, doing a different one each week.

REFERENCE:

Jim Brewster

Jim Brewster - Jim is an expert trainer with years of valuable knowledge!http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/brewster_main.htm