The Mass Builder for the Arms
Many new weightlifters make the huge mistake of prioritizing biceps training over their triceps to create the illusion of having bigger arms.
Performing endless biceps curls, chin-ups, hammer curls can result wheel spinning activity without any noticeable growth for two reasons.
For one, the biceps muscle only represents 1/3rd of the upper arm, which is why training your arms this way will seem like it’s going nowhere and taking too much time to see any results.
The second reason is because biceps muscles are only really noticeable when your forearms are flexed. Most normal people don’t go around flexing their biceps all day, our forearms are generally in a neutral position whether we’re sitting or walking.
The appearance of having massive arms originates from proper development of the triceps muscles, which is composed of three muscle fibers; the long head, medial head, and the lateral head. When all 3 triceps muscles have been developed, they not only make your arms larger, but they can give your arms incredible definition.
How to Properly Develop the Triceps
The triceps are composed of 3 large muscles, however, only 2 of them are completely visible. The lateral head is located on the side furthest away from the body and the long head originates from the scapula to the superior point of the elbow joint.
Of all three heads of the triceps, the lateral head and the long head are the most visible from any angle. The medial head of the triceps lies deeper within the muscle tissue and is mainly responsible for the overall thickness of the triceps.
For this purpose of this triceps training, I’ll be just discussing the development of the two most visible muscle fibers.
To develop the long head of the triceps, you want to concentrate on overhead lifting movements. Because the long head muscle originates on the scapula, any exercise that forces you to raise your arms over your head will isolate the long head and take the lateral head out the movement.
The exercises you want to concentrate on for this are the overhead triceps extension, overhead cable extension, and barbell extensions.
The lateral head is best activated with your pressing movements and “pull down” exercises. The lateral head is isolated better with these movements because the lateral triceps are the closest to your frame and have origins on the upper arm.
Exercises for the lateral head are the triceps pulldown, close-grip triceps bench press, close grip weighted dips, and diamond push-ups.
As a general rule, the closer your arms come to the midline of your body (center of your chest), the fewer chest muscles will overpower the movement. Triceps development is best done with heavy compound movements but is the most effective when these exercises isolate either triceps head as much as possible.
As with any exercises for hypertrophy, you want to stick to a rep range that will promote the most growth over time. You’ll want to stay within 8-12 reps for all movements and gradually increase progress in weights or intensity over time.
Here are some demonstrations of a few of these exercises you can try to start developing your triceps:
The Wrap Up
If your goal is to develop bigger arms, you should be prioritizing your triceps training over your biceps. The triceps makeup 2/3 of your upper arm and training them is the fastest way to add inches to your arm and sculpt them at the same time. When targeting either the long head or lateral head of the triceps, remember to keep within a rep range of 8-12 for the best results.
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