When you want to get strong arms, you’ll not only work the biceps, but you’ll have to train the triceps. Your triceps are the bigger of the two muscles in your upper arm, and it is important to train them with the right equipment.
Triceps are made up of three parts (heads): the lateral, the middle (medial) and the long. It constitutes 2/3 of the upper arm, which is a curious fact that a lot of beginners may not realise.
This is especially helpful to understand for those people who assume that biceps training is the most important activity to develop arm muscles.
You need to develop the tricep with patience, and not force the body by lifting loads for which it is not yet ready.
A lot of people tend to pair the biceps and triceps muscles when training because you can utilise both arm flexion and extension exercises to work them both. If you aim to build and improve your triceps, then you should know some of the best equipment to use for the muscle.
Why Are Triceps So Important?
With so many exercises using the arms, you must make them strong. When you’re doing a workout for the chest or shoulders, your triceps are offering support, flexibility and range of motion, to get the most out of the exercises.
In the gym, you will find a lot of different machines and equipment that can help the workouts for your triceps.
A supervisor should first oversee the equipment, especially if you are a beginner. You do not want to risk injury by using anything incorrectly.
The Best Equipment To Exercise And Develop The Triceps
Combining exercises with your tricep workout helps you achieve more. You might pair it with a chest or shoulder workout as part of your fitness plan. These are all great examples of muscle groups working out together.
This is helpful to keep in mind in your annual gym plan for your tricep development and your overall workout plan.
Train the Triceps With These Top 4
While there are many machines and accessories you can use we have focused your attention on these four. If you can master these you’ll be well on your way to conquering them all.
1. Parallel Bar Dips / Dip Station
This piece of equipment is awesome for the abs but equally effective to improve the triceps. A lot of people love the parallel bar dips because of how it engages all of the parts of the muscle to get bigger triceps.
It’s easier to get more focused intensity in the tricep when doing dips because you can hold at the bottom of the movement to build muscular tension.
As you lift your entire body weight, the effort is concentrated in the triceps area. This ensures that the muscles acquire greater volume which is the main objective.
You can even adapt the exercise with leg weights and belt weights which can increase the resistance, causing the tricep to work harder when fully extending up. This is one of the best tricep gym equipment that you can use as a beginner.
2. Dumbbells to Train the Triceps
Dumbbells are very effective at building strong triceps. Since they are free weights, the dumbbells allow all of the movement to be based solely on your effort, rather than the support of a machine. This means that your muscles can get better activation and engagement as they need to maintain control of your movement.
Another benefit of using dumbbells for your triceps workout at the gym is the variety it provides. A lot of the best tricep workouts utilise routines that rely on dumbbells for added resistance.
Examples of good dumbbell tricep workouts include seated dumbbell tricep extensions, skull crushers and single-arm tricep kickbacks (supported with a bench).
If you have a decline bench in your gym, then you can potentially switch out skull crushers for a decline dumbbell triceps extension exercise which will add to the resistance.
3. Resistance Bands and Weight Bench
You may be thinking that these are two different types of equipment, and you would be right. However, both are very helpful for triceps training that rely on bodyweight or light resistance exercises. Resistance bands and weight benches for bodyweight tricep exercises may also increase effectiveness.
Bodyweight exercises provide a great opportunity to add variety to your workout program. Even well known bodyweight exercises like push-ups will actually engage the necessary muscles in the triceps to build strength.
Adding a resistance band will allow you to increase the difficulty of these exercises without the need for adding weight.
You can utilise the bench to perform different motions that work the tricep, which wouldn’t be possible on a flat surface.
Some great examples are banded pushdowns, standard press ups, bench dips and diamond push-ups. Give these a shot and see how they help your triceps.
4. Cable Weight Machine
Cable workout machines offer you a wide variety of options to work different muscles of the body.
You can find some of the best tricep exercises are performed using cable machines. This is due to the fact that you can utilise a range of different weights, as well as being able to use both the low and the high pulley for the execution of the work.
With this machine, you can effectively perform traditional or reverse grip pulley triceps extensions. You can also exercise the triceps just like you would with dumbbells, but with more assistance from the pulley system.
Exercises like cable tricep extensions, straight bar tricep pushdowns and supine tricep extensions are all great options possible with the use of this machine.
Some Of The Best Exercises To Train The Triceps
There are many variations of triceps workouts available, but it’s helpful to give you a focus to get started. We’ve got a few here to show you:
The Close-Grip Bench Press is a well-known tricep exercise. It can activate the whole tricep and is great for developing strength.
In this video, you’ll see the technique for doing it right and the mistakes to avoid.
Doing a Tricep Pushdown is a really good variation, working the long-head muscle.
Again, the way you do the exercise will impact your results so check out this video tutorial.
Another one is Lying Triceps Extensions. This is a completely different movement, working the long-head muscle at a longer length.
This works well in combination with the other tricep exercises.
And lastly, we suggest the Tricep Cable Kickback. An intense activation of the tricep muscle when it is done correctly.
The technique is critical, you do not want to be swinging around. This is demonstrated well in this video.
The triceps workout is an essential part of any workout and it’s going to help you develop your upper body strength. Having strong, flexible but stable joints around your shoulder means you will protect yourself from injury and get greater results.
Experiment with the way you train the triceps. You have a lot of options available to you and it won’t be long before you start to see the results.
