The 20 Best Triceps Workouts and Exercises

If your goal is to have perfectly toned and defined arms, it’s important to focus on every muscle group, not just your biceps. The triceps is a long muscle on the back of your upper arm, and its Latin name is triceps brachii. Interestingly, the triceps makes up 70% of all the muscles in your arm and is one of the most important for strength in your entire upper body.

Here’s the top 20 of the best tricep exercises for building strong arm muscles.

Dumbbell Skullcrusher

Don’t let the name of this exercise scare you. It is known as one of the most useful parts of the triceps workout. All you’re gonna need are dumbbells and a flat bench. Simply lie on your back and make sure that your head is completely in contact with the bench. Put the dumbbells over your shoulders and start lifting them in front of you with palms facing inward. The goal is for the dumbbells to be right in front of you and your arms straight in the air.

Dumbbell Kickbacks

Here’s another dumbbell exercise for triceps with dumbbells which also targets the shoulders. Stand with your feet hip width apart and bend your upper body in front. The starting position of your arms should be at 90 angle and then extend arms behind you, hold them in the back for a second and return them to the starting position.

Don’t forget to read our blog about the best biceps exercises.

Cable Rope Tricep Extension

Cable rope tricep extension is another tricep isolation exercise in which you can have more control over your movements, easily adjust the weight and keep more tension in triceps than when using dumbbells.

Simply stand in front of the rope cable facing it and place a pulley with rope attachment on the highest position. Grab it with both hands with a neutral grip and make sure your palms are facing in. Your elbows should be flexed in a 90 degrees position and forearms parallel to the floor. Now simply pull the ropes extending your arms completely. Repeat it.

Seated Tricep Press

The seated tricep press (often called the overhead dumbbell extension) is a powerful isolation movement that emphasizes the long head of the triceps.

By performing this exercise in a seated position with the arms overhead, you place the triceps in a deep stretch at the bottom of the movement. Use a bench with back support to stabilize the spine, allowing you to focus purely on extending the elbows and pressing the weight toward the ceiling without using momentum from your lower body.

Skullcrusher

Here’s another skullcrusher triceps exercise but without the dumbbells. Here, you will use an EZ-bar, again while lying on a flat bench.

The movement involves lowering the weight toward your forehead (hence the name) by hinging only at the elbows while keeping the upper arms stationary and vertical. This exercise provides a massive range of motion and challenges the triceps through a difficult “eccentric” (lowering) phase, so it is very effective for faster muscle hypertrophy, and the bar will provide you with more confidence and stability than dumbbells.

Cable Tricep Pushdown

The cable tricep pushdown is one of the most popular gym exercises for building arm definition. With using a cable machine with a straight bar or rope attachment, you push the weight down until your arms are fully extended at your sides.

Constant tension provided by the cable is a major advantage over free weights, as it keeps the triceps engaged throughout the entire repetition. It is especially effective for isolating the lateral head of the tricep when using a strict, controlled tempo.

Cobra Tricep Extension

Here’s one bodyweight-only tricep exercise which you can easily do as part of your home workout routine. It is similar to the standard push up, but you will lift only the torso, while your legs stay on the floor. It is an excellent exercise for triceps, but for shoulders and chest as well. While we talk about upper body strength, we recommend you to read our blog about the best core exercises.

Machine Tricep Extension

Most gyms have a triceps extension machine and we recommend trying it if you feel tired of doing classic exercises or want to focus completely on your triceps without accidentally relying on other muscle groups.

Simply sit on the machine bench, rest your upper arms on the pads, parallel with the shoulders, and take the machine handles with a neutral grip, then extend the hands pushing the handles away from you, while still remaining in the sitting position with relaxed back and upper arms on the pads.

Bench Dip

Bench dip is a useful exercise you can do on a flat bench in the gym or even at home. It’s primarily meant for triceps development but also for shoulders and chest. Simply sit in front of the bench with palms on the bench close to your hips, and slowly get up supporting your bodyweight, while keeping your legs fully extended.

Single Arm Dumbbell Tricep Extension

Single arm dumbbell tricep extension is another exercise for which you’re gonna need flat bench and dumbbells. You will do one hand at the time while sitting in a natural position. As you know, everyone has one body side stronger than the other, that’s why this exercise will stop you from accidentally compensating strength discrepancies between sides. It demands more balancing because lifting with just one arm adds instability.

Dip

Like you probably already noticed, many triceps exercises also target other muscles such as shoulders and chest. Dip is a perfect example of this. Using a parallel dip bar is a great way to build strong triceps, while also developing shoulders and chest strength.

Grab handles with palms facing in, and suspend your body above the ground, then slightly lean forward, while keeping back in a neutral position, flex your legs into a 90 degree angle and start flexing your elbows to descend your body. As an alternative to classic dip you can also try bench dip and assisted dip.

Assisted Dip

Assisted dip is similar to the classic machine dip, but with the support for your legs. Basically, you won’t be doing the exercise with your complete body weight. Instead, you can reduce part of it by kneeling on a counterweight. This is an excellent workout for beginners whose goal is to manage doing a dip without assistance.

The close-grip bench press is a heavy compound movement that allows you to overload the triceps with significantly more weight than isolation exercises. By placing your hands shoulder-width apart (or slightly narrower), you shift the primary load from the chest to the medial and lateral heads of the triceps.

Keeping your elbows tucked close to your ribcage throughout the movement is important for maximizing triceps recruitment and protecting the shoulder joints from unnecessary strain.

Incline Barbell Skull Crusher

The incline barbell skull crusher is a variation of the traditional lying extension performed on an incline bench. This specific angle increases the stretch on the long head of the triceps, which is the largest part of the arm muscle. The incline position provides a greater range of motion at the shoulder joint, making it a superior choice for those looking to improve muscle peak and overall arm thickness.

Loop Band Standing Tricep Extension

The loop band standing tricep extension is a versatile “anti-gravity” exercise perfect for home or travel workouts. By standing on one end of the loop band and extending the other end behind your head, you create linear variable resistance. This means that the exercise actually gets harder as you reach full extension.

This is a recommended exercise for improving “lockout” strength, as the band provides maximum tension at the very top of the rep where the muscle is fully contracted.

Mini Loop Band Tricep Press

The mini loop band tricep press is an effective isolation move that targets the triceps using a very short, high-tension range of motion. Typically performed by anchoring one end of the mini-band with your non-working hand against your chest and pressing down with the other, it provides constant tension that is difficult to replicate with dumbbells.

This exercise is frequently used for high-repetition “burnouts” to increase metabolic stress and muscle endurance.

EZ-Bar Overhead Tricep Extension

The EZ-bar overhead tricep extension utilizes the unique “zig-zag” shape of the bar to allow for a more natural, semi-supinated grip. This positioning reduces the stress on the wrists and elbows, which can often be a sticking point in heavy triceps training.

Performing this movement overhead ensures that the triceps are fully lengthened, leading to better muscle fiber recruitment and a more powerful contraction during the extension phase.

Lateral Cable Tricep Extension

Triceps extension with lateral cable allows you to have more control over your movements and it’s easier to achieve consistent tension than with, for example, dumbbells. Each side is done separately and muscles are developing in a different plane of movement than with many other triceps exercises.

Tricep Overhead Extension with Rope

Here’s another example of extension workout for triceps with rope cable. Pulley should be placed on your shoulder height. Grab the rope and face away from the machine. Extend your hands directly behind your head. Bend the torso forward but be aware of the straight back and hold the chin up.

Extend the elbows forward while pulling the rope and put them in the straight position. When you reach full arm extension, flex your arm back in the starting position. Keep in mind that there should always be tension in your triceps because it is very easy to lose tension when the arm is flexed.

Smith Machine Close-Grip Bench Press

For this triceps exercise you’re gonna need a smith machine and flat bench. Primary muscles targeted while using the smith machine are triceps, but shoulders and chest are also activated. Simply lie down on a bench, squeeze your shoulder blades and keep your heels firmly on the floor.

Grip the bar of the Smith machine with a shoulder-width grip above the lower part of the chest. With a tight core, lower the bar in a controlled manner towards the chest, keeping the elbows close to the body. Lightly touch your chest and with an exhalation push the bar back to the starting position.

Triceps Workout in Gym

Gym gives a luxury of working out with a bigger range of machines and with the guidance of a professional personal trainer. Here’s just one example of how your triceps workout could look in a professional gym environment.

Triceps Workout at Home

Here’s one example of a triceps workout you can easily do at home, on your own with just the basic equipment such as a dumbbell, improvised bench, and loops.

FAQ about Tricep Workouts

How many times per week should I do triceps exercises?

Most of the professional trainers recommend training triceps two to three times per week.

Do I need to do more than one triceps exercise?

Yes, It’s recommended to mix different types of triceps exercises for achieving the best results.

Why are triceps so hard to work out?

They need to be trained hard and it’s important to use the full range of motion. Don’t forget to activate it with warm-up exercises and stretches.