The bicep muscle gets most of the attention it seems, but the tricep muscle is actually a larger muscle and more responsible for arm size. The tricep muscle is made up of three heads – a long head, a lateral head, and a medial head. To have truly impressive triceps, a person needs to develop all three heads.
As I often do, I will turn to the legend himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, for tips on how to increase the size and visual appeal of tricep muscles. Arnold had some of the best triceps that you will ever see on a human, and the same is true of legendary bodybuilders Bill Pearl, Serge Nubret, Sergio Oliva, and Frank Zane (to name a handful). Below are lifts that Arnold recommends for triceps in his amazing book The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding:
- For Overall Mass (page 415) – Close-grip barbell presses, dips
- Upper Triceps (page 416) – Cable pressdowns (both arms, single arm, ‘regular grip,’ and ‘reverse grip’), kickbacks, dips
- Lower Triceps (page 417) – Modified dips (go all the way down, but only 3/4th of the way up to keep the stress on the lower triceps)
“The first step in training triceps is to build up the mass and strength of the muscle structure. This means doing the basic triceps press and extension movements gradually adding more and more weight until the area begins to respond.” states Arnold in his book (page 410).
“Remember that anytime you straighten your arm against resistance – whether you are specifically doing triceps training or not – you will involve triceps muscles.” he also states.
I personally train my triceps on Mondays which is the same day that I do my chest workouts. Anyone who has done ‘push exercises’ on a chest day knows that they work out the triceps quite a bit. So after I get my triceps warmed up via lifts like inclined and regular dumbbell presses, I then do some dumbbell and cable work on my triceps to blast them into submission.
But, that is just what I do. You will need to evaluate your needs, equipment availability, and schedule to determine which tricep workouts are best for your situation, and if you want to do them on chest day or on a day solely dedicated to arms.
Two people that I encourage you to check out on social media who post a lot of different ways to blast your triceps are 4-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler and fitness influencer Ross Dickerson. They are both great resources. Hopefully this article gives you some things to consider. Happy lifting!
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