Posted: 10/1/2005 3:03:20 PM EDT
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Hey guys, Im into martial arts, boxing etc. and am trying to add signifigant size to my triceps for obvious reasons. I currently do narrow handle dips, skullcrushers lying on a bench, skullcrushers siting up, that excersize where you pull the rope down and apart, and various cable stuff. Like I said Im trying to add size, not definition. Any suggestions? thanks -Tac |
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As a general rule of thumb for any body part, including the triceps, you want to focus on higher weight, low rep exercises when looking to gain mass. I find that just doing dips with a weight belt is enough for tripcep growth. The entire tricep work can be done just doing dips. No skull-crushers or tripcep pull-downs needed but you can work them in if you want to do mix in higher rep exercises for a change. The only changes to the dip workout you should do is the amount of weight on the weight belt and reps performed. Don't cheat on the depth of the dip, decrease the weight if you can't come up from a full dip. I would make a long term goal of a one rep max of your body weight. Short term goals, doing 10 reps with 45 lbs. and/or 10 reps with 90 lbs. |
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Dips are a great exercise. Remember when doing dips if you tilt forward you stress the chest a little more than triceps so try to stay more upright for tri development. Another exercise is close grip bench press - you can go heavy and low reps and get a good burn. Use a narrow (chest wide grip) and keep your elbows in toward your torso. ETA: old school was tricep kickbacks - lay perpidicular to a bench with your sholders/traps on bench. Your upper arm is parallel (sp) to floor and you kick your lower arm from pointing towards floor to being parallel. This can be difficult, but forces the tris to work as you cannot cheat the weight as easily. If this description does not explain, I'm sure someone has a diagram somewhere. As a point of reference, imagine the bench skull crusher, but instead of going up above your head, you "kick" the wieght out behind your head. |
| No matter what you do to your arms, you aren't going to grow them out of proportion to the rest of your body. As a general rule of thumb, you'll put 1" onto your arms for every 15 pounds of body mass that you gain. So strangely enough, if you told me "my biggest goal is to make my triceps bigger", my response would be "do more squats", because they are the single biggest mass building exercise. |
| If you want growth, you must change excersizes everytime you do a workout. Either it be doing the same excersizes but in a different order, or changing up the from high rep to low rep or vice versa, or just doing different excersizes than you did last time. Just try to do something different each time. This is called "shocking" the muscles. Which is just confusing them. Notice when you try a new excersize, most of the time you are sore the next day. And you think, "well, that worked good last time" then the next time you do it, you don't get as sore as the first time. This is because your body is learning to move in that particular way. Which is bad for muscle growth. Once your muscles are used to flexing a certain way, change it up. Sore=good workout, good workout= growth. Remember to get lots of protein in your diet to help the growth. |
| In reference to the squat comment, I heard that doing leg press/ squats releases a higher amount of the hormone htat increases muscle size and strength, and since its the biggest muscle you have, thats no suprise. In response to the protein commnet, Ive been dumping protein shakes and eating quite a bit. Put on 5 pounds in the last two months. On a guy whos 6'2'', 180 thats alot. |
I am about to start a new work out regimen that will be focused almost 100% on the squat. Other exercises will be minimal and be limited to bench presses and barbell rows, but 90%+ of my effort will go into the squats. I am expecting to put big mass on my entire body using this approach. I will let you guys know how it goes. |
 in addition Compound lifts are more of a benifit than blowing your elbows out which I assure you will happen if you continue.KISS.Like you in my youth I overworked mine[kick] and their certainly not what they used 2B now after 3operations to repair them.FWIW |
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I agree whole heartedly with everyone who has posted that the big lower body lifts are great for arm size. Squats and deadlifts are the cornerstone of any great training program. My favorite lift for really getting the triceps is the close grip bench press. Brian Jones KAGI Sports, Inc. www.jiujitsugi.com |