LYING TRICEPS EXTENSION

Most women find it very depressing that a lot of fat accumulate on the triceps or the underside of arms.  No matter what they do, it stays put. Men who do not exercise, on the other side, may become huge and obese, yet sport frail and thin hands. Men can bring up the size of their hands with exercise for the triceps and biceps, but women can never bring down the size of their hands with just exercise for the hands.

A beginner always puts so much effort into developing the size of his hands, when what he should be doing is concentrate on the basic exercises that build overall strength and stamina. Hands always get a thorough workout whenever an exercise for the upper body is performed and so doing a lot of exercise for only the hands result in the hands getting too tired and injured.

This is a must-do exercise for body builders. As the name denotes, the triceps has three heads, the long head, the medial head and the lateral head and ‘lying triceps extension’ hits them all hard.

Execution

1. Warm up the triceps well before starting this exercise as it places a lot of pressure on the elbow joint.

2. Always have someone to assist you with this exercise.

3. Lie on your back on the floor or on a bench, keep your knees bent and firmly place your feet on the bench or floor.

4. Hold the barbell with a grip with about six inches width between the hands.

5. Let the spotter help you lift the weight and you hold it above your chest with your hands straight.

6. Without spreading your elbows too wide, bring the weight down to your forehead.

7. Slowly push the weight back until your hands are straight and elbows locked.

8. Lower the weight only until your elbow joint has reached a 90 degree position and any movement further down may result in injury of the elbows.

Variation for improvement

Use an inclined bench to do this exercise instead of lying down on the floor or a horizontal bench. You may also hold the barbell with a palm down grip, i.e., a reverse grip. You may have to reduce the weights by 20% while doing the reverse grip lying-triceps-extension.

Muscles involved in action

The entire triceps brachii work hard to do this exercise as also the pectoralis major and the anterior deltoid, which contract isometrically to bring stability of the torso.

Most beginners who have never done any exercise for their triceps may find this exercise very tough to handle and may discard it forever. Neglecting to do this exercise will not give your hands   the full and complete look and may keep your hands full, in future, trying to bring out the size of  the triceps in proportion to the biceps development.