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Triceps!

30minutephysique

There was a time I followed the minimalist, abbreviated training (Stewart McRoberts' "HardGainer") philosophy of training which emphasized the minimum effective dose and kinda flirted with being old school HIT, but always trying to identify as its own thing. Like HIT for "HardGainers."


Overall, it's a solid approach to training. But I discovered plenty of flaws with it, which I experienced first hand.


This school of lifting pretty much discourages isolation exercises and especially justified leaving out tricep isolation work because they (the leaders of the HardGainer Troop) figure if you're doing overhead presses and bench presses your triceps are getting enough work.


Unfortunately, I trusted that philosophy for a few years. I was left with NO triceps to speak of and an overhead press and bench press that had quickly plateaued. 


In short: I believe that if you want big arms, and if you want strong presses (both horizontally and vertically) you MUST train your triceps in isolation.


My 2 favorite tricep exercises are cable pushdowns and overhead cable extensions. Close grip bench press and dips caused more harm than good for me. I do enjoy dumbbell skull crushers, also. There's a bit of nuance to really get your money's worth out of skull crushers. But if you figure out how to do them correctly, they can be a productive tricep builder.


Resistance bands for super high reps can be quite good builders of triceps, as well. Don't overlook them. Just make sure to crank up the reps if using bands and embrace those partial reps and rest pause reps.

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