The article below will give you my top 3 secrets on building Horseshoe Triceps.
Happy Lifting! FZ
Follow the pump is a rule I like to follow. So I work triceps right after chest. Pick a good routine and train triceps twice a week get a pump on every set. Dumbbell pullover is my last chest exercise and it not only hits my serratus and ribcage, it also pumps up my posterior triceps head. That’s the long head at the rear of the triceps and when it’s developed it adds a fuller look to the upper arm.
Triceps are the bigger muscle group of the upper arm, bigger than biceps so if you want larger arms be sure to do enough triceps work in your arm program.
Here are the 3 exercises (and variations of them) that I highlight in this article which I use to create horseshoe Triceps:
1. Close Grip Bench Press
2. Pressdowns
3. Overhead Dumbbell extensions
1. Close Grip Bench Press on a Smith Machine (as shown) or with a barbell. Pressdown on my lat machine and overhead dumbbell extension either with 2 arms (as shown) or one arm at a time as in the one arm dumbbell extension.
Close Grip Bench Press is the only bench pressing I do anymore. No need to keep doing
Regular grip bench press – don’t need bigger pecs. Close grip BP with slow negatives is a great size builder and it is the first movement in my triceps routine so I go heavist on this one. Three sets of 12, 10 and 8 reps are super setted with 3 sets of Press down (which is the next exercise I cover below.)
2. Pressdowns— this is an isolation movement following a compound mass movement (bench press) and I keep doing reps and holding each one for a second at lockout to give me burn by the end of the set. Then I do arms back stretch, tense my triceps a little and do two more super sets. My reps on each set decrease for 12, 10, and 8 reps as my weights increase.
Sometimes instead of close BP I do Parallel Dips on my dip machine. It’s great pec and front delt work at the same time and I’m sure to get a good lockout and to get more tension on the lockout I have a rubber ban wrapped around the weight stack.
Then I do arms back stretch, tense my triceps a little and do two more super sets.
I might super set Dumbbell Kick-Backs with dips or even with close grip BP for variety, keeping reps high on this one between 12 and 15 not going too heavy to get a good lockout.
3. Wrapping up the triceps routine is overhead dumbbell extension with two arms or with one arm
- I make sure to let the dumbbell descend as low as possible on this movement because this is how the posterior long head of the triceps develop.
- And while the 2 arm version is good for this, one arm triceps extension is even better because you can stretch lower and hit the long triceps head better.
- 3 sets of 12, 10, 8 reps on this one increasing weight on every set.
- Elbows pointing out works the outer triceps while elbows pointing back works the long posterior head of the triceps and elbow midway between works both head of the triceps.
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