Not to toot my own horn, but I’m sure someone would pay to rub their genitals on my bulgy triceps. So I guess you could say I’m somewhat of an authority when it comes to the ol' horseshoe. Okay, I am not an expert, but I have some movements that give me a lot of bang for my buck when it comes to tricep size and lockout strength. After all, what else is there in this world?
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You can do most of these exercises as either a supplemental or accessory movement. Although you probably won’t do high rep banded extensions as a supplemental movement. I’ve outlined my preferences below.
1. JM Presses
JM PRESSES ARE NOT THE SAME AS THROAT PRESSES. I hope one day I get an exercise named after myself. These are great as a supplemental exercise. You can really push the weight without fucking too much up. Hit some heavy sets of three to five reps for supplemental work for a few weeks. Try and work up each week. Watch skinny Dave do them.
2. Throat Presses
A lot of people refer to these as JM presses but alas, they are not. I regret to inform you. All of you. I prefer to do these for sets of five to ten (as an accessory exercise). If I go too heavy with low reps, I find I try and cheat and do more of a press than an extension. Yes, I see the word press is in there. I do not really do a press. I’m sure some people do. And here we have the crux of lifting. We all do different shit and it all works. Wow, what a sport.
3. Walking Dips
I love me some dips. Dips used to be problematic for me and lately, I’ve just been doing partial dips that have not caused me any pain or discomfort. The only discomfort is how I can’t put my arms down by my side owing to my GIANT MEATY TRICEPS.
Start with regular partial dips. Pause for a second when your heels hit the floor then pause for a few seconds at the lockout. These are a killer if you put as much focus into exploding out of the bottom and contracting at the top. Work your way up to weighted dips. Then give these walking dips a shot.
I would almost always recommend these as an accessory exercise of eight to ten reps.
4. Heavy Close-Grip Board Presses
I hope you don’t need a video for this. I love these because you can really throw some weight on them and they are the closest tricep-based supplemental exercise to a real bench press. Sets of three to five on these are great. Stick with the same board height for a couple weeks, add some weight on each week, then go to the next board height. Next time you cycle around, try to beat your previous numbers.
5. Pushdowns
Pushdowns are ubiquitous and in everyone’s program blah blah, but hear me out! Utilizing these in various loads and intensities gives you a lot of room to work on your weaknesses. You can throw a straight bar on the cable machine and do HEAVYYY pushdowns and really crank up the weight since it’s a movement that’s really hard to mess up (don’t try and prove me wrong on this).
On the other end of the tricep spectrum, you can do HIGH HIGH REP banded pushdowns for a more endurance-based focus. Start at 60 and add on 20 reps each week until you get to like 120+. Cycle that through a few times. Just make sure you are working the inner head of your tricep and not just the outer.
You have no excuse for a shitty lockout now!
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