SuppVersity EMG Series - M. Triceps Brachii: The Best Exercises to Get That Horseshoe Look on Your Triceps

Image 1: The m. triceps brachii. As if you did not
know where to find your "horseshoes" ;-)

After last week's issue on leg training, devoting a whole issue of the SuppVersity EMG Series to a three headed muscle of your upper arm appears kind of unthrifty... well, maybe we should say "extravagant" and thus acknowledge that a well-built triceps unquestionably contributes to the muscular, athletic look most trainees are trying to achieve - especially if you are wearing one of those short-sleeved business shirts and complement them with appropriately muscled forearms ;-) As its name already implies the triceps consists of three heads,

• the long head, caput longum, which arises from the infraglenoid tubercle of the scapula and extends distally anterior to the teres minor and posterior to the teres major, and
• the two short heads, of which the caput mediale and the caput laterale which run along the rear side of the humerus.

Being the antagonist of the m. biceps brachii, the triceps functions to extend the arm and to stabilize the elbow joint when the forearm and hand have to be held steady to perform independent movements. Moreover, the long head which is the only one that originates from the scapula, also acts on the shoulder joint and is also involved in retroversion and adduction of the arm.

Chest	Biceps	Back	Core	Legs	Triceps	Shoulders
Navigate the SuppVersity EMG Series - Click on the desired body part to see the optimal exercises.

Its effect on the overall appearance of your sleeves aside, triceps strength (not looks, guys!) is a major factor in many sports such as basketball, boxing, gymnastics, tennis, etc. but I guess those of you who are into athletics will know that, anyway so that we can, without further delay, get into the meat and potatoes of EMG optimized triceps-training. Here they are, the most effective exercises for the m. triceps brachii, as measured by electromyography (10 male resistance-trained subjects, mean age 22y, mean body-fat 13%; data from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000)...
 
I. Exercises With Standard Equipment for the m. triceps brachii 

As mentioned time and again in the previous installments of this series the idea of training a muscle in isolation, or, in case of the triceps, even training individual heads of a muscle without activation of its other parts is futile. Nevertheless, it is possible to put the focus on a certain part of the muscle and this is, i.e. shifting focus vs. isolating specific muscle strands, is also how I want you to understand the following exercise top 5 for the lateral head and the long head of the m. triceps brachii.

Note: If you are missing a specific list for the caput mediale, i.e. the medial head of the triceps, I suggest you have another look at the triceps anatomy in image 2. Situated right beneath the caput laterale, the EMG activity of the caput mediale will inevitable be recorded, as well, when you place one of the EMG electrodes on the skin right above the caput laterale.

Image 2: Triceps anatomy (image from finalfitness.co.uk)

... for the lateral part (+medial head) Cable push-downs, straight or bend bar SZ-bar triceps extensions, lying on the bench Guillotine presses, shoulder wide grip DB kickbacks, torso horizontal on bench DB extension, single arm, behind the head ... for the long head  DB Kickbacks, incline bench + retroversion BB Neck presses DB kickbacks, torso horizontal on bench DB extension, single arm, behind the head SZ-bar triceps extensions, seated

Figure 1: EMG activity of lateral head and long head of the m. triceps major during selected triceps exercises with standard equipment relative to the SZ-bar lying (lateral head) and seated (long head) triceps extension  (data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000)

Image 3: Its not really necessary to turn the
SZ-bartriceps extension into a pullover,
like the old-school bodybuilders did it.
A regular french press where the
bar does not pass beyond your head will suffice.

While it is not surprising that the SZ-bar triceps extensions (both seated as well as lying on a bench), which also serve as reference exercises for the relative EMG intensities plotted I in figure 1, are among the most effective exercises for both the lateral, as well as the long head of the triceps, the specificity of the triceps kickback on a 60° incline as the #1 exercise for the long head of the m. triceps brachii may come as a surprise. This may be explained by the previously mentioned exclusive role of the long head in the retroversion of the arm, which is particularly challenging, when the angle between your upper arm and your torso is <0° (where 0° would be parallel to your torso as in the bend over triceps kickbacks on a bench).

Training Tip: With DB kickbacks perfect form is the key to optimal triceps activation. This is all the more true if you really want to "isolate" the long head of the triceps with the DB kickbacks on a 60° incline, where it is absolutely imperative to extending the loaded arm backwards, maximally (this by the way is what retroversion means in practice). You also want to keep your upper arm parallel to the floor all (!) the time. If you let it drop back to a neutral  position after each rep that would take away -20% of the intensity! Please do me a favor and start with a really light dumbbell - you will feel that just by retroverting your arm with a light load so that it forms a horizontal line from your shoulder to your pinky, is sufficient to induce a profound muscle burn in the long head.

An even greater surprise, however, probably is the 2nd place of BB behind the neck presses in the ranking of the most effective exercises for the long head. Thus, it is only valid that you are asking yourself "What on earth does a shoulder exercise have to do with my triceps?" Well, think about the origin of the caput longem, it attaches directly to the scapula and is frantically trying to stabilize a movement of which I would think twice whether or not I find it so elementary that I put myself at risk of a tedious shoulder injury, just to get "titanic triceps" or "bolder shoulders" ;-)

Image 4: Using a rope instead of
a straight  or V-bar makes
the cable pushdowns
an overall more balanced exercise

It's also noteworthy, that, other than the SZ triceps extensions or the guillotine presses, which owe their name to the unlucky circumstance that you might decapitate yourself (the standard narrow bench press is already -25% less effective!), when you let the barbell drop, the cable pushdown with the straight or V-bar targets the lateral and the medial head of the triceps almost exclusively. That being said, your triceps routine would not be complete without at least one complementary movement such as the triceps kickback on the 60° incline, where the long head clearly is the weakest link and thus guaranteed to get hammered pretty decently, not even, but especially with appropriately light weights! You may remedy this problem by using a rope instead of a straight or v-bar (cf. image 3). If you deliberately pull the rope apart at the end of the movement you will hit the long head of your triceps pretty efficiently and thus turn the #1 isolation exercise for the lateral head into a more balanced triceps exercise.

II. Body Weight Exercises for the m. triceps brachii 
 

Image 5: If you wonder why Arnold is showing up
in almost each part of this series,  here is your answer:
This guy simple knew what he was doing.

It does not take a rocket scientist, but just a brief glance at the enormous horseshoes of gymnasts to realize that you do not even have to train with metal weights, in order to build impressive upper arms. It is thus not surprising that many pro bodybuilders still swear by doing dips with their arms behind their back in between to benches (cf. image 5), which *surprise* actually turns out to be the most effective body weight exercise you can do to really hammer the lateral head of your triceps.

... for the lateral part (+medial head)
1. Dips, arms behind the back, between two benches (cf. image 5)
2. Dips, bars slightly more than shoulder wide apart, not going past 90° elbow flexion
3. Pushups, fingers facing forward, hands slightly narrower than shoulder width apart

... for the long head 
1. Dips, bars slightly more than shoulder wide apart, not going past 90° elbow flexion
2. Pushups, fingers facing forward, hands slightly narrower than shoulder width apart

Figure 2: EMG activity of lateral head and long head of the m. triceps major during selected body weight triceps exercises relative to dips between bars (data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000)

As you can see, Arnold's behind the back bench dips (cf. image 5), or whatever you want to call them, are simply unbeatable when it comes to activating the lateral head of the triceps. Even in absolute terms, this variety of the dips is only 7% less effective than the SZ-bar lying triceps extension the #2 in the top 5 ranking of the most effective triceps exercises with exercise equipment.

Figure 3: EMG activity of lateral head and long head of the m. triceps major during selected body weight triceps exercises relative to dips between bars (data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000

I've mentioned it before, going all the way down may on the dips does increase the workload on the tendons and joint capsules of your shoulder girdle and is thus neither beneficial for your triceps development (-12% EMG activity), nor for your joints. Flaring out your arms, on the other hand has a much smaller influence on the activation of the caput longe during parallel dips, than you may have expected - in fact, the -3% reduction in EMG activity is practically negligible.
 
III. Conclusion - For Maximal Triceps Development Specialization Does Have Its Place

From all that has been said before, it should have become obvious that, probably even more so than with any other given body part, the use of "specialization" exercises for the individual heads of the triceps does make sense. Although exercises such as the classic dips between two bars (done "Jay Cutler"-ish, i.e. only down to an elbow ankle of 90°) stimulate both the lateral, as well as the long head of the triceps adequately, there is no "jack of all traits"-triceps exercise - not even the SZ-bar triceps extension since you would at least have to switch from a lying to a seated position to adequately stimulate both the caput laterale + mediale as well as the caput longem.

Figure 4: EMG activity of lateral head and long head of the m. triceps major during three common triceps exercises relative to maximal activation of the respective head in any exercise evaluated in the study (data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000)

The data in figure 4 elucidates the inevitable trade-off between maximal stimulation of the lateral and medial head, on the one, and the long head, on the other hand, for three classic triceps exercises. I tried to factor this, as well as my personal observation that out of hundred trainees maybe five do the incline kickbacks the way they are supposed to in with the following exemplary triceps routine (if you are willing and able to do the kickbacks with proper form and adequate weight instead of just swinging the dumbbell up and down on the side of the torso, you can alternate those with the bench dips, I propose as the third exercise in the routine below).

Know your own limits! If you train triceps and biceps with another muscle group on the same day and want to do a single exercise only, I would suggest doing either dips or the suggested mix of lying and seated SZ-bar triceps extensions from the EMG optimized routine below to limit the absolute number of sets you perform.

An EMG-optimized routine
 

Image 6: Although many trainees
swear by it the narrow grip barbell bench
pressis not particularly effective in
isolating the triceps and thus did
not make it into the "EMG routine"
(image from everkinetic.com)

There is of course a myriad of ways of combining the individual exercises, my personal recommendation for overall triceps development (based on EMG measures) would yet be as follows

1. SZ-bar triceps extensions*, 6-10 reps *alternate lying and seated variety
2. Cable push downs, 8-12 reps, straight bar or v-bar
3. Bench Dips (cf. image 5), to failure

You may notice that I do not make volume (i.e. set) recommendations. This is due to the fact that I found that everyone has to find what works best for him / her in terms of optimal volume, training frequency and body part splits. This may also change over time / according to lifestyle factors / nutrition and supplementation.

SuppVersity EMG Series - Biceps Brachii: The Very Best Exercises for Sleeve Bursting Biceps

Image 1: The biceps brachii attaches
directly to the shoulder joint
(Användare:Chriz @ Wikipedia)

As its name already implies, the bi-ceps (lat. for "two-heads") brachii is made up of two muscle strands, both of which attach to different parts of the shoulder joint:

• the caput longum (long head), which attaches to the tuberculum supraglenoidale scapulae and facilitates internal rotation and abduction of the arm, and
• the caput breve (short head), which attaches to the processus coacoideus and facilitates anteversion and adduction of the arm

Their individual kinetic functions aside, both heads of the biceps brachii work synergistically during basic curl movements and more complex movements such as the supination of your palm. In that, the individual position of the hands determines, which of the two heads of the biceps carry the main load of the movement.

Chest	Biceps	Back	Core	Legs	Triceps	Shoulders
Navigate the SuppVersity EMG Series - Click on the desired body part to see the optimal exercises.

Due to the biceps anatomy, a supinated grip (palms of the hands face up) is required for optimal force development. As the degree of pronation (palms facing down) increases and the biceps tendon winds more and more around the radius, the potential for maximal force development decreases and m. brachialis and m. brachioradialis take over (cf. image 2). Keep that in mind, when you look at the following data on the most "effective" biceps exercises and whenever you design a training routine and make sure to train biceps and brachialis from a variety of angles to facilitate optimal progress in terms of strength and size.  

The most effective exercises* for the biceps brachii are

Image 2: Anatomy of the biceps brachii
(1-long head, 2-short head),
brachioradialis (3) and brachialis (4).

* if not indicated otherwise, all exercises are to be performed with a supinated (palms facing up) grip

• Dumbbell concentration curls, seated, supramaximal weight, negative eccentric*
• Dumbbell Concentration Curls, seated
• Scott curl, straight bar
• Cable curl, using a straight-bar attachment
• Straight bar curls, standing, wide (> shoulder width) grip
• Dumbbell preacher curl, unilateral, on a 60° incline

** performing a negative eccentric means that you rise the dumbbell (+20-30% heavier than you would normally use) with the help of your free hand (apply just as much force as is necessary) and then lower the weight as slowly as possible using just the trained arm.

Figure 1: Degree of muscle activation (as measure via EMG) in comparison to reference exercise barbell curl (data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000)

If you have a closer look at the data in figure 1, you will notice that the differences between the classic biceps exercises is relatively small. With proper loading (i.e. weight) and form the overall activation of the two heads of the biceps (caput longum and caput breve) differs by only 10%, ranging from the dumbbell preacher curl on an 60° incline to the dumbbell concentration curl seated sideways on a bench, with the back of your upper arm supported by your thighs. In those cases the intensity technique, here, so called negatives, can make a significant difference. The 20%-30% load-increase for the negative vs. the normal concentration curl improves its already superior muscle activation by a whopping +40%!

Note: You can employ negative eccentrics on other biceps exercises, as well. In fact, many pro bodybuilder "cheat" (i.e. they use momentum) on the concentric phase (way up) of regular barbell and dumbbell curls and to then try and resist gravity on the way down, as long as possible. Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies did not specifically test the effect of this practice, but it stands to reason that it would bring about similar effects as the controlled variety that was tested in the study.

Supinated, Hammer, Rotating or Pronated grip - What works best for big biceps? From the introductory remarks on the physiology of the biceps brachii and its synergists the m. brachialis and the m. brachioradialis it should be obvious that varying grip angle and widths can have a major impact on the degree each of these muscles is involved in a given exercise. The activation pattern for the biceps brachii during the concentration curl, for example largely depends on the grip you employ.

Figure 2: Degree of muscle activation (as measure via EMG) during concentration curls in percantage of concentration durls performed with a supinated grip (data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000)

With the exception of the pronated grip*** the overall activation remains high (cf. figure 2), when switching from a supinated to a hammer (90°, thumbs up) or a rotating (neutral / hammer position at the beginning of the movement, supinated grip at the top). The high activation of the biceps brachii by "Hammer curls" (dumbbell curls with a hammer grip) is somewhat surprising, in fact the mean EMG value was even 3pts higher (766pts vs. 763pts) compared to the supinated version of the concentration curl. This is particularly interesting, as it goes against "broscience", which tells you that the hammer grip would specifically target the m. brachialis. *** although Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies did not measure the activation pattern of the m. brachioradialis, it stands to reason that it will carry the main load of pronated concentration curls.  

Grip width - does it really make a difference?

Despite the fact that a shoulder wide grip probably comes most naturally to most trainees, many trainers, pro bodybuilders and figure competitors suggest to train with varying grip widths for "aesthetic" reasons. And in fact, even the initial crash course on biceps anatomy should suffice to understand that grip width, just as grip angle, will influence the activation patterns of the individual heads of the biceps brachii (wide grip for long head, narrow grip for short head), m. brachialis (narrow grip) and the m. brachioradialis. The overall activation patter of the sum of caput longum and cuput breve, i.e. the two heads of the biceps brachii, on the other hand remains pretty stable (cf. figure 3).

Figure 3: Change in muscle activation (as measure via EMG) during barbell curls (straight bar) in percentage of curls done with a shoulder-wide grip (data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000)

While the extra-wide grip (shoulder width +20cm) does not change the activation pattern significantly (and will probably hurt your wrists), executing the barbell curl with a straight bar, using a narrow grip (hands 10cm apart) significantly reduces the activation of the biceps brachii and increases the load on the m. brachialis. In summary, all of the classic curl movements activate the biceps brachii to a similar degree. Against that background, proper form and loading (selecting a weight that trains the muscle, not your ego) become increasingly important.

Don't be that guy who does ballistic curling movements using ridiculously high weights that may build huge traps (due to the jerking at the beginning of each curl), but leave his bi's underdeveloped. Rather take advantage of the variety of effective biceps exercises and hit your biceps from different angles and with different grip widths, in order to provide fresh growth stimuli every time you hit the gym.

Incorporate negatives, whenever you feel you are hitting a plateau; do not use negatives every workout, because negative eccentrics cause significant damage to the muscle tissue, which - if done too frequently - can eventually lead to atrophy instead of hypertrophy.

Image 3: The concentration curl has been
a staple in bodybuilding since the days
of Arnold Schwarzenegger
- rightly, as the EMG data indicates.

An EMG-optimized routine

There is of course a myriad of ways of combining the individual exercises, my personal recommendation for overall biceps development (based on EMG measures) would yet be as follows

1. Barbell curls - straight bar, supinated shoulder wide grip; explosive concentric, controlled excentric movements, high loads, 6-8 reps
2. Scott curls - campered bar, supinated narraw grip; full stretch at the bottom; medium load, 8-10 reps
3. Dumbbell concentration curls - switch between supinated and hammer grip; medium load or supramaximal load (use sparingly) 10 reps (use other arm for assistance, if needed)

You may notice that I do not make volume (i.e. set) recommendations. This is due to the fact that I found that everyone has to find what works best for him / her in terms of optimal volume, training frequency and body part splits. This may also change over time / according to lifestyle factors / nutrition and supplementation.