How one can Do the Triceps Pushdown: Type, Advantages, and Options

The triceps pushdown is likely one of the easiest and only workouts for coaching your triceps.

It’s a fixture in lots of weightlifting applications as a result of it trains all three heads of the triceps, particularly the lengthy head, making it wonderful for growing your higher arms.

On this article, you’ll study what the triceps pushdown is, why it’s useful, methods to carry out it with correct type, one of the best triceps pushdown alternate options, and extra.

What Is the Triceps Pushdown?

The triceps pushdown (usually erroneously known as the “tricep pushdown”) is a triceps isolation train carried out utilizing a cable machine. 

To carry out the triceps pushdown, you grip a deal with hooked up to a excessive cable pulley and push the deal with towards the ground by straightening your elbows.

You should utilize a number of completely different handles to carry out the triceps pushdown, together with the rope deal with, straight bar, EZ bar, and V bar. For this reason you’ll usually hear individuals seek advice from the train because the “bar triceps pushdown,” “rope triceps pushdown,” and so forth.

Regardless of what many individuals say, altering the deal with you utilize doesn’t drastically change how the train trains your triceps, so use whichever one feels most comfy.

Triceps Pushdown: Advantages

1. It trains your total triceps.

The triceps has three heads: The lateral head, medial head, and lengthy head. The lengthy head is the biggest and thus contributes most to the general dimension of your triceps. 

Whereas the triceps extension successfully trains all three heads, analysis exhibits that it emphasizes the lengthy head, making it significantly good for including dimension to your higher arms.

2. It maximizes triceps growth.

Many individuals assume that heavy bench urgent is sufficient to prepare your triceps, and doing units of isolation workouts just like the triceps pushdown is superfluous or “junk” quantity (further units and reps that aren’t definitely worth the effort). 

Nonetheless, analysis exhibits this most likely isn’t the case.

As an example, in a single research performed by scientists at Paulista College, researchers discovered that whereas doing the bench press or triceps pushdown alone induced some triceps development, together with each workouts in your coaching was higher. (Additionally they discovered that doing the bench press adopted by the triceps pushdown led to extra development than doing the workouts within the reverse order.)

This jives with different analysis that exhibits coaching a muscle group with varied workouts produces higher outcomes than only one train.

That’s why I at all times embrace triceps isolation workouts just like the triceps pushdown and heavy urgent workouts in my health applications for women and men, Larger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger.

(And in case you’d like extra particular recommendation about what workouts to incorporate in your coaching program to achieve your well being and health targets, take the Legion Power Coaching Quiz, and in lower than a minute, you’ll know the proper energy coaching program for you. Click on right here to test it out.)

3. It lets you prepare your triceps when your different “pushing” muscular tissues are drained.

Throughout the entire greatest pushing workouts, just like the bench press, overhead press, and close-grip bench press, your chest and shoulders bear the brunt of the load.

In case your chest, shoulder, or push exercises solely encompass free-weight workouts like these, your pecs and delts might fatigue sooner than your triceps. In different phrases, whereas your chest and shoulders could also be bushed after 6 units of those workouts, your triceps might be able to deal with just a few extra.

The triceps pushdown is a useful workaround on this state of affairs, because it lets you prepare your triceps after your different pushing muscular tissues are fried.

This ensures you prepare your triceps with the amount they should develop with out your chest or shoulders changing into a limiting issue.

Triceps Pushdown: Muscle mass Labored

Triceps Pushdown: Type

1. Arrange

2. Push down

3. Ascend

The Greatest Triceps Pushdown Options

1. Reverse-Grip Triceps Pushdown

2. Banded Triceps Pushdown

The resistance band triceps pushdown is an effective variation in case you wish to work out at residence or whereas touring and have restricted house and gear. 

Nonetheless, as a result of a resistance band affords virtually no resistance when it’s slack, there’s little rigidity in your triceps after they’re stretched. This makes the band overhead triceps extension much less efficient for constructing muscle than the cable or dumbbell overhead triceps extension, which is why it’s best to solely use it while you don’t have entry to gymnasium gear.

3. Machine Triceps Pushdown

Like most machine workouts, the machine triceps pushdown is simpler to study and carry out than the free-weight triceps pushdown as a result of it requires much less stability, coordination, and stabilization. This makes it a superb variation for people who find themselves new to weightlifting or working round an harm.

Nonetheless, machine workouts are barely much less efficient than free-weight workouts for constructing muscle, so when you’ve constructed a base stage of energy or recovered out of your harm, it’s normally greatest to do to the cable triceps pushdown.

4. Single-Arm Triceps Pushdown

• Could allow you to carry extra whole weight than you may with some bilateral workouts, which can assist you acquire extra muscle over time
• Helps you develop a better mind-muscle connection along with your triceps, since you solely must concentrate on one aspect of your physique at a time
• Helps you appropriate muscle imbalances, as a result of each side of your physique are pressured to carry the identical quantity of weight (one aspect can’t “take over” from the opposite)

5. Dumbbell Kickback

Just like the cable triceps pushdown, the dumbbell kickback successfully trains the lengthy head of the triceps. The one downsides are that it’s troublesome to keep up good type when you progress to heavy weights and it doesn’t prepare your triceps by a full vary of movement or place rigidity on them after they’re stretched, which makes it much less efficient than the cable variation for gaining muscle and energy.