· Applied Triceps training for beginners
In my opinion, no matter how old you are, or how young you are, provided that you have reached a certain level of maturity and do not have any ailments or disabilities; you should always be doing some sort of heavy pressing, both from a lying/prone position- a horizontal plane (i.e. bench press, dumbbell benches, Hammer Strengthhttp://testosteronemuscle.co.uk/#_edn1) and from a sitting/standing position (i.e. a vertical plane), such as dips, overhead presses of all kinds etc.
As a beginner of complete novice with no access to the gym and/or limited resources (student, lives in rural area etc), you would be surprised how far you can get with basic bodyweight exercises such as dips, press-ups, basically if you get inventive then you WILL find a way.
For instance, when I started training at 14/15 (over a decade ago now), I could not afford the gym (even though it was £50 for 3 months, it was a 45 min bus journey away). So I improvised. I did many press-ups, but learnt to love the overhead press, which developed my triceps and whole upper trunk/girdle.
I still recall having competitions against my mates in the Rugby Team to see who could clean and press the heaviest rock I had bought from a local builders’ merchant and/or the Beer Keg that was donated to me. Ironically enough, this style of training seems to have come back into fashion again. My original inspiration for this training was Brooks Kubik[ii]
If you have access to a gym, my suggested workout for triceps would be (assuming you had already trained chest and shoulders in a traditional push/pull/lower split or chest/shoulder/tricep split)
Close Grip Bench Press; 5x5 (ramping, working up to heaviest 5 rep)
Dips, Pick your max amount of dips and times in by 1.5 and do these in one set, rest pause as necessary
Any form of Triceps Extension (Pressdowns, Skull-crushers, Dumbell Extensions etc.) 3x10-12 (straight weight or same weight for all three sets)
NB: You could run this programme for a fairly long time, making slight adjustments to the exercises/setxrep schemes to keep things progressing nicely).
Don’t forget that there is nothing wrong in ENJOYING your training, so if you particularly like an exercise, don’t be afraid to ‘invest’ your energy into it. I love dips, and so do them religiously, as I believe they are both a great triceps builder and incredibly versatile (i.e. high reps for endurance, reps as low as 3-5 for strength, reps in 6-12 for bodybuilding etc).
http://testosteronemuscle.co.uk/#_ednref1 Note that although Hammer Strength kit, particularly their chest machines, are often seated, the industry generally rates them very highly and mainly athletes and bodybuilders love them!
[ii] See http://www.brookskubik.com, I had a fairly early version of “Dinosaur Training”.
In my opinion, no matter how old you are, or how young you are, provided that you have reached a certain level of maturity and do not have any ailments or disabilities; you should always be doing some sort of heavy pressing, both from a lying/prone position- a horizontal plane (i.e. bench press, dumbbell benches, Hammer Strengthhttp://testosteronemuscle.co.uk/#_edn1) and from a sitting/standing position (i.e. a vertical plane), such as dips, overhead presses of all kinds etc.
As a beginner of complete novice with no access to the gym and/or limited resources (student, lives in rural area etc), you would be surprised how far you can get with basic bodyweight exercises such as dips, press-ups, basically if you get inventive then you WILL find a way.
For instance, when I started training at 14/15 (over a decade ago now), I could not afford the gym (even though it was £50 for 3 months, it was a 45 min bus journey away). So I improvised. I did many press-ups, but learnt to love the overhead press, which developed my triceps and whole upper trunk/girdle.
I still recall having competitions against my mates in the Rugby Team to see who could clean and press the heaviest rock I had bought from a local builders’ merchant and/or the Beer Keg that was donated to me. Ironically enough, this style of training seems to have come back into fashion again. My original inspiration for this training was Brooks Kubik[ii]
If you have access to a gym, my suggested workout for triceps would be (assuming you had already trained chest and shoulders in a traditional push/pull/lower split or chest/shoulder/tricep split)
Close Grip Bench Press; 5x5 (ramping, working up to heaviest 5 rep)
Dips, Pick your max amount of dips and times in by 1.5 and do these in one set, rest pause as necessary
Any form of Triceps Extension (Pressdowns, Skull-crushers, Dumbell Extensions etc.) 3x10-12 (straight weight or same weight for all three sets)
NB: You could run this programme for a fairly long time, making slight adjustments to the exercises/setxrep schemes to keep things progressing nicely).
Don’t forget that there is nothing wrong in ENJOYING your training, so if you particularly like an exercise, don’t be afraid to ‘invest’ your energy into it. I love dips, and so do them religiously, as I believe they are both a great triceps builder and incredibly versatile (i.e. high reps for endurance, reps as low as 3-5 for strength, reps in 6-12 for bodybuilding etc).
http://testosteronemuscle.co.uk/#_ednref1 Note that although Hammer Strength kit, particularly their chest machines, are often seated, the industry generally rates them very highly and mainly athletes and bodybuilders love them!
[ii] See http://www.brookskubik.com, I had a fairly early version of “Dinosaur Training”.
