5 Best Tricep Exercises for Beginners

Guide to best tricep exercises for beginners (Photo by John Fornander on Unsplash)
Guide to best tricep exercises for beginners (Photo by John Fornander on Unsplash)

As a beginner, you must have looked out for the best tricep exercises. It’s common to search for exercises that target different muscle groups.

However, there are exercises that are advanced, and you should try them only after you’ve mastered the beginner movements. That helps with building a foundation for the overall muscle group.


Tricep Exercises for Beginners

The first thing to know is that triceps are made of three heads, and you should do exercises that work all three of them. As your triceps make up a bigger portion of the upper arm, they are heavily responsible for the overall appearance.

Additionally, working on all three tricep heads gives the muscle group a horse-show appearance. On that note, here's a look at the five best tricep exercises for beginners:


1) Tricep Pushdown

To do a tricep pushdown, attach a straight bar or the ropes to the cable pulley machine. The anchor should be at the top.

Hold the bar, and push it down, but your elbows should be stable. Only your upper arm should move, and with a muscle-mind connection, use only your triceps to push the bar down.

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As you become stronger, you can start controlling the negative to further boost muscle growth and endurance.


2) Lying Dumbbell Extension

You'll require a bench and a pair of dumbbells for this exercise. Hold the dumbbells in each hand, and lie on the bench.Extend your hands towards the ceiling, which is your starting position.

To do the exercise, bend the dumbbells towards your forward from the elbows, making sure only your forearms are moving while elbows and upper arm are stable. Maintain a strong connection with your triceps, and use those muscles to push back the resistance.

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An advanced variation of this exercise is skullcrushers.


3) Overhead Extension

The tricep overhead extension is one of the best tricep exercises for beginners to understand which muscles to focus on.

You can begin with a light dumbbell, and do single-handed overhead extensions before moving on to double-hand extensions. However, you can increase the weight when you do double-hand extensions.

You can try cable overhead extensions with ropes, but you'll have to attach the anchor towards the bottom.


4) Tricep Kickback

The tricep kickback may not be an extreme beginner exercise, but it’s one of the best tricep exercises for an isolation movement.

To do the exercise, either take one arm at a time or both at the same time. You need to bend slightly and have your arms at a 90-degree angle from the elbows. Push your forearm backwards while maintaining stability in your forearms and elbows.

At the top of the motion, you should feel your triceps engage. Hold the position for a second before returning to the starting position.


5) Bench Dip

Dips are an important tricep exercise. You should begin with bodyweight dips before moving on to others. However, it’s best to begin with a bench where your feet are on the group before trying to use a dip tower.

Place your palms on the edge of the bench, and lower your body while keeping it parallel to the bench. When your elbow reaches an agle of 90 degrees, push yourself upwards using your triceps.

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