Tricep exercises for women, from personal trainer Kathryn Alexander.
Triceps exercises for women are important for arm strength, shape and tone. Who doesn’t want sculpted upper arms, for dresses, tank tops and swimsuits? Strong triceps and arms however, go beyond just aesthetics. Triceps strength is crucial for upper body strength, which leads to increased physical ability.
I want all my clients to feel strong and confident in their activities of daily living, and a bit beyond. I want you to be able to put your suitcase up in the luggage compartment on a plane with ease. I want you to be able to move your couch, pick up your kids, and even your big and wiggly pets.
Why Focus on Triceps
Strong triceps are not just about the back of your arms; they’re part of having a balanced upper body musculature. The triceps brachii plays a critical role not just in the aesthetic appeal of our upper arms but in functional movements too. Strengthening them helps not just in looking good but in boosting our body’s upper-arm strength, enhancing performance in various sports, and even in daily tasks.
From pushing open a heavy door to excelling in your overhead press, the triceps support a range of motions at the shoulder and elbow joints. This is why focusing on your triceps workout, integrating exercises like close grip presses, triceps pressdowns, and skull crushers, is important.
I’ve heard women refer to the back of the upper arm as bat wings or teacher arms. I really want you to love your arms and only joke about your arms affectionately!
Trust me: strength training your triceps is the key to toned and strong arms, increases in strength and ability, and balanced musculature for a healthy body. Read on for how to incorporate triceps exercises in your weight training for fantastic results!
Anatomy of the Triceps
The triceps brachii is a three-headed muscle located at the back of your upper arm. The triceps are responsible for extension of the elbow joint, and make up the majority of your upper arm mass. Consisting of the long head, medial head, and lateral head, this muscle group is pivotal in almost every motion involving your arms.
The long head is on the back of your arm, playing a crucial role not just in arm strength but also in shoulder joint stability. The medial head is deeper than the long and lateral heads. Meanwhile, the lateral head is on the back and side of your arm, as the name lateral implies, and gives your arms that sculpted appearance every time you extend your elbow.
Best Tricep Exercises
Any movement that includes elbow extension will work the triceps. Triceps can be worked in compound movements, which move several joints at once, or in isolation movements. Compound movements include close grip bench presses, and triceps dips. Isolation exercises don’t truly isolate one muscle group, but they typically act in a very small focused movement on one joint. Examples of these are triceps kickbacks and cable press downs.
Compound exercises engage multiple muscle groups and provide the best way to build overall strength, while isolation exercises focus on the triceps for more targeted muscle activity. I recommend compound and isolation exercises for a full triceps workout.
In no particular order, here are some of the best triceps exercises you can do. Some of these require a set of dumbbells, a cable system, or body weight. You can do many of these with a few pieces of home gym essentials. If you don’t have all this equipment and need a custom program, contact me here to discuss options!
Note: this is a list of exercises that will help you build your triceps, and at the end of this post I’ll include how-to’s for many of these.
- Close Grip Bench Press: This compound exercise not only targets the triceps but also engages the chest and shoulders. By keeping your hands closer together, you shift more of the workload to the triceps.
- Tricep Dips: These can be performed on parallel bars or a bench and are excellent for targeting the lower part of the triceps muscle. These are not a beginner exercise, so build a base of strength before working triceps dips.
- Skull Crushers (Lying Triceps Extensions): Done with a barbell, dumbbells, or an EZ curl bar, skull crushers focus on the triceps without much assistance from other muscle groups. This is a great exercise! One of my favorites. Sounds way scarier than it is!
- Overhead Tricep Extensions: This exercise can be done standing or seated, with dumbbells or a cable machine. It specifically targets the long head of the triceps.
- Diamond Push-Ups: By forming a diamond shape with your index fingers and thumbs, this variation of push-ups puts more emphasis on the triceps. Close grip pushups with your elbows tucked by your side similar work triceps. Here’s a full tutorial on pushups and pushup variations.
- Tricep Kickbacks: When done with proper form, a tricep kickback isolates the triceps muscles effectively. It’s important to keep your upper arm stationary and only move your forearm. Here’s a whole blog post where I break down triceps kickbacks.
- Cable Pressdowns: A cable machine offers constant resistance throughout the movement, providing a different stimulus for muscle growth.
- Resistance Band Pressdowns: These are similar to cable pushdowns but use a resistance band, which can be more joint-friendly and offers resistance through the entire range of motion.
- JM Press: A hybrid between a close grip bench press and a skull crusher, it’s a favorite among powerlifters for building triceps strength.
- Triangle Push-Ups: Another push-up variation that targets the triceps by placing the hands in a triangle position under the chest.
- Dumbbell Tricep Extension: This can be performed with one arm or two, and it’s a great way to focus on the triceps without the support of other muscles.
- Dumbbell Floor Press: This is a variation of the bench press that limits the range of motion, thereby increasing the triceps activation.
- Bodyweight Triceps Extensions: Using a TRX or rings, or even a sturdy table, you can perform bodyweight triceps extensions to work the muscle in a different way. These are really challenging! Fun but challenging!
- Triceps Dips on Rings or TRX: The instability of the rings or TRX straps makes this exercise more challenging, engaging more stabilizing muscles. Remember I said dips are tough? These are the next level. Work up to these!
How To Incorporate These Triceps Exercises for Women
In your training session, I recommend doing your big, compound movements first. This means that after your warm up, you’ll do squats, deadlifts, bench press, heavy rows, etc. I like putting arm work at the end of the session, so that your arms are fresh for the aforementioned exercises. There is a time and place for most everything, but typically you won’t want to fatigue your triceps before bench pressing, or overhead pressing, for example.
The exception is that if you are a recovering leg-aholic and haven’t done regular upper body workouts. I am kinda kidding, but the truth is that if your program has been imbalanced because you have focused so much on leg and glute goals, then you might want to put in a whole upper body session.
If that’s the case, I again suggest you do your compound movements like barbell work, rows, presses, etc. Then add in focused triceps work at the end. These exercises can be modified to fit any fitness level and can be made more challenging by increasing the weight, adding resistance, or changing the tempo of the exercise.
Generally speaking, try picking a compound exercise like the close grip bench press, and then two isolation exercises like cable press downs and skull crushers. These are general recommendations for these tricep exercises for women, but they also apply to men. Again, the differences in individual’s training will be based on goals and preferences, not gender.
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How Are These Tricep Exercises for Women Different than For Men?
The truth is, they are not very different. Like, at all. Tricep exercises for women will be the same exercises for men. The difference is based on individual’s goals, so my recommendation for incorporating these exercises is similar for men and women, actually. We all have the same origins and attachments of the muscle groups, so these exercises will work for triceps growth and strength for everybody.
However, some of these are more challenging and will require more strength. Additionally, men tend to have more testosterone, and a greater ability to put on muscle size.
Women can absolutely do all of these exercises! If some fo these are tough for you right now, focus on increasing strength into the others. Building strength and learning exercises is a long process. It will happen, slowly but surely.
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How To Do These Triceps Exercises
The above list is an overview of the many triceps exercises available for you to do, but below I’ll give a few more how-to videos on specific exercises. If I’ve missed one you’d like me to cover more, please let me know!
Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions
Triceps Kickbacks with Dumbbells
How to do the triceps kickbacks: a full tutorial.
Cable Triceps Overhead Extensions
Cambered Bar Triceps Press
Skullcrushers with a Barbell
Skullcrushers with Dumbbells
Close Grip Bench Press
Floor Press with Dumbbells
Add These Tricep Exercises into Your Workout
In conclusion, tricep exercises for women are a crucial component of a balanced workout routine. By incorporating a variety of exercises that target the triceps brachii from different angles, women can achieve strong, toned arms and improve their upper-body strength. I wish you the best tricep workouts of your life! 🙂 Remember, slowly but surely. Surely!
This deserves more than a side note, but read this article on how to work your biceps, which comprise the rest of your upper arm musculature.
Keep at it! Let me know if I can give you specific advice, of if you’d like to do a free consult to see if we are a good fit to work together toward your physique goals.
About the author
Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.
