Best Exercises To Get Big Triceps

Updated: Jul 22

Punch harder, bench heavier and look wham. Why not?

Your triceps make up about 70% of your actual arm mass, despite this the triceps are quite easy to ignore (1). Many people just add a tricep exercise or 2 on their push day and think that is sufficient. However, research has shown that 20+ sets per week is the ideal amount for triceps, but most people only get 6 sets of triceps exercises per week. If you want to fast track your journey to big triceps, then you best be trying to get more sets in per week.

Your tricep activation in your exercises is just as important as the amount of sets you do per week. If you do the right tricep exercises then you get more tricep activation and a better workout in less exercises. So, if you do the right exercises for maximal muscle activation and combine that with 20+ sets per week (which is just 5 tricep exercises of 4 sets each in a week), then you will see huge tricep growth in a matter of weeks.

So, now we know how important choosing the right exercises is, how many sets we need, let’s now look at reps and recovery which is just as vital for your training.

Different exercises train different parts of the triceps

There are different parts which make up the triceps and they are trained with different exercises, however people usually just turn up and do a couple tricep exercises after smashing chest and wonder why their tricep aren't growing how they would like.

The long head tricep

This is the largest part of the of the tricep and is usually involved in most tricep exercises but there are specific movements which train it better. Usually, movements which are over the head movements, or movements where your elbows are in front or behind your trainyour long head tricep the best.

Examples exercises

Skull crushers
Over the head extensions
Dips

Medial head tricep

This is the short head of the tricep and it usually grows slower than the long head. The medial head supports the long head and lateral head and when trained well it does look very aesthetically good. Reverse grip exercises work well when training the medial head tricep.

Example exercises

Reverse grip bench press
Diamond push ups
Reverse grip tricep push downs

The lateral head

Despite not being as big as the long head, the lateral head is the strongest part of the tricep. So, if you not only want big triceps but strong triceps then your best of not avoiding the lateral head.

Example exercises

Dips
Rope push downs
Lying tricep extensions

A good workout plan would aim to target all of these different parts of the tricep throughout the gym sessions they do throughout the week. If you do 3-4 sets of these 7 separate exercises throughout the week then you will be targeting all the parts of the tricep effectively.

Use the table below as a guide for your tricep exercises

	Strength	Hypertrophy	Muscular Endurance
Reps	1-7	8-12	12+
Sets	1-2	1-2	1-2
Recovery	2-5 minutes	1-2 minutes	<90 seconds

Your exercises to get big triceps

Here are the best tricep exercises for maximum muscle activation and growth. Try to aim for a total of 20 sets minimum per week and focus on your form staying good rather than just more weight, then your big triceps will be on their way.

For 24 sets per week you can do 3 of the 6 exercises twice per week for 4 sets per tricep exercise.