While some joints and bones go to the side, you lose inches of arm circumference! Correct the mistakes, return to the gym and try again.
There are two dangerous viruses that you can pick up at the gym, and both are ruining your workouts. The first is transmitted through the bar and exercise equipment from a guy with a cold who, instead of lying down at home, dragged himself into the gym to share germs. The second is infected when they adopt the wrong technique for performing the exercise and conscientiously copy other people’s mistakes.

Poor technique sticks to the athlete like an annoying insect and then is passed on to others. No doses of zinc or vitamin C can help here, radical measures are needed. With the help of Brendan Fokken, 2015 IFBB North American Men’s Fitness Champion, I’m going to break down the triceps training mistakes that many people make without realizing it.

1. Too narrow grip in the presses
I bet this multi-joint movement is part of your triceps workout, but have you ever thought about the optimal grip width? I’ve seen hundreds of athletes put their hands on the bar close to each other as if it improves muscle activation. Sorry, close grip bench presses are not diamond pushups.

Yes, triceps activation increases when you move your arms inward relative to a classic bench press grip, but there is no evidence that a super close grip recruits muscles even more. What is exacerbated is the strain on the wrists and elbow joints.
“When I grab the bar with a too narrow grip, the movement becomes awkward; most of the energy has to be spent on ensuring that the bar does not dangle from side to side, says Fokken. “It creates unnecessary pressure on the shoulders and reduces the load on the triceps, which is counterproductive.”

Solution. Try a 25-35 cm grip or slightly less than shoulder width apart. Then experiment with the position of the hands to find the best option for you.

2. Movement of the elbows in the abduction of the dumbbell in the slope
The error is common even for experienced athletes, and this is what it looks like. From the “arm straight, elbow close to the body” position, you allow the elbow to drop behind the forearm as the dumbbell moves down. And when you raise your hand, simultaneously pull up and the elbow. This little dance turns the classic single-joint movement for the lateral head of the triceps into an exercise in which deltas also participate.
Solution. If you want to perform the isolation movement correctly, lock your elbows at your sides so that your upper arm is parallel to the floor and don’t let them move. With the dumbbell arm at a 90-degree angle and the elbow acting as a door hinge, contract your triceps to fully extend your arm. When lowering the projectile, do not let your elbow go down.

“I am very careful about the position of the arm – especially the elbow – relative to the body, and I try to work so that only the triceps contract,” says Fokken. – Do the exercise in front of the mirror and watch the movement; start with a light weight to hone the shape. People too often grab heavy dumbbells, and because of this, they perform the movement incorrectly. ”

3. Full extension of the elbows in push-ups in the simulator
When it comes to range of motion, triceps exercises are easy to get wrong. You can hold the dumbbells in the bent over abduction or the rope in the press on the upper block at full extension of the arm, that is, in the position of peak contraction, and get a great study of the triceps. But in movements like push-ups in the simulator, everything must be done exactly the opposite. Extending your arms in push-ups in the simulator to the end, you transfer the weight to the bones, the muscle tension decreases sharply, and the joint is under serious pressure.

Of course, for most people, the elbow will not crack under such a load, but if you have sore elbow joints, do not exacerbate the problem by fully extending your arm.
“When you extend to the end, you get the maximum contact area between the articular surfaces, which is completely useless if you use a relatively heavy weight,” says Guillermo Escalante, sports physician, specialist in strength and functional training.

Solution. So where is the point of “diminishing returns”? Escalante warns that the last 10 degrees of extension give the maximum pressure on the articular surfaces, that is, the two bones are in maximum contact with each other. He recommends stopping shortly before or right at this 10-degree point.

4. Elbow camber in overhead extensions
All single-joint triceps exercises have one thing in common: elbow extension. From a position of strong flexion (the muscle is stretched), the elbow the joint is fully extended (the muscle is contracted). Pretty simple, right? But if your elbows flare out to the sides in a move like an overhead extension, you lose triceps isolation and decrease efficiency, once again turning a single-joint exercise into a multi-joint exercise.

The collapse of the elbows allows the deltoid and pectoral muscles to get involved in the work, which reduces the load on the triceps. To reduce stress on your delts and chest, keep your elbows tucked in.
Solution. The bad news is that it’s hard to keep your elbows in place in overhead extensions, especially if you’re doing them with one dumbbell. Elbows naturally go to the sides, and your task is to prevent this in every possible way.

Using an EZ bar with a slightly wider grip will often make this easier, but you still need to be mindful of your elbows and keep an eye on their position.

5. Shoulder movements in the French press
Elbow flare isn’t the only way to deprive a single-joint triceps exercise of its isolating effect. The French press, or lying down triceps extension, involves movement in only one group of joints. But in order to look tough and lift a lot of weight, athletes often let their shoulder deviate from the vertical line.

In the eccentric part of the movement, as the bar approaches your forehead, your shoulders will want to lean back from a slight shift to a pullover-like eccentric phase. At this point, the shoulders, chest, and even the lats come into play, and the inclusion of these muscles is tantamount to a signal to reduce the stimulation of the triceps.
With the French press, it’s hard to know that you’re making this mistake, so it makes sense to ask a partner or coach to oversee your technique. What’s more, it often helps to have someone physically hold your shoulders in place while you do a few reps, so you get a feel for how to do them correctly.

Solution. The main idea is that for the best stimulation of the triceps, single-joint movements should be limited to only one joint. And if that means unloading the bar, so be it.

6. Elbows go forward in presses on the upper block
It may seem that the presses (extensions) on the upper block are a fairly simple exercise, you can do it with your eyes closed and get your portion of pumping. But many trainees do this traditional movement. wrong, because they do not pay as much attention to the eccentric phase as to the concentric.

I’m not only talking about speed control in the negative phase, although this is also important. As you approach the final stretch of the range of motion, you can allow the weight to pull your arms forward and up, causing your elbows to move out of place at your sides. Here again we see a movement in the shoulder joint, which turns a single-joint movement into a multi-joint one. All the extra work you have to do to get your elbows back on every rep is a waste of time and effort.
“This exercise is often done incorrectly,” says Focken. “As with the bent-over dumbbell abduction, the elbow moves back and forth on each rep, which makes the movement multi-joint and includes the shoulders in the equation.”

Solution. If you can not do the exercise according to all the rules, then you put too much weight. Instead, try to keep the movement clean—keep your elbows close to your body throughout the set, completing the eccentric stage before your elbows reach forward.

Focus on the negative phase as much as the positive phase and you will get the best pump no matter what percentage of the cargo stack you use.