People prefer to train certain body parts over others… nothing wrong with that as we all have (and are entitled to) our particular likes and dislikes. Over time, preference will shape your physique. It also proves my point

that the longer and harder you train a muscle, the larger that muscle grows. This assumes that you feed the muscle and rest the muscle. That basic commonsense approach also happens to be basic, unvarnished Parrillo Philosophy. For example, people who love to train biceps almost always have good bicep development in relation to other body parts they shy away from. The Preference Principle holds true in almost every instance: muscle tissue grows in direct proportion to how much training attention it receives. If you love to bench press you’ll likely grow good pecs.

If you love to press poundage overhead, you’ve got the deltoid development to show for your efforts. Body parts we like to train and train a lot grow disproportionately larger. A lot of young bodybuilders love to train arms. Actually they love to train biceps. And to put a finer point on it, the young bodybuilders love to curl. Curls of every type and variety, standing curls, seated curls, lying curls, curls with cables from every conceivable angle, curls using a preacher bench, curls using one of the countless curl machines. Curl lovers usually end up with some degree of bicep development to show for their tunnel-vision approach. They’d have significantly more arm development to show for their efforts if they attacked triceps with all the vigor and gusto they use to attack biceps.

Triceps are 20% larger than biceps. If you want a big arm work the other side of the arm. Most bodybuilders train triceps incorrectly. The triceps are powerful and need heavy weight (relatively speaking) to trigger growth. A few sets of cable pushdowns or tricep kickbacks are not going to cut it. The triceps are bull strong and need Poundage with a capitol P in order to maximize growth potential. The vast majority of burgeoning bodybuilders spend way too much time attacking the ‘beach’ muscles: biceps, pectorals, shoulders and abs. It is quite common for beginner or intermediate level bodybuilders to blast biceps three times a week, spending hours each week sculpting biceps using a never-ending array of curls, curls of every type and description. Afterwards they might perform a few sets of tricep pushdowns, almost as an afterthought. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Don’t become a one-dimensional trainer who hits a few favored muscles while doing little if anything for the rest of the body. The larger issue is how best to establish balance in our training.

How should we allot our available weekly training time? Ideally this should have a direct correlation to a muscle’s mathematical percentile of total body mass. Why would any rational person spend 70% of their available training time on a single muscle that accounts for 10-20% of total body mass? At Parrillo Performance we always stress that the intelligent bodybuilder (or athlete) preferentially train their weak points. Once the issue of training balance is addressed and straightened out, triceps usually end up getting a bigger piece of the training pie. Triceps typically are allotted additional training time and this time is recovered from a proportional reduction in the amount of time spent training biceps. The triceps muscular configuration consists of three individual muscles. Perform a wide variety of exercises to ensure all three tricep heads are stimulated individually and as a unit. Triceps are tremendously strong muscles and in order to shock them into growth it’s important to first attack them as a unit with basic barbell and dumbbell movements using heavy poundage.

After subjecting yourself to heavy pushing exercise, segue into a series of light, precise isolation exercises that hit each of the three heads individually. The use of low-rep power movements creates additional muscle while isolation exercises etch in muscular detail. Don’t shy away from heavy lying or standing tricep extensions. Done with dumbbells, barbell or EZ curl bar, tricep extensions (done lying or standing) activate the heavy push muscles. During a tricep push exercise, all three heads are required to work together as a cohesive unit in order to push the ponderous poundage to complete lock-out. As a rule I recommend you use a full range-of-motion on all the tricep movements. It is important to place tricep training in their proper location within the overall training scheme. Triceps are used heavily and extensively in both chest and shoulder training. If you misplace tricep training and hit them on the wrong day or in the wrong sequence, tricep training can destroy pressing power needed for pecs and shoulders.

How best to train triceps? Generally speaking, an ideal tricep training placement is immediately after chest training. These two body parts flow together smoothly; the triceps are already warm from benching and incline pressing and by placing them on the same day as chest we give both triceps and pecs maximum recuperation time between sessions. About the worst thing you can do insofar as placement is to train triceps on the day immediately before training either chest or shoulders. Your pressing power needed for benching or overhead pressing would be destroyed. The best approach is to couple chest and triceps, then rest both completely. On every repetition of every set make sure to lock the elbows out fully and completely. To round out the optimal tricep workout, a Parrillo-style bodybuilder will finish the session with a series of fast-pace isolation exercises.

Use lighter poundage, higher reps and more precision. Isolation exercises should be performed from a wide variety of attack angles. Sample Training Split Let’s set the table: here is a hypothetical training split. I could think of a half-dozen variations on this particular theme. This training approach is a classic; first made popular by Arnold and Sergio and the other greats of the 1970’s, this split is known in bodybuilding lingo as a “3 on, 1 off, 3 on” cycle. The goal of avoiding training conflicts within the workout scheme is nicely dealt with using this approach. We want no compromising of pec or shoulder power. This program has a nice flow and symmetry about it…but few can make the commitment to train six days a week hard and heavy.

Day 1 chest and triceps

Day 2 back and biceps

Day 3 legs and shoulders

Day 4 rest

Day 5 chest and triceps

Day 6 back and biceps

Day 7 legs and shoulders

After chest training twice weekly, blast the triceps with two different routines…

Day 1: lying tricep press, seated overhead dumbbell tricep press, pushdowns

Day 2: close grip bench press, dips, tricep pushdown with rope handle

 

I would suggest you use three or four sets for each push exercise and six sets for the various cable pushdowns. Feel free to use forced reps or drop sets on the final set in each exercise to goose the intensity. Technique is critical. On each exercise be sure to lock the elbows out completely. Often I see bodybuilders bounce the bar on their heavy tricep pressing exercises. They throw the weight up to a point 3-4 inches shy of lockout and drop the weight back down for another bounced rep. The last 3-4 inches are where the triceps receive maximum stimulation. A hard, full, complete and deliberate lockout is critical on every single tricep exercise! Use of the E-Z curl bar eliminates wrist pain, a common complaint among narrow grip bench pressers.

You’ll be able to handle the most poundage on the close-grip flat bench press. Please don’t get sloppy and injure yourself. A slight cheat expertly administered is a fine way to provide a forced rep or two but a wild, reckless forced rep is asking for injury. Dips are an overlooked, underestimated and misunderstood tricep exercises. Too often the bodybuilder cuts the dip rep stroke short and finishes shy of complete lockout. Power through on the last few inches and achieve and hold a complete lockout. Arching your back as you lock out makes dips an amazingly effective tricep exercise. Once you are able to do 10- 15 reps using body weight, kick dips up to the next level by hanging poundage around you waist. Tricep kickbacks can be an effective isolation exercise if done precisely. Great care must be taken to maintain proper position. Do not go poundage crazy on kickbacks as too much weight makes it virtually impossible to target the triceps. Cables are wonderful for isolating the triceps.

Pushdowns are no doubt the number one tricep exercise in terms of popularity but great care must be taken to eliminate body heave at the beginning of the pushdown rep. More weight can be used by heaving to commence the rep but this defeats the purpose and turns this premier isolation exercise into a sloppy waste

of time and effort. Cables allow you to attack triceps from a variety of angles. How about using the overhead pulley cable for hi-angle tricep extensions using rope handles? Try one arm cable pushdowns and flip the hands over and do reverse grip cable tricep pushdowns for even more variety. Don’t forget low angle cable extensions. High angle allows you to pin your upper arms on a flat bench and push the rope handles forward. Use your imagination.

If you are spending a disproportionate (no pun intended) amount of training time blasting biceps, let’s reapportion some time away from biceps and donate the recovered training time to triceps. Train them hard and heavy using the lying or seated tricep extensions. After exhausting the push muscles, shift to the light and precise tricep isolation movements. Be sure and place triceps in their proper position within the overall training regimen. We want no conflicts between chest, triceps and shoulders. If you get serious within a month you’ll see visible results. If you want Big Guns then get serious about blasting the muscles that make up 60% of arm bulk! The best arms are balanced arms.

Parrillo Performance
(800) 344-3404 

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 8:32 pm and is filed under Bodybuilding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.