13 Movements You Should Do If You Want Your Triceps To Look Like Goddamn Horseshoes

There’s a reason why this muscle is called the triceps and that is because it has three parts, or ‘heads,’ as they are technically called. So when you drag your fat ass to the gym on triceps day, you should know what needs to be done to hit the trifecta.

Here are the three heads that make up the triceps muscle:

1. LONG HEAD – Also known as the inner head, it is the largest of the trio and runs down the back of the arm.

2. MEDIAL HEAD – Some people call it the middle head and the reason is self-explanatory.

3. LATERAL HEAD – If it makes you happy, call it the outer head. Whatever name you give it, this is the one that gives you the horseshoe look and is the difference maker.

The only way to take advantage of this new knowledge is to also know which exercises work each of the three triceps heads. And here’s an added bonus tip that will work for basically every triceps exercise – use a false grip (without the thumb). This will really put the emphasis on the triceps muscle and not recruit a secondary one to complete the rep.

There are a number of movements that work all three heads, or two of the three. So these are important ones to do and since there are enough to switch up in each workout, use a good variety. Even when you choose to repeat an exercise, use a different handle or grip.

For the long head, here are some choices:

*French presses

*Close grip bench press

*Skull crushers

*Dips

*Straight bar pushdowns

When you want to hit the medial head, these are the movements you should pick from:

*Close grip bench press

*Skull crushers

*Dips

*V-bar pushdowns

*Overhead triceps extensions

And the lateral head:

*Kickbacks

*Rope extensions

*Dips

A good rule of thumb for triceps training is to keep the weight where each and every rep can be performed in a slow and controlled manner. Leaning into the cable machine to do pushdowns that are way too heavy for you is a common mistake made…and you can see examples of that every day. The range of motion gets cut down to basically nothing when you do that and other than working on your grip strength, you’re wasting your time.

A little more weight can be done with close grip bench presses but when you’re doing kickbacks, not extending your arm all the way up is defeating the purpose. So pick and choose your battles if you feel it is a must to not use “pussy weights” for everything.