Are you training your triceps wrong? You are about to find out in this video on how to get bigger triceps by implementing a triceps workout strategy that may be completely new to you. We look to the teachings of the late goat Mike Mentzer to give us clues as to how we may want to switch up the way we do our triceps exercises, and all of our workouts for that matter, to get bigger arms in the long run.
It starts with a declaration by Mentzer where he says that the best triceps exercise for growth is hands down the dip. Now, keep in mind that the dip also works the chest and shoulders. If you focus on the angle of your body when performing the dip, you can more effectively target the triceps or the chest while also hitting the shoulders in the process.
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That said, is he right?
Well, I want to go back to time earlier this year where I had an MRI done on my shoulder. After throwing a baseball when I was working with the New York Mets, I had torn my labrum and rotator cuff. Not only that, but I had serious degeneration of the shoulder joint as well. Up to that point, where I was feeling discomfort, I was performing a lot of pressing exercises to build the triceps that I have today.
What I liked about some of these pressing exercises, such as the close grip bench press, was that I was able to overload the triceps with a decent amount of weight. We know that overloading a muscle, especially one like the triceps, is a good stimulus for growth that sometimes we don’t explore. By using a heavy weight and allowing muscles that want to work together such as the chest, shoulders and triceps, we can build big triceps in the process.
The only issue was, with the amount of shoulder problems I had, I was getting a lot of discomfort in my shoulder while doing these pressing exercises.
That is when I remembered the lecture from Mike Mentzer discussing his favorite triceps exercise. I tried it and it was a game changer. I started using the dips for triceps training a great deal. Not only was it something I could scale using weight all the way down to negative only reps, but I was also starting to feel more comfort in my shoulder that had gone missing when performing other triceps exercises.
That said, I didn’t stop at just one triceps exercise. I come from a long history and background of doing more than just the one set or exercise that Mike recommends in his Heavy Duty training, So I performed some classic triceps exercises. That said, I used a method that would dramatically cut down the volume of triceps training that I was doing. I used a mechanical drop set shown in the video.
After a brief warmup, I started with a lying triceps extension with an EZ Bar. As soon as I reached failure, I started performing a JM Press or modified French Press and continued to rep out to failure once again. After reaching failure, I started performing a close grip bench press (with the EZ Bar) and repped out to failure for the final time with no rest between any of the exercises.
This torched my triceps and was all that I needed, in combination with the dips discussed before. On the dips, I was able to implement another mechanical drop set where I started with bodyweight, followed by assisted dips, and finally negative only reps.
Finally, I had to consider the final premise of Mentzer training that was largely responsible for the gains that could come from using it - rest and recovery. Given my limitations with triceps training due to my shoulder, I figured that now was the time to cut back the frequency of my triceps workouts and see if Lost any gains because of it. Shockingly, I did not. In fact, I gained much more size back on my triceps as a result.
What was once a scenario where I trained my triceps 2x per week, I was now doing them about once every 10 days or so and capitalizing on the indirect work that they would get with my chest, shoulder, and push workouts.
I highly encourage you give these lessons learned a try in your own triceps training and exercises. You may be shocked by the results - injured or not.
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Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS served as both the head physical therapist and assistant strength coach for the New York Mets. Jeff earned his Masters of Physical Therapy and Bachelor’s of Physioneurobiology from the College of Health Sciences University of Connecticut Storrs. He is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).