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C0LUMB0
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Here's cut and paste of some tips for putting some size on your tri's.... 
#1 - Train Heavy: The triceps often respond well to multiple low-rep sets, as evidenced by the massive triceps development many powerlifters possess. Coaches like Charles Poliquin have noted that the lateral head of the triceps in particular can be notoriously fickle and often responds almost exclusively to heavy loads. The take-home message: if the bulk of your triceps work involves a cable station, switch things up to include multiple sets of weighted dips, close-grip bench presses, and pin presses, all in the 2-6 rep range.
#2 - Change Your Frequency: It never ceases to amaze me how many bodybuilders train each bodypart once every seven days. I imagine the popularity of this practice stems from the convenience of working the same bodyparts on the same day of the week, thereby making Friday night gun shows a weekly ritual. Obviously this system “works,” but I would argue that if the aim is to bring up a weak point, then working it once every seven days is about the least effective approach you can take.
Weak triceps often require more frequency. This doesn’t necessarily mean more volume, but more frequent exposures instead, preferably with different rep ranges. If you’re still hung up on the same-days-of-the-week thing, a routine that trains triceps with biceps on Monday (nine sets of 4-8 reps) and then on Thursday after chest (five sets of 8-15 reps) is very effective.
#3 - Do The Opposite: This is a classic personal training trick. Often, when I pick up new clients who are not growing, I ask to see what they’ve been doing for the past six months – and then have them do the opposite. Nine out of ten will start growing again.
We all have favorite body parts, workout routines, and set-and-rep protocols; it’s human nature to repeat the things we enjoy and with which we experience success. The problem is that the body is highly adaptable, and as any strong dude will tell you, always playing to your strengths eventually stops working. It can also set you up for muscle imbalance issues and injury. Therefore, you need to change your routine, change the stimulus, and force adaptation.
#4 - Focus on Form, Not Weight: Many bodybuilders use horrific form in order to lift more weight. Don’t get me wrong–using a small amount of body English to complete that last rep or two of a gut-busting set is permissible, but if your first reps are shoddy already, then take note: you’re doing nothing more than reinforcing poor technique, not to mention greatly increasing the potential for both acute and long term injury.
For years, bodybuilders have yammered on about the “mind-muscle connection”, and while much of that is “gym science”, there may be some truth to the saying when it comes to stubborn triceps. Slow down the reps and practice perfect form, especially with the single-joint isolation movement. Really feel the stretch at the bottom of extensions, and contract forcefully on your precious pressdowns. In either movement, keep the elbows locked in place at all times.
As an aside, perfect form makes achieving “da pump” much easier. Many lifters scoff at the importance of the pump, and while it may be irrelevant for strength, it is crucial for hypertrophy, especially if the given muscle is a stubborn weak point.
#5 - Try Partial Reps and Lockouts: Board presses, pin presses, floor presses, and seated half presses are all powerlifting staples commonly used to bring up triceps strength, and specifically, to assist in the lockout portion of the bench press. The shortened range of motion allows for significantly heavy loads and can serve as a great remedy for triceps that lack thickness and mass. To maximize muscle-building tension, take a 2-second pause at the bottom of the rep but keep tension on the bar. Press it back up to a full, hard lockout.
#6 - Try Chains on Presses and Extensions: Adding chains to a loaded barbell is a way to incorporate what the Westside guys refer to as “accommodating resistance.” Extensor movements like presses and extensions are hardest at the bottom and get gradually easier as you approach lockout. With chains (correctly) hanging off the ends of the bar, the weight gets heavier as you progress down through the range of motion, thus mirroring the strength curve. Similarly, the weight “deloads” at the bottom, where you’re weakest, as more of the chain rests on the floor. This is more of an advanced strength training technique but is very effective
#7 - Target the Long Head of the Triceps: The long head is the largest of the three heads of the triceps and is arguably the “showiest”. Although isolating one head completely out of the others isn’t possible, it is possible to preferentially recruit the different heads by manipulating elbow position.
According to Charles Poliquin, “The further away the arms are from the belly button, the more recruitment there is of the long head of the triceps.” Exercises that fit this description include incline triceps extensions and overhead dumbbell triceps extension.
#8 - Stretch: DoggCrapp training is very popular with bodybuilders, at least as long as they’re able to stay healthy while doing it. One aspect of DC training that all lifters should consider regardless of the program they’re on is fascia stretching. John Parillo was the first to introduce this to bodybuilding circles, before Dante Trudel popularized it a decade or so later. Fascia stretching literally means expanding the fascia or connective tissue surrounding the muscles to make room for more mass. It’s about as enjoyable as dropping a 45-pound plate on your pinky toe, but the results are undeniable, especially in the quads, pecs, lats, and triceps. A heavy overhead dumbbell stretch can provide this kind of stimulation as can an extreme dip between bars, provided your joints approve.
#9 - Try Drop Sets: You’re probably going to do triceps pressdowns anyway, so why not do them in a butt-kicking fashion? Drop sets allow you to use a heavy load with an extended time-under-tension, a winning combination for hypertrophy. Drop sets work best with safe exercises that allow for quick weight adjustments; this is the cable station’s moment to shine. There are dozens of drop set protocols, such as 5/5/5, 6/12/25, etc; pick one and perform three sets, preferably as a finisher. I like to program these after a heavy chest workout for a fast and effective secondary triceps blast.
#10 - Supercompensate: This is one of my favorite programming tricks: beat the tar out of a muscle, then pull back and watch it grow. Those who have done a (successful) specialization program will report that they didn’t really “see” the gains until after they quit specializing. In other words, fatigue masks fitness, and therefore it wasn’t until the body was given a chance to recover that those hard-earned gains appeared. You can try this with numerous approaches, such as 2 or 3 weeks on and 1 week off; but one of my favorites is given in the sample workouts below.
#11 - Gain Weight: My apologies if this is frightfully obvious, but considering some of the boneheaded stuff I read on bodybuilding forums, I suppose it bears repeating. Addressing a weak point involves building muscle, which requires a calorie surplus. Combining your summer beach diet with a titanic triceps specialization program is akin to riding two horses with one ass. That doesn’t mean you need to eat like a fat bastard to gain muscle, but you shouldn’t be restricting calories either.
#1 - Train Heavy: The triceps often respond well to multiple low-rep sets, as evidenced by the massive triceps development many powerlifters possess. Coaches like Charles Poliquin have noted that the lateral head of the triceps in particular can be notoriously fickle and often responds almost exclusively to heavy loads. The take-home message: if the bulk of your triceps work involves a cable station, switch things up to include multiple sets of weighted dips, close-grip bench presses, and pin presses, all in the 2-6 rep range.
#2 - Change Your Frequency: It never ceases to amaze me how many bodybuilders train each bodypart once every seven days. I imagine the popularity of this practice stems from the convenience of working the same bodyparts on the same day of the week, thereby making Friday night gun shows a weekly ritual. Obviously this system “works,” but I would argue that if the aim is to bring up a weak point, then working it once every seven days is about the least effective approach you can take.
Weak triceps often require more frequency. This doesn’t necessarily mean more volume, but more frequent exposures instead, preferably with different rep ranges. If you’re still hung up on the same-days-of-the-week thing, a routine that trains triceps with biceps on Monday (nine sets of 4-8 reps) and then on Thursday after chest (five sets of 8-15 reps) is very effective.
#3 - Do The Opposite: This is a classic personal training trick. Often, when I pick up new clients who are not growing, I ask to see what they’ve been doing for the past six months – and then have them do the opposite. Nine out of ten will start growing again.
We all have favorite body parts, workout routines, and set-and-rep protocols; it’s human nature to repeat the things we enjoy and with which we experience success. The problem is that the body is highly adaptable, and as any strong dude will tell you, always playing to your strengths eventually stops working. It can also set you up for muscle imbalance issues and injury. Therefore, you need to change your routine, change the stimulus, and force adaptation.
#4 - Focus on Form, Not Weight: Many bodybuilders use horrific form in order to lift more weight. Don’t get me wrong–using a small amount of body English to complete that last rep or two of a gut-busting set is permissible, but if your first reps are shoddy already, then take note: you’re doing nothing more than reinforcing poor technique, not to mention greatly increasing the potential for both acute and long term injury.
For years, bodybuilders have yammered on about the “mind-muscle connection”, and while much of that is “gym science”, there may be some truth to the saying when it comes to stubborn triceps. Slow down the reps and practice perfect form, especially with the single-joint isolation movement. Really feel the stretch at the bottom of extensions, and contract forcefully on your precious pressdowns. In either movement, keep the elbows locked in place at all times.
As an aside, perfect form makes achieving “da pump” much easier. Many lifters scoff at the importance of the pump, and while it may be irrelevant for strength, it is crucial for hypertrophy, especially if the given muscle is a stubborn weak point.
#5 - Try Partial Reps and Lockouts: Board presses, pin presses, floor presses, and seated half presses are all powerlifting staples commonly used to bring up triceps strength, and specifically, to assist in the lockout portion of the bench press. The shortened range of motion allows for significantly heavy loads and can serve as a great remedy for triceps that lack thickness and mass. To maximize muscle-building tension, take a 2-second pause at the bottom of the rep but keep tension on the bar. Press it back up to a full, hard lockout.
#6 - Try Chains on Presses and Extensions: Adding chains to a loaded barbell is a way to incorporate what the Westside guys refer to as “accommodating resistance.” Extensor movements like presses and extensions are hardest at the bottom and get gradually easier as you approach lockout. With chains (correctly) hanging off the ends of the bar, the weight gets heavier as you progress down through the range of motion, thus mirroring the strength curve. Similarly, the weight “deloads” at the bottom, where you’re weakest, as more of the chain rests on the floor. This is more of an advanced strength training technique but is very effective
#7 - Target the Long Head of the Triceps: The long head is the largest of the three heads of the triceps and is arguably the “showiest”. Although isolating one head completely out of the others isn’t possible, it is possible to preferentially recruit the different heads by manipulating elbow position.
According to Charles Poliquin, “The further away the arms are from the belly button, the more recruitment there is of the long head of the triceps.” Exercises that fit this description include incline triceps extensions and overhead dumbbell triceps extension.
#8 - Stretch: DoggCrapp training is very popular with bodybuilders, at least as long as they’re able to stay healthy while doing it. One aspect of DC training that all lifters should consider regardless of the program they’re on is fascia stretching. John Parillo was the first to introduce this to bodybuilding circles, before Dante Trudel popularized it a decade or so later. Fascia stretching literally means expanding the fascia or connective tissue surrounding the muscles to make room for more mass. It’s about as enjoyable as dropping a 45-pound plate on your pinky toe, but the results are undeniable, especially in the quads, pecs, lats, and triceps. A heavy overhead dumbbell stretch can provide this kind of stimulation as can an extreme dip between bars, provided your joints approve.
#9 - Try Drop Sets: You’re probably going to do triceps pressdowns anyway, so why not do them in a butt-kicking fashion? Drop sets allow you to use a heavy load with an extended time-under-tension, a winning combination for hypertrophy. Drop sets work best with safe exercises that allow for quick weight adjustments; this is the cable station’s moment to shine. There are dozens of drop set protocols, such as 5/5/5, 6/12/25, etc; pick one and perform three sets, preferably as a finisher. I like to program these after a heavy chest workout for a fast and effective secondary triceps blast.
#10 - Supercompensate: This is one of my favorite programming tricks: beat the tar out of a muscle, then pull back and watch it grow. Those who have done a (successful) specialization program will report that they didn’t really “see” the gains until after they quit specializing. In other words, fatigue masks fitness, and therefore it wasn’t until the body was given a chance to recover that those hard-earned gains appeared. You can try this with numerous approaches, such as 2 or 3 weeks on and 1 week off; but one of my favorites is given in the sample workouts below.
#11 - Gain Weight: My apologies if this is frightfully obvious, but considering some of the boneheaded stuff I read on bodybuilding forums, I suppose it bears repeating. Addressing a weak point involves building muscle, which requires a calorie surplus. Combining your summer beach diet with a titanic triceps specialization program is akin to riding two horses with one ass. That doesn’t mean you need to eat like a fat bastard to gain muscle, but you shouldn’t be restricting calories either.
