Suggestions for building tricpes strength

N

NathL

Cathlete
I have weak triceps and for like to increase my strength. Which workouts are the best for building triceps strength (I have almost all of Cathe workouts except for STS and Pure strength)?
TIA
Nathalie
 
Hello Fellow Nathalie:):)

As far as Building is concern, Here below are building exercises... For the building purpose you will need to
do it for 10 or 8 reps. if at any point you need to try another rep range do 12 no more.

  • Triceps extension with dumbbell, you can do this one side leaning on a ball.
  • Skull crusher with barbell.
  • Cross body triceps extension.
  • Kickback are good for shaping triceps. It is good for gaining that diamond shape:p
I like to do kickback with band cause it burns really good, there is constant tension throughout the execution of the move.
While you are strengthening your triceps, your muscle is lengthening. Use it as a finisher

Now as far dvds are concern: STS Total, x-train burnset and RwH.

All the best;)
 
Hi nathl,
To build STRENGTH (as opposed to endurance, or just gaining mass), you need to work in a low rep range - about 3-5 reps. This isn't something Cathe does much, as she tends to produce workouts more geared to hypertrophy or endurance. You could try something like burn sets, but lower the rep range, or phase 3 of STS, maybe slow and heavy (obviously selecting the triceps workouts for each of these). Pull ups, parallel bar dips, skull crushers and even very heavy conventional deadlifts all seem to work my triceps.

Best of luck
 
Justinef said:
To build STRENGTH (as opposed to endurance, or just gaining mass),
Click to expand...

Without aiming to turn this interesting thread into a war zone, I would like to REMIND STRENGTH are in 3 forms:
The three type of strength are acquired gradually through progressive overload!

Endurance : lifting up to 65% RPM
Hypertrophy: lifting from 65 to 80% RPM
Pure strength: lifting over 80%

Some strive to workout 3 type of strength to gain an overall strength without necessarily becoming a professional powerlifter
throwing barbells at home! Both endurance and Hypertrophy can be performed to gain STRENGTH...It is not just about
the look!!!! Strength does not revolve around performing low rep avoiding isolation because that is the "politically correct" way of covering the real reason of " personal preference" .Hypertrophy does not revolve around looks either! Just saying!
 
NathL said:
I have weak triceps and for like to increase my strength. Which workouts are the best for building triceps strength (I have almost all of Cathe workouts except for STS and Pure strength)?
TIA
Nathalie
Click to expand...

I agree with what others have written. I think Gym Styles are fantastic, as are the Slow and Heavy Series. There are always ways to modify workouts where you're focusing more on one body part than others. Say you're doing GS Chest and Triceps, lower the weight on the chest exercises and really put the heavy weights into the triceps portion.

Putting serious energy into mastering a variety of bodyweight exercises can really help. They just have a way of hitting the upper body muscles in whole new way- and it's quite tough to me. (After all, one never sees a competitive gymnast with bat wings, right?) Push-ups done with arms close to the body, on an uneven surface like a Bosu ball, and/or done on a decline can be great shake-ups to standard fare. You could always modify some or all of the push-ups in a workout to be diamond push-ups too, an exercise I love for triceps focusing. I find them to be absolutely killer on my triceps! Here's a form example:

http://dawnastone.com/uncategorized/fit-5-workout-week-5-day-2/

If you have access to gym equipment, there are many exercises that can help build the triceps in new ways. Dips done on parallel-style bars (where the palms are facing in, as opposed to their position when done off of an exercise step) can be a powerful change of pace, especially when you've got to support your full weight to complete them. The rope triceps pulldown is one of my personal faves, as I love the stretch that comes with it. Chin-ups certainly work the upper body muscles in whole new ways, including the triceps. Kettlebells can be a great addition. There are so many options today that help us each overcome our weaker spots, just keep trying new things and build on what you find enjoyable but challenging.

I like to be sure I'm training the triceps from a variety of angles, too. On triceps extensions, try using a palm placement that's different from your norm. The focus on what head of the tricep is getting hit the most shifts a bit depending upon if the hands extend and are palms up, palms down, or palms in. Sometimes it's the little things that spice up training and can help us beat plateaus.

I don't know what your current routine is or anything, but I personally find I have to use some form of heavier weight-training that's done in splits when I'm trying to really build strength and/or muscle size. Whereas total-body workouts done two or three times a week might help me burn more fat and produce muscle endurance, rather than make a lot of serious strength gains. (I also watch my protein intake and make sure that's adequate for building muscle, but that's another topic.) After I was past those first several months of training, I realized I've got to reach muscle failure at least once a week for the body part in question to keep seeing change and growth. As in, "I can't do anymore training for that body part today even if you paid me!" You could try doing a 5- or 6-day split, where you're training triceps alone or only with biceps (and maybe abs) so you're able to put full focus on them. If you've trained your chest and/or back already that day or the day before, chances are the triceps will already have been fatigued some because they're secondary muscles used to help assist the chest and lats when trained. This is just a sample split, but here's an example. There's a couple of Cathe workouts that are already sort of set up this way (S&H is one of them). Some can train the same part twice a week heavily and feel just fine, while others need a full week between this type of workout for adequate recovery.

M: Arms and Core; cardio
Tu: Glutes
W: Chest and Core; cardio
Th: Back
F: Legs (and maybe a few more triceps-specific exercises this day)
Sa: Shoulders and Core; cardio
Su: REST

Without knowing what your cardio training is like, there's also ways to make that more upper body/triceps focused. Power yoga, adult gymnastics classes, swimming, water aerobics that include exercises for the upper body, four-limb aerobics that use light to moderate weights for lots of arm exercises and rowing are all options that can force us to utilize the triceps in new and varied ways. Granted, these might build muscle endurance a bit more than strength at times, but then those two things are not mutually exclusive. :)

Don't negate the power of connecting the mind to the muscle as you're working out. Not only putting total focus on the muscle at hand as you're working it, but visualizing the strength and definition you want to gain from today's workout. Sounds sort of goofy, I guess, but it really helps!
 
Sorry if I offended you, nckfitheart2009, it was just that you'd mentioned the rep ranges from 8-12, so I thought I'd give a shout out to low reps and heavy weights. As I think you are saying, it's important to work in all the ranges.

Turquoiseyes- good idea on bodyweight stuff (I try to do 2 bw sessions per week-not to be underestimated), chatarungas are killer!
 
justine, can you help me understand why I would want to develop strength. I don't feel a need to be stronger for anything in particular. do lower reps offer more mass so I can look more muscular? i love meso 3 but always feel like im starving after. that said, i love the feel of using heavy weights with fewer reps.
 
Justinef said:
Sorry if I offended you, nckfitheart2009, it was just that you'd mentioned the rep ranges from 8-12, so I thought I'd give a shout out to low reps and heavy weights. As I think you are saying, it's important to work in all the ranges.

Turquoiseyes- good idea on bodyweight stuff (I try to do 2 bw sessions per week-not to be underestimated), chatarungas are killer!
Click to expand...

You are absolutely right about chaturangas! I've heard of people breaking toes over that pose, and I believe it. I do a pretty careful version involving the transition into that position, mostly avoid the jump. The holding part of that move with that serious triceps burn if held long enough- yowsah! :D I remember reading in Beryl Bender Birch's book about Ashtanga yoga years ago that she did something like 75 of these advanced Sun Salutations for a workout that really built "heat" up for her. I thought to myself, "No kidding!" I personally could not stand doing 75 Sun Salutations in a row (talk about boring!) Even if I was physically able to do it I'd pick just about anything else to do, but more power to her. (She was not, I might add, built like moi. If so, she might find 10 Sun Salutations gave more than enough "heat"!)

I've been trying to incorporate more yoga into my routine lately (like you, 2x a week), because I feel it helps strengthen my wrists better than any other workout. I've been feeling the twinges of tennis elbow, arthritis in my hip, Achilles tendon issues...yoga helps with all of that.

To get slightly back on-topic (y'all are so fun to talk with, it's hard to stay OT), Bret Contreras has a good bodyweight book that combines the actual exercises with detailed anatomy sketches showing the muscles worked. I LOVE books that have the pictures of exercises described, and all the better if it's color-coding the muscles worked for me! There's something about that I find so motivating. There's also a book called "Complete Calisthenics", by Ashley Kalym that's really good, full of unique bodyweight exercises. It is VERY advanced at times though, way more than I could do with my Jayne Mansfield-esque upper half unless I wanted to black both my eyes out every time...Nonetheless, great triceps work comes out of many bodyweight exercises shown in those books, as well as great agility and flexibility gains overall. I think doing some work on these compliments Cathe workouts quite nicely, depending upon the type of rotation one wants to follow.

I really agree with you, Justine, about the need for including low rep/heavy weight work. I think many women (me included!) tend to spend very little time overall in our training doing this type this work. That, and the slow-and-heavy type stuff. I was recently bummed to realize my ability to lift a certain amount of heavy weight for a few reps had gone down (similar to the 1-rep max test, I guess), even though my muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, speed, and flexibility have improved over that time period. While I've continued to work out despite the various life and pain issues I've had, I just haven't done much with really heavy weights in the last year or so. I'm not happy about my strength loss, because I've hit that age where it shows. I have had legitimate reasons to take it a bit easy (like the tendon issue I mentioned above), but I'm determined to do a S&H month this year, and I've started training split-style again, really getting myself focused back on serious lifting for every muscle group.

If I could briefly answer you, CeciFifi, I think it's utterly essential to focus on strength gains for reasons that go far beyond what is happening in our lives today. This isn't intended to be a lecture, I'm simply offering up what's behind my own drive to gain more strength, especially knowing that it's a reality if I don't work at it regularly. :) For one thing, getting more muscle is beautiful to me. It helps me look better, which is always nice! :D Feeling stronger at 35 than I did at 25 is amazing to experience. Ultimately, I try to do it in order to prevent the muscle loss many of us get after around age 35. It's also important to keep building muscle and strength to deter osteoporosis, bone density loss that can lead to fractures or broken bones, energy drops, and hormonal imbalances. The more muscle we have, in general, the more energy we have. Life today requires so much out of us all, I think this is important to note.

It's not even always so much about gaining strength sometimes, as it is maintaining the strength of youth. I can say that from watching my 80-year-old grandmother wither down to nothing in bone and muscle, becoming a completely helpless being in the last years of her life, I got a painful wake-up call about the horrors of massive muscle and bone loss. She was an extreme example, but her deterioration is not uncommon, and much of her torturous final condition could have been avoided. The many things we do in day-to-day life, the actions we can understandably take for granted today, can someday turn into impossible feats. Seeing someone struggle to get a breath even while an oxygen machine is turned on at 100% power...unable to even hold a checkbook and pen due to how weak their hands and arms are...to feel their spine crumbling under your fingers when you hug them...well, there really are no words to describe how pitiful and painful it is. To see someone lose that much cardiovascular capacity and muscular strength, when I know from experience and decades of scientific study that weightlifting could have completely prevented it all, is absolutely tragic. I lift weights, stretch daily, and do regular cardio sessions because I don't want to be like that in old age. A lady I admire very much, Joyce Meyer, has a saying that I love: "Wisdom is doing right now what you will be satisfied with later on." I aim for strength gains because I believe it's ultimately a choice of wisdom for me. (I don't say that this is what everyone has to choose, or that I'm absolutely correct, but it's what I think is right for me.) I don't take the strength of today for granted anymore. I hope this doesn't sound like a sermon, as that's not my intention! :) It's merely how I feel about lifting serious weights, that it's an activity I'm blessed enough to know about and have the ability to partake in, and I do so in the hope of having a long, healthy life full of energy and endurance. I say that knowing that I have to elevate the level that I'm working out at right now, too. It's a lifelong journey.
 
Hi cicififi,
You've got some good answers from turquoiseyes.
I'm assuming your question is about the benefits of the lower rep ranges in particular?
For me, working at low reps (I sometimes do 1-3 reps only!!) improves absolute strength without too much hypertrophy. I find I get very hungry, like you've mentioned, with super-intense training, and believe it's because of the central nervous system kicking in. Picking up 2-3x your own body weight is going to have quite an impact on your body, and a very different one to picking up say, half your body weight for several reps. I'm an advocate of training in all the rep ranges. In fact the programme I'm following at the moment (by dean somerset) has me doing reps from 1 all the way through to 15 within the same workout! Very heavy training also has a big cardiovascular benefit- nothing leaves me panting like a heavy back squat when the entire body has been involved (core, glutes, quads, calves, braced tight upper body...)
Cathe mentioned the benefits in a recent post:
http://cathe.com/is-high-intensity-strength-training-incompatible-with-being-lean-and-svelte

One more thing about absolute strength, in relation to the original post- it's very useful for correcting imbalances (eg weaker triceps compared to biceps can lead to tendon and shoulder problems).

Nckfitheart mentioned powerlifting - that's something I'd like to try in the future (nathalie, have you tried it? Fun?). I do have a programme designed for powerlifters, which I may well schedule in for later this year.
 
Justinef said:
Sorry if I offended you, nckfitheart2009, it was just that you'd mentioned the rep ranges from 8-12, so I thought I'd give a shout out to low reps and heavy weights. As I think you are saying, it's important to work in all the ranges.

Turquoiseyes- good idea on bodyweight stuff (I try to do 2 bw sessions per week-not to be underestimated), chatarungas are killer!
Click to expand...

I am not offended, I am annoyed with the constant chase on my post!!! You are free to shout for your"prefered weight load"
I am also rolling my eyes reading your quote above!

That said, my post did not go OT at all ---- It was the answer to the question. BUILDING was the word. Still you felt you needed to challenge
it. We live in a free world, So I will post what I feel is relevant regardless of anyone's training preferences, especially when it feeds "the myth":):)

The article below just says it all. Not everyone revolve their training structure obsessvily worrying about gaining the incredible hulk size --- sigh.
This IMO is again another form of body image issue.:)

http://cathe.com/is-high-intensity-strength-training-incompatible-with-being-lean-and-svelte
 
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CeciFifi said:
justine, can you help me understand why I would want to develop strength. I don't feel a need to be stronger for anything in particular. do lower reps offer more mass so I can look more muscular? i love meso 3 but always feel like im starving after. that said, i love the feel of using heavy weights with fewer reps.
Click to expand...


Good question Cecififi;);)

@CeciFifi
 
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