Skull crushers are a form of exercise designed to work the tricep muscles of your body. The exercise gets its name because if the lifter drops the weight, he would most likely injure his skull because of the positioning of the weights in relation to the head. All skull-crusher exercises are performed from a flat back, but different pieces of exercise equipment can be utilized to perform this type of exercise.
Single-Arm Dumbbell
Grab a dumbbell in one hand and lie with your back flat on a bench. Raise the arm with the dumbbell so that your shoulder, elbow and wrist form a line perpendicular to the floor. Turn your hand so that your thumb is pointing behind you. Bend at your elbow until your forearm is parallel to the floor. Keep your upper arm and shoulder stationary. Once your forearm is parallel, extend your arm utilizing your tricep muscles until you reach full extension. The single-arm dumbbell skull crusher requires more dynamic stabilization at the shoulder joint than any of the other skull-crusher variations. Being a single-arm exercise, the tricep will also require more neural drive to lift the weight. This is great for teaching independent strength of the arm, which is crucial for sports performance.
Double-Arm Dumbbell
The double-arm dumbbell skull crusher is performed the exact same way as the single arm dumbbell skull crusher, but each hand now holds a dumbbell. Again, the benefits of independent arm action and stabilization are required, but the key difference is that you will need less neural drive to move the weight. This means you should be able to lift heavier weights. This can lead to increased muscular growth of the tricep.
EZ-Bar
EZ-Bar skull crushers utilize the EZ-Bar, a cambered bar that has distinct bends, allowing for more natural hand placement than a regular barbell for this particular exercise. Grip the EZ-Bar so that your arms are exactly shoulder width apart, then lie flat on the bench. As with all skull crusher exercises, bend your arms so that your forearms are parallel to the floor while keeping your elbow, shoulder and upper arm perpendicular to the floor. Once parallel, again return your arms to full extension. This version of the skull crusher is primarily associated with the development of muscular strength and growth, partly because of a decreased need to stabilize the weight, so the lifter can handle heavier loads and put more focus on the act of lifting.
Cambered Bar Cable Crusher
This exercise is a modified version of the EZ-Bar skull crusher and requires both a low-set cable tower and a cambered bar attachment piece. Place the bench one to two feet in front of the low-set cable tower and attach the cambered bar to the low-set pulley on the tower. Lie with your back flat on the bench, reach back and grab the cambered bar with an overhand grip. Raise your arms up so that they are straight and perpendicular to the floor, then slowly lower your forearms to a parallel level with the floor. After that, fully extend your arms and repeat.
Pulley vs. Freeweights
Although cambered pulley crushers require more equipment, it does the best job of training the tricep through the full range of motion. With dumbbells and barbells, as you get closer to extension, your triceps have less resistance to overcome as gravity's effects diminish when the weight becomes fully supported by your arms. A cable pulley changes this because the resistance comes from the weight stack and not the cambered bar you are moving. The easiest way to feel the difference is to get into the initial position for the cambered crusher and the EZ-Bar crusher. You won't feel any tension in your tricep during the EZ-Bar until you begin to bend your arms back, but during the cambered cable crusher, tension will already be on the tricep to keep your arms from bending down. It is important to vary your workout, so don't rely on just pulley-based crushers or freeweight crushers. Use a combination of both for maximal benefit.
Member Comments