1. Triceps: Straight Facts About Your Straightener
Straighten your elbow. You just used your triceps muscles, also known as triceps brachii. These muscles make up over two thirds of your upper arm and work with the biceps muscles, which you use to bend your arms. We'll avoid a Latin lesson, but you should know that triceps means three heads and that each of these heads (long, lateral and medial) performs a different function. When you lift something up over your head or push something away from your body or, in a very general sense, do anything that requires straight arms, you're using your triceps in a support role at the very least. The triceps counteract contraction at the elbow, which is made possible by the biceps.
2. Workouts: Looking Strong vs. Being Strong
Many people training with weights make the mistake of working the biceps while overlooking the triceps. From a vanity perspective, this makes sense: A potential mate can easily see big, flexed biceps muscles, while triceps muscles are harder to show off. If you want strong arms, however, you must balance triceps and biceps workouts. After all, triceps and biceps play an equally important role in arm movement.
3. Low-Impact Triceps Exercises
Cardio exercises such as swimming and the elliptical machine at the gym work the triceps muscles without too much strain on your elbow, making them ideal workouts for anyone prone to injury, incapable of lifting weights or wanting to keep off fat without building muscle. If you place importance on building muscle for strength, aesthetics or to improve athletic prowess, read on for more about weightlifting exercises.
4. Weightlifting Tips for Strengthening Triceps
Many weightlifting exercises build the triceps either as the primary or a support muscle. In general, any exercises that keep your upper arm stationary and extend your forearms away from the core of your body will build your triceps. These exercises include bench dips, triceps push downs, triceps extensions and close grip versions of the bench press.
5. Good News: low Injury Potential
Arm injuries typically occur because of physical blows or through repetitive use. Therefore, you're more likely to injure your wrists, forearms, fingers, hands, elbows or biceps than you are to injure your triceps. If you do have the misfortune of injuring your triceps, you will likely experience a common triceps injuries, such as a pull or rupture. These injuries occur during overexertion in sporting activity or during weight training.
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