Unusual Triceps Exercises

Your triceps function to extend your arm, or straighten your elbow. Your triceps function every time you push, throw or shove something, and provide stability to your elbow joint. Many common exercises, such as pressing exercises and push downs, work your triceps. Variety, however, can provide additional training stimulus or simply a pleasant change of pace. Consult a health care professional before beginning any strength-training program.

Elbows-Out Triceps Extension

This exercise has been popularized by power lifter Dave Tate, who has bench pressed more than 600 lbs. in competition. While lying on your back on a bench, hold dumbbells overhead with your arms fully extended. While keeping the dumbbells in contact with each other through the entire range of motion, lower the dumbbells to your chest while pushing your elbows out to your sides. At the bottom of the repetition, the dumbbells should be touching each other. Extend along the same path by pushing the dumbbells up and pulling your elbows in.

Pressing With Bands

While the bench press works your triceps and the close grip bench press works them even more, there is a way to increase the workload on your triceps. Attach one end of resistance bands to the base of the bench you are lying on and attach the other ends to the barbell. You should have a band on each end of the bar and equal tension on both ends. You must have a spotter for this exercise, as the bands will distort the bar path until you are used to them. As you push the bar closer to full extension, the resistance from the bands increases, forcing your triceps to work harder.

Pin Presses

Pin presses require you to bench press in a power rack, which allows you to adjust the pin settings on the rack and complete only the top third of your bench press. Set the pins so the barbell starts at least two-thirds of the way up and you have to complete only the last third of your bench press. You can use more weight on this exercise, as your leverage is better. Your hands should be close together, preferably closer than shoulder-width. This exercise can be trained very heavily, and some power lifters work up to heavy single-repetition lifts in training.

Floor Press

The floor press is performed just like the bench press, except you do it while lying on the floor. Use dumbbells instead of a barbell. Your arms lower until your upper arm is flat on the ground. This is another partial-range exercise that allows you to heavily stress your triceps. This exercise should be performed in sets of at least eight repetitions. The partial range-of-motion combined with the lack of contribution from other muscles forces your triceps to do more of the work than they would during a regular dumbbell bench press. This exercise is performed exactly like the bench press with the only difference being the limited range of motion because your arms stop when they hit the floor.