The best triceps exercises are the loaded pushes: close-grip bench press, neutral-grip dumbbell press and dips. At VAULT, direct triceps work is added in the AUX slot of the session, at 12 to 20 reps with 2 to 4 reps in reserve, and my first choice there is an overhead extension, because it is the only position that fully stretches the long head. Pushdowns and close push-ups fill in pain-free volume.
Where your triceps really get trained
A VAULT session is built on four movement patterns: push, pull, knee dominant and hip dominant. Every push is an elbow extension under load, so the triceps work in all of them.
When I count weekly volume, a pressing set counts as roughly half a triceps set: the pec or the shoulder starts the rep, the triceps finish it. Two pushes at three or four sets each is about eight pressing sets, so four for the triceps. Add two direct exercises at three sets and you’re at ten hard sets a week, the minimum effective range for most people (the full volume numbers are in do I need a personal trainer to build muscle). It’s why someone who only benches can have decent triceps, and someone who only does pushdowns rarely does. I meet both types at the trial session, and the bencher usually has the better arms.
The direct work goes in the AUX slot. We pair a main lift (A1) with a second pattern (A2) and a lighter third exercise (A3), three or four rounds, then B1, B2, B3. A3 and B3 carry your individual wish: glutes, core, a corrective for a desk posture, or arms. Sixteen quality sets per session is the rule (the method), and the arm work counts inside those sixteen.
The one piece of anatomy that changes your exercise choice
The triceps has three heads. The lateral and medial heads attach only to the upper arm bone and only extend the elbow. The long head attaches to the shoulder blade and crosses the shoulder joint (StatPearls, Triceps Muscle), so it is only fully stretched with the arm overhead.
That was tested directly. In a 12-week study, 21 adults trained one arm with cable extensions overhead and the other with the elbow at the side, 5 sets of 10 twice a week. The overhead arm grew 1.4 times more across the whole triceps (+19.9% vs +13.9%) and 1.5 times more in the long head (+28.5% vs +19.6%), despite lifting 34 to 39% less load (Maeo et al., 2023). It is one study with 21 people, so I don’t treat it as the final answer. The master’s in high performance taught me to read the methods before I believe a number, and this design holds up: same person, both arms, same twelve weeks. It also matches what I see on the floor, and it is why I put the overhead family above the pushdowns below.
The best triceps exercises, in order of what they build
1. The loaded pushes: close-grip bench, dumbbell press, dips
A1 or B1 exercises. They carry the load, and most of the arm comes from them.
Close-grip bench press. Hands just inside shoulder width. What I say on the floor is “elbows travel, don’t flare to 90”: elbows about 45 degrees from the torso, bar to the lower chest. Narrower costs you the wrists and adds no triceps work.
Dumbbell press, neutral grip. Palms facing, elbows tucked. The first press I give anyone new, and the one I keep for shoulders that don’t like the barbell.
Dips. Only if your shoulders tolerate them, and only until the upper arm is parallel to the floor. Deeper is where the front of the shoulder starts complaining.
Progression: double progression in a 5 to 8 or 8 to 12 range. When every set reaches the top, add 2.5 kg to the bar or one dumbbell step and drop back to the bottom. We find the starting weight with two test sets in your first session. The first answer people give me about how much they had left is usually optimistic, so I ask twice.
2. The overhead extension family
My first choice for the AUX slot when the goal is arm size.
Dumbbell overhead extension, both hands. Seated or standing, one dumbbell in a cup grip. I tell clients to “let the dumbbell go behind the head, that stretch is the point”. Elbows forward, ribs down, trunk braced the way we teach it in your first eight sessions, so the lower back doesn’t arch to help.
Cable overhead extension. Rope on a low pulley, face away from the stack, split stance. Constant tension and less load in the stretched position than a dumbbell asks for, which is why elbows tend to like it. This is the movement from the study.
Progression: three sets of 12 to 20 at RIR 2 to 3. All sets at 20, add 2 kg (or one plate on the cable), back to 12.
3. Pushdowns
Pushdowns train the triceps with the arm at the side, the lower-growth condition in the Maeo study. They still earn their place: almost nobody feels them in the elbow or the shoulder, so they give you pain-free high-rep volume on days when the joints are tired. Straight bar for the heavier sets, rope for 15 to 20 reps with the ends spread at the bottom.
I tell clients the rope pushdown is a finisher. If you add plates to it every week, the elbows end up doing the work. I stopped writing pushdowns as the main arm exercise years ago; they moved to the end of the session and stayed there.
4. Bodyweight: close push-ups
Hands slightly inside shoulder width, elbows at 30 to 45 degrees from the body. Skip the diamond position. It loads the wrists and gives the triceps nothing extra. A1 for anyone starting out, an AUX finisher for anyone strong.
Progression, easiest to hardest: hands on the rack or a box, floor, hands on two blocks for a deficit, then a plate on the back. When 20 clean reps are easy, move up a stage rather than adding reps.
Elbow and shoulder pain: the two usual offenders
When a client tells me the back of the elbow or the front of the shoulder hurts, I don’t need a diagnosis to change the program. Behind most of the complaints I see are deep dips and heavy skull crushers taken to the forehead: dips push the shoulder into a position with very little room at the front, and skull crushers load the elbow hardest exactly where the tendon takes the most strain.
What I do: dips become a neutral-grip dumbbell press or a landmine press, skull crushers become the cable overhead extension, and the pushdown stays as the volume exercise. Pull volume goes up relative to push volume for a few weeks, because most people arrive with that ratio inverted. Mild discomfort that doesn’t get worse during or after the session can usually be trained through with a variant. Pain that climbs during a set, is still there the next day, or changes your technique cannot.
Some things are not mine to handle. Pain through the same arc for weeks, pain at night, loss of strength, or a history of dislocation is for a doctor. In that case I’ll tell you to see one before we change anything.
Three claims you’ll read elsewhere that we don’t agree with
The previous version of this article made them itself, so I’m correcting myself too.
“The French press is a compound exercise.” It moves one joint. Compound means multi-joint: bench press and dips are compound, extensions and pushdowns are single-joint. That makes them no worse, but they can’t carry the load a press can.
“Dumbbell kickbacks for definition.” Definition depends on body fat, and no exercise changes that. A calorie deficit and enough protein do it, and training is there to keep the muscle. Kickbacks also have an awkward strength curve, no resistance at the start and all of it at lockout. I use them for the last set of the day, if at all.
“Triceps are two-thirds of the arm.” I couldn’t trace that number to a study, so it comes out. What stays is that the pushes train the triceps more than most people realise.
An arm-focused AUX block for this week
Drop these into A3 and B3 of a session that already has a horizontal press in A1. They’re written the way I leave them in your file for the next coach, because whoever coaches you next week has to be able to run them without asking.
- A3 Dumbbell overhead extension, two hands. 3 × 12 to 20, RIR 2 to 3. When all three sets reach 20, add 2 kg and start again at 12.
- B3 Rope pushdown. 3 × 15 to 20, RIR 2. When all three sets reach 20, add one plate and return to 15. If the load stalls, add a fourth set before adding weight.
Run it for eight weeks with the same two exercises. Changing the movement every session removes the only way to see that it’s working. The clients whose arms change most are the ones who got bored with the block and kept it anyway.
If you want this written into a full program with the pushes done properly, that is what our strength and muscle personal training is built for. The first session is a free trial at VAULT Training, Brandschenkestrasse 150, 8002 Zürich (Enge).
Frequently asked questions
How often should you train triceps?
Two or three times a week, and most of it through your pushes rather than arm exercises. I count a pressing set as half a triceps set and aim for around ten hard sets a week, which two presses plus two direct exercises cover. A separate arm day adds little for most people.
Are dips enough for triceps?
As the loaded push, yes: dips can be your A1 for months if your shoulders tolerate them to parallel. What they don’t give you is the overhead stretch on the long head, so add one overhead extension in the AUX slot. If the front of the shoulder complains, swap dips for a neutral-grip dumbbell press.
Which triceps exercise works all three heads?
Every elbow extension works all three heads; the difference is the stretch. Only an overhead position fully lengthens the long head, and in the Maeo study that position grew the long head 1.5 times more than extending with the arm at the side. One loaded press plus one overhead extension covers the whole muscle.
How many triceps exercises should you do per workout?
One or two direct exercises in the A3 and B3 slots, three sets each at 12 to 20 reps. More than that steals recovery from the main lifts, and those build most of the arm. If arm size is the priority, I’d rather add a fourth set to the overhead extension than a third exercise.