Body-Up

Muscles worked

The prime mover is the triceps brachii, which straightens the elbow, and through its long head helps pull the arm back at the shoulder.

Even with a single joint doing the moving, the muscle is not working alone — the abdominals brace the trunk so force can pass between the hips and the shoulders; the forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first.

Every exercise for:TricepsAbdominalsForearms

How this movement works

One joint moves, and it moves the load away from the body. With nothing recruited to assist, the target muscle reaches its own limit rather than the limit of the weakest link in a chain — which makes this useful for adding volume after the heavy compound work, not for opening a session.

It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.

What you need

No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.

Every exercise using:Body only

These train the triceps too, using equipment this one does not:

• Cable Lying Triceps Extensioncable
• Close Grip Barbell Bench Pressbarbell
• Close-Grip Dumbbell Pressdumbbell
• Close-Grip EZ-Bar Presse-z curl bar
• Dip Machinemachine

Difficulty

Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.

Of the 99 triceps exercises in this database, 26 are listed at intermediate level.