Cable Rope Overhead Triceps Extension

🎯 Triceps🏋️ CableBeginnerIsolation

How to do the cable rope overhead triceps extension

  1. Attach a rope to the bottom pulley of the pulley machine.
  2. Grasping the rope with both hands, extend your arms with your hands directly above your head using a neutral grip (palms facing each other). Your elbows should be in close to your head and the arms should be perpendicular to the floor with the knuckles aimed at the ceiling. This will be your starting position.
  3. Slowly lower the rope behind your head as you hold the upper arms stationary. Inhale as you perform this movement and pause when your triceps are fully stretched.
  4. Return to the starting position by flexing your triceps as you breathe out.
  5. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

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.

Every exercise for:Triceps

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

A cable holds tension for the whole range, including the point where a free weight would go slack. Moving the pulley changes the angle the resistance arrives from without changing the movement.

Every exercise using:Cable

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

Difficulty

Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.

Of the 99 triceps exercises in this database, 44 are listed at beginner level.

Related exercises

Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →

ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.