Lying Triceps Extension Across Face with Dumbbell

🎯 Triceps🏋️ DumbbellIsolation

How to do the lying triceps extension across face with dumbbell

  1. This is an advanced exercise and should be avoided by beginners.
  2. Lay on a flat bench with your head at one end and your feet planted firmly on the floor.
  3. Grasp a dumbbell in each hand with palms facing up.
  4. Raise dumbbells over your body. Your arms will be pointed towards the ceiling.
  5. While keeping your upper arms and elbows still, lower the dumbbell slowly over your face bending only your elbow.
  6. Slowly raise the dumbbell back to the starting position and repeat with your other arm.
  7. Note: Do not perform this exercise if your arms are fatigued, as you are lifting the weight over your face.

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

Everything happens at one joint. That gives you direct control over where the tension sits; the trade-off is that the muscle gets no help, so the load that feels hard here is a fraction of what a multi-joint version of the pattern would take. Slow, complete repetitions beat heavy ones.

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

What you need

Dumbbells let each side work on its own, surfacing a strength difference between limbs that a barbell would quietly cover for, and leaving the wrist free to rotate through the movement.

Every exercise using:Dumbbell

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

Related exercises

Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →

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