One Arm Triceps Extension with Dumbbell

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

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:

• Overhead Tricepsbody only
• Pin Pressesbarbell
• Reverse Grip Triceps Pushdowncable
• Smith Machine Close Grip Bench Presssmith machine + machine
• Speed Band Overhead Tricepsband

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.