Standing Triceps Extension
How to do the standing triceps extension
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, your back straight and your abs drawn in.
- Hold a dumbbell in both hands, with your palms facing up.
- Raise the dumbbell over your head and slowly lower the dumbbell in an arc behind your head.
- Slowly raise the dumbbell back up to the starting position.
- Note: Keep your elbows close to your head during the exercise.
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:
- Standing Triceps Extension with Towelbody only
- Supine Chest Throwmedicine ball
- Tricep Dips using Machinemachine
- Triceps Overhead Extension with Ropecable
- Band Skull Crusherband
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.
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.