maratoolTriceps Overhead Extension with Rope
How to do the triceps overhead extension with rope
- Attach a rope to a low pulley. After selecting an appropriate weight, grasp the rope with both hands and face away from the cable.
- Position your hands behind your head with your elbows point straight up. Your elbows should start out flexed, and you can stagger your stance and lean gently away from the machine to create greater stability. This will be your starting position.
- To perform the movement, extend through the elbow while keeping the upper arm in position, raising your hands above your head.
- Squeeze your triceps at the top of the movement, and slowly lower the weight back to the start position.
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:
- Band Skull Crusherband
- Bench Dipsbody only
- Bench Press - Powerliftingbarbell
- Bent-Over One Arm Triceps Extension with Dumbbelldumbbell
- Close-Grip EZ-Bar Presse-z curl bar
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.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.