maratoolTriceps Pushdown with Rope and Cable
How to do the triceps pushdown with rope and cable
- Stand in front of a cable machine and attach a rope to a high pulley.
- Grasp the rope with palms facing down.
- Draw your abs in and keep your back straight.
- Keeping your elbows at your side push the rope down towards your thighs, if possible “split” the rope apart at the bottom.
- Pause for a moment and then return to the starting position.
- Note: You may want to stager one foot in front of the other for a better stance.
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
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
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.