This exercise uses your bodyweight as resistance, working the triceps in an overhead position. This overhead position is the maximum stretch position for the triceps. The Bodyweight Tricep Extension can be done anywhere there is a horizontal bar or surface.
How to incorporate this exercise into your workouts:
This exercise should be placed close to the beginning of your triceps workout.
1. Dropping down too fast
This can lead to overstretching of the elbow ligaments. Go slowly into the stretch position. Going down too fast also makes it a lot harder to come back up.
2. Letting the elbows flare out
Keep them tucked in by externally rotating the shoulders before starting the exercise.
3. Not keeping the body stiff
To do this exercise properly without hurting your back you must keep your abs and lower back very tight and your whole body stiff. Failing to do so will put a lot of stress on the lower back.
4. Bouncing out of the bottom
It is extremely important not to bounce out of the bottom in this exercise as you can overstretch the tendons in your elbows. Change direction deliberately, not with a rebound.
1. Making it easier
To make it easier, move your feet closer to the bar or lower yourself down to your forehead instead of behind the head.
2. Making it harder
To make it harder, come up on your toes as you press up.
3. Keep your elbows in
Keep your elbows in tight. Don’t let them flare out. This is accomplished by externally rotating your shoulders (the inside of your elbows will be facing up) without moving your hands (see Common Error #2).
4. Stretch forward
As you get stronger, stretch forward as far as you can at the bottom of the movement.
5. What else you can do it on
Here are a few examples of things you can use to do this exercise on: bars, railings, chair legs, benches (duck your head under the bench and brace it), table edges, sinks, ladders, etc.
6. Using a power rack
If you don’t have access to a bar that can spin freely, use a power rack and a regular Olympic bar. Set the pins where you want the bar, then put the bar braced against the rack. You will now be pushing it into the frame as you go down.
7. One arm at a time
These can be done with one arm at a time if you’re very strong.
8. Neutral grip
To use a neutral grip, loop a towel or rope around a low bar and grasp the ends of the towel or rope.
9. Raise your shoulder girdle
Raise your shoulder girdle up at the beginning of the rep (like you are shrugging your shoulders) to eliminate help from the lats. Raising the shoulder girdle will force the lats to relax, placing all the stress (including the stabilizing stress) on the triceps.
10. Increasing the resistance even more
To increase the resistance, raise your feet up higher. A couple of ways to do this are benches, boxes or people. One of the best ways to do this is to hook your feet over the pad of a preacher bench. Some preacher bench pads are adjustable in height.
The hardest position is to do a close-grip handstand push-up type extension. This puts nearly all of your bodyweight on your triceps.
11. Drop setting
This exercise can be done as a drop set by cycling through the various body positions. Start with your feet elevated, then feet on the floor stretched out, then closer, then from your knees, then fall down.
This is a special variation of the bodyweight extension that is reserved for advanced trainers only. Not only does it require you move your bodyweight (which is more effective for activating muscle fibers) but what you are pushing against is moving around freely as you are doing the exercise!
This combination of body movement, extreme instability and maximum stretch is guaranteed to make your triceps work in a way they’ve never worked before.
Attempt this exercise only after you’ve become experienced with the solid, stable-bar version of the exercise.
You will be using a high pulley with a cambered bar attachment. Take the pin completely out of the stack - you won’t be needing it for this.
This exercise may seem easy at first but after only a few reps, with all the shaking and adjusting, you will find out just how effective unstable exercises can be.
Here are some pictures of the kneeling body position and the full-stretch body position:
How to incorporate this exercise into your workouts:
This exercise should definitely be placed first in a triceps routine.