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Well, last week I told you about my and I decided I should share my least favorite exercise. This sounds silly, I know. No one wants to know about a least favorite exercise, in theory, but these are my least favorite because they work so darn well. The soreness lasts me days. I did triceps on Monday. I still feel like I just did them. It's a love-hate things with these. favorite bicep exercise
I first learned about these thanks to the awesomest boyfriend. When we had just started seeing each other, he visited me and worked out with me. I let him lead me in a workout (he had been providing input on the workouts that my friend and I were doing)...and I regretted my decision. The first time I did these, I was sore for about a week. I don't think I had really been working out my triceps at that point (most of my exercises were body weight circuits or simply cardio). I now do triceps once or twice a week so these don't hurt as much--but they hurt enough still!
Skullcrusher (Lying Tricep Extensions)
For the sake of arguing, we can call this an isolation exercise (we can debate isolation vs. concentration later). I do 3-4 sets of 15-20 with a slightly lighter weight (20-30 lbs) so I can worry more about form. Form is seriously important here (I say that a lot but I really really mean it here) because you're actually dancing around crushing your skull with the bar.
How to properly do the routine
Note: If you really want to concentrate the triceps the way you get the bicep concentrated in 21s, have a partner place their arm behind your elbows to hold them in place (much like your knee does for 21s) or place a belt around your arms (I'll try to remember to do a video or image of this and how it works next time I do this exercise).
You can also use dumbbells to make the exercise more challenging. If you turn arm away from parallel in order to do the technique with dumbbells (in order to take the pressure off of the elbow), then the barbell is actually more difficult. If you hold the dumbbells flat for the entire motion, it is much harder.
I first learned about these thanks to the awesomest boyfriend. When we had just started seeing each other, he visited me and worked out with me. I let him lead me in a workout (he had been providing input on the workouts that my friend and I were doing)...and I regretted my decision. The first time I did these, I was sore for about a week. I don't think I had really been working out my triceps at that point (most of my exercises were body weight circuits or simply cardio). I now do triceps once or twice a week so these don't hurt as much--but they hurt enough still!
Skullcrusher (Lying Tricep Extensions)
For the sake of arguing, we can call this an isolation exercise (we can debate isolation vs. concentration later). I do 3-4 sets of 15-20 with a slightly lighter weight (20-30 lbs) so I can worry more about form. Form is seriously important here (I say that a lot but I really really mean it here) because you're actually dancing around crushing your skull with the bar.
How to properly do the routine
- Lie along a bench, your head just off the end, with knees bent and feet flat on the bench. Take hold of a barbell (usually an E-Z curl bar, but I use a flat bar) with an overhand grip, hands about 10 inches apart. According to Arnold Schwarzenegger, letting your head drop slightly over the end of the bench gives you room to lower the bar far enough to get dull extension of the triceps.
- Press the weight up until your arms are locked out, but not straight over your head, with your triceps doing the work of holding it there. The key is to avoid banging your head, but come close, and control the weight. A common mistake when doing these is to lift the weight up so that you hold it straight overhead, which means the bones and joins are doing the work rather than the triceps.
- Keep your elbows stationary and lower the weight down past your forehead, then press it back up to the starting position, just short of the vertical to keep the triceps under stress.
Note: If you really want to concentrate the triceps the way you get the bicep concentrated in 21s, have a partner place their arm behind your elbows to hold them in place (much like your knee does for 21s) or place a belt around your arms (I'll try to remember to do a video or image of this and how it works next time I do this exercise).
You can also use dumbbells to make the exercise more challenging. If you turn arm away from parallel in order to do the technique with dumbbells (in order to take the pressure off of the elbow), then the barbell is actually more difficult. If you hold the dumbbells flat for the entire motion, it is much harder.
Benefits of Skull Crushers
Intermediate, Lying down, Obese Friendly, Extra Skin Friendly,
Newbie-Friendly, Time Saving, Isolation