Are you racking up the weight on cable triceps extensions but still are not satisfied with your gains? Are you positive you're training ALL your triceps? How do you target all three heads of the triceps muscle?
The three of us all have been there; pumping out tricep extensions on the cable machine with the weights stacked looking for gains. BUT there is a smarter way to do tricep extensions compared to the first clip in this video. The triceps are an interesting muscle group because each muscle inserts into the triceps tendon at the elbow, however each of them originate from a different location. When training for muscle hypertrophy it is important to target all parts of the muscle, in the triceps' case the medial, lateral, and long heads. The long head is interesting as It originates on the shoulder blade, not the humerus! The triceps long head is lengthened when the shoulder blade is posterior tipped, the opposite of my shoulder blade position in the first clip of this video when they are shrugged up and anteriorly tilted - you see the misconnect?
Another issue with increasing the weight when doing triceps extensions in this type of setup is what can happen to the position of the shoulder blades - people end up shrugging their shoulders! It would make more sense to do overhead triceps extensions to help target all three heads of the triceps, and to also work the serratus anterior (an important muscle for shoulder health)
In our opinion, the second clip is a better way to train the triceps. With the arms positioned overhead, the shoulder blades anterior tip and the triceps long head is targeted better! Also with the arms in this position, we can add a protraction movement at the end to target the serratus anterior.
*IMPORTANT NOTE* - protraction is a COMBINED motion of the shoulder blade into abduction, upward rotation, and elevation - the shoulder blade moves around the ribcage towards the front of the body. Protraction is DIFFERENT than a pure shrug of the shoulder blades straight up, this is not a pure shrugging motion.
Exercise Library