Tone your arms by targeting your triceps with these 5 simple tricep exercises for women. Triceps are essential to get the definition you desire and the best thing about them is they respond to exercise rapidly.

Understand the anatomy of the triceps

If you did not already know, there are three main your arms are more triceps than biceps. In fact they are two thirds triceps and one thirds biceps to be more precise.

The lateral head is what we like to call the glamour head, because it is the one that people will see and admire instantly, as it is located on the outer part of your arm.

The long head is a connective muscle, and connects to your shoulders. It is therefore the muscle that helps your shoulder presses.

The medial head is the smallest part of your triceps,

The bright side is that no matter what exercise you do for Triceps you will be working all three heads, but certain exercises  can place emphasis on one particular head.

Tricep exercises for women targeting the lateral head

Bench Dip

These are super simple to do, and you can do them literately anywhere that has a chair, or bench (e.g. the park!).

This is a great video from LIVESTRONG.COM that shows you exactly how to do this particular exercise.

The key is to focus on feeling the muscle working. Do not use momentum, stay close to the bench or chair and keep your core tight!

Cable Press Down

For those who have access to the gym, this is one of the tricep exercises for women that really show results when done correctly.

The reason is because you can add weight safely as your triceps get stronger!!

This great image from Pinterest speaks a thousand words.

OnDaWagon Tips to doing this exercise properly

1. Start with the lightest weight
2. Focus on keeping your arms tight against your body, as the lady above is gracefully demonstrating.
3. Hold the press at the bottom for 2 seconds before coming back up.
4. Do not pause at the top, as that is you resting! Go straight into the next rep.
5. 15 – 20 reps is a good rep range for toning.

Tricep exercises for women targeting the long head

We like to think of the long head as functional muscles. Strengthening these bad girls will make you stronger for a lot of your pressing (pushing) exercises like shoulder press and bench press.

Two great exercises for the long head are Triceps overhead extension and  Skullcrusher (yikes!!)

Tricep overhead extension

source: Pinterest

This is simply a favourite at OnDaWagon. It is simple and very effective. The below is a great video from that demonstrates and explains how to perform the seated version

Furthermore you can also do this exercise from a standing position as demonstrated by diet.com

OnDaWagon experience tips:

1. First of all you want to keep the weight light to begin with.
2. Mentally focus on squeezing the triceps on both arms as sometimes there is a tendency to for the right side to do more of the work (if you are right handed).
3. Warm up with 2-3 light sets, to lubricate your elbow joints.
4. If you feel any pain near your elbow, STOP immediately and try another variation of the exercise.

Skullcrusher

This exercise is as dangerous as it sounds, because you lower the EZ bar to your forehead. SO APPROACH WITH CAUTION!!

That said, it is a very effective tricep building exercise. You guessed it, another great video demonstrating how to perform this exercise. This time its from punchsupplements.co.nz.

Tricep exercises for women targeting the medial head

All the above exercise will naturally hit the medial head, therefore you could just do those and see result in a few short weeks. But we have to tell you about the Reverse Grip Cable PushDown. Do these correctly, and you will hit the nail on the (medial) head!

Reverse grip cable pushdown

Here is good demo for this exercise from My training app. Which by the way is a really great app if you want to check it out. (Don’t worry we are not affiliated and won’t make any money from that recommendation)

OnDaWagon experience tips:

1. Form is the most important part of this exercise. Make sure only your triceps are working, so keep the weight light to begin, and focus on feeling your triceps doing the work.
2. Keep within the 12 – 15 range, we find this really gives you the burn, and activates the triceps.
3. Try them one handed if you feel like one of your arms is doing most of the work. Finally remember to drop the weight by half of what you do on two hands.

If you have found this article useful please share with your friends, follow us on instagram @ondawagon, and have a great time putting some of these exercises to good use.

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