EXECUTION
- Assume a stride-facing position alongside an exercise bench. The inside leg should be forward and the outside leg back sufficiently far so that you can bend over from the hips to assume a horizontal trunk position.
- Place the inside hand on the bench for support of the upper body. The arm should be straight and directly below the shoulder.
- Hold a dumbbell in the outside arm with the upper arm alongside the body or slightly above and with the elbow bent so that the forearm is basically in a vertical position.
- Use a neutral grip so that the shaft of the dumbbell is in line with the trunk (forward-backward line).
- When you are ready, inhale slightly more than usual and then hold your breath as you straighten the arm in a vigorous action while keeping the elbow in place. In the end position, the arm should be in line with the trunk or slightly above.
- After reaching the uppermost position, hold for 1-2 seconds and then exhale and return to the initial position. Pause momentarily and then repeat.
- Execute at a moderate rate of speed without forcefully swinging the dumbbell upward.
- When you have completed the necessary repetitions with one arm, switch to the other side of the bench and repeat with the opposite arm.
TRAINING TIPS
- In order to place maximum resistance on the triceps, you must maintain a horizontal position of the trunk. If your trunk is angled with the shoulders higher than the hips you will be using some momentum to get the weight up rather than muscle force.
- Holding your breath during execution is very important in this exercise. Not only does it help stabilize the trunk so that you can have effective movement of the arm, but it also helps you to hold your trunk level. As a bonus you will be able to exert up to 20% more force.
- Since the triceps kickback involves all three heads of the triceps, it is important that execution be strict. For example, if you do not fully extend the arm or raise the arm slightly above the level of the back, you will not get maximal involvement of the long head. To ensure full involvement of the long head, do not use excessively heavy weights which prevent you from going through the full ROM.
- The heavier the weight that you use, the greater is the tendency to forcefully swing the weights at the beginning in order to get the dumbbell back in one motion. As a result, you will not get full involvement of the long head of the triceps nor the posterior deltoid and the ROM will be shortened.
- Instead of keeping both feet on the ground, some people like to place the inside leg full on the bench to support the hips. This creates a stable position but there is a tendency to relax which is not wanted in this exercise. You should have tension in the upper body to hold your position and to fully straighten and raise the arm. The tension ensures that you rely more on muscle force rather than momentum to get the weight as high as possible.
- To place even greater emphasis on the long head of the triceps, you can do the exercise in two parts. In part one, the upper arm is alongside the body and you fully extend it. In part two, you raise the straightened arm as high as possible above the level of the back. There should be a slight pause in between both parts.
- Be sure to maintain the trunk and shoulders level to the floor. In other words, do not rotate the shoulders or upper body in order to raise the arm up higher. Only the arm should rise above the level of the back.
- Another variant that is used by some bodybuilders, is the triceps kickback with both arms at the same time. This variant is effective but requires great strength to maintain the level trunk position while executing the exercise. You have no external support and must rely solely on the muscles of the hip and lower back to maintain a stable position at all times. Also, when using this variant, it is very difficult to fully raise the arms to shoulder level or above, thus your ROM may be compromised.
MAJOR MUSCLES INVOLVED
When the upper arm is maintained in place alongside the trunk or slightly above, only one major muscle is involved — the triceps brachii. The triceps is a large muscle covering the entire back of the upper arm and is divided into three parts — the medial, lateral, and long heads. As the terms imply, the medial head is on the inner side of the arm, the lateral head is on the outer side of the back of the upper arm, and the long head is in the middle upper part of the back of the arm. The medial and lateral heads are attached to the humerus bone of the upper arm while the long head attaches to the scapula and also has an action at the shoulder. All three heads have a common tendon that inserts on the ulna bone in the forearm. When the arm is raised above the level of the back, there is also shoulder joint hyperextension which involves mainly the posterior deltoid, long head of the triceps, and the upper latissimus dorsi. The latissimus dorsi is situated on the middle to lower half of the back and is involved only in the raising of the total arm. The deltoid is a triangular muscle having three different heads, one in front, one in the middle, and one in the back. Only the back portion is involved in the shoulder hyperextension action.
MUSCLE AND JOINT ACTIONS
In the elbow joint, the major action is extension in which the upper arm remains relatively stationery and the lower arm moves away from the upper arm until the arm is fully extended. All three heads of the triceps are involved in this action. When the straightened arm is raised above the level of the shoulders there is shoulder joint hyperextension in which the upper arm moves upward above back level. In this action, there is an additional contraction of the triceps at the upper end while the lower end remains under static contraction. This produces much more tension in the muscle.
SPORTS USES
The triceps kickback is a very important exercise not only for bodybuilders in developing and defining the back of the upper arm and shoulders, but also for athletes involved in many sports. When done in two parts, it is an excellent exercise for defining the long head of the triceps. The elbow joint extension and shoulder joint hyperextension actions and the muscles involved are needed in all activities that require downward and backward pushing, throwing or hitting actions. Thus, this exercise is especially valuable to sprinters who forcefully extend the arm down and backward when running and in the martial arts when executing various hits as for example, breaking a board or bricks. It also plays a major role in the racquet sports such as tennis when executing backhand strokes, and in baseball batting. Gymnasts require this exercise for more effective execution of many stunts on the apparatus and in free exercise.