Best Tricep Workouts 2026

This is the pair we'd hand to almost anyone. Do a cable or band pushdown for your lateral and medial heads, then do an overhead extension for the long head. Ten minutes, two movements, and your triceps are covered top to bottom.

The magic is in the split. A pushdown keeps your arms at your sides, so the long head stays in a shortened position and takes a back seat. Overhead work does the opposite: your arm is raised, the long head stretches, and it finally gets the load it needs. Put them back to back and you've solved the single most common tricep training mistake — only doing pushdowns and wondering why the back of your arm looks flat.

You don't need a cable stack. A resistance band anchored to a door or a sturdy post works fine for both moves. A single dumbbell held with both hands also works for the overhead version. Progress by adding weight or reps, regress by lightening up or slowing down. It's the most forgiving and most flexible format on this list.

If you're brand new and don't own a single piece of equipment, start here. A bench dip uses a chair, a step, or the edge of a couch. You lower your body, bend your elbows, and press back up. That's it.

What makes it a good beginner pick is the built-in on-ramp. Do it with bent knees and feet close to your body and it's easy. Walk your feet out, straighten your legs, and eventually elevate your heels on a second chair, and it gets genuinely hard. One movement, four or five difficulty levels, zero dollars.

The catch is shoulder position. Public feedback from trainers is consistent on this: if you let your shoulders shrug up toward your ears or sink too low at the bottom, bench dips get uncomfortable fast. Keep your shoulder blades pulled back and down, stop when your upper arms are roughly parallel to the floor, and you're fine. If you already have a cranky shoulder, skip this one and go to pick 5.

A high anchor and a low anchor, one band, and you've got a full tricep session in a bag that fits in a backpack. Anchor the band high for pushdowns, then anchor it low behind you and press overhead. That's the combo.

This is the pick for apartment lifters, travelers, and anyone who doesn't want to bolt a cable tower to the wall. Bands are quiet, they don't clang, and they don't need a spotter. They also get harder as you stretch them, which lines up nicely with the tricep's strength curve in the overhead position.

The honest tradeoff is loading. Bands top out on tension, so if you can already press heavy, you'll outgrow a single light band quickly. The fix is to double up bands, use a thicker band, or add a second short band under your foot for more stretch. For most home lifters, though, this combo delivers plenty.

If your goal is size, this is the classic answer. A close-grip bench press lets you move real weight with your triceps doing a big share of the work. A skull crusher then finishes the long head with a stretch you can't get anywhere else.

Neither move is trendy. Both have been staples in serious programs for decades, and the public feedback pattern backs them up: lifters who run these two consistently tend to report the best tricep size gains. The close-grip press handles the heavy loading. The skull crusher handles the stretch under load. Together they're a growth pair.

Be warned: skull crushers have a reputation for elbow irritation, and it's earned if you go too heavy too soon. Start light, keep the elbows pointed up, and lower the weight to your forehead or just behind it. If a straight bar bothers you, use dumbbells or an EZ bar. And if you train alone, use dumbbells so you can bail safely.

This one is for the lifters whose shoulders have opinions. You stand a foot or so from a wall, place your forearms flat against it, and press hard. Hold for 20 to 45 seconds. That's the whole workout.

Isometrics don't move the joint, so there's no grinding, no pinching, and no range of motion that aggravates an old injury. But the muscle still contracts hard, which means you can keep training the triceps while a shoulder calms down. Physical therapists use this pattern a lot, and public rehab feedback treats it as a safe starting point.

Is it going to build massive arms on its own? No, and we won't pretend otherwise. What it will do is keep your triceps active during a layoff, warm them up before heavy work, and give you a training option on days when the shoulder says no. Use it alongside a joint-friendly pushdown, not instead of everything.