Jay Cutler was so celebrated for his enormous arms that he lifted no less than four Olympia trophies during his time in active bodybuilding competition. Now aged, 51, Cutler is still crushing his workouts and has shared the top three tricep exercises that he uses to keep taxing those arms.
Taking to Instagram, the legend listed his top three triceps movements for increasing your muscle size and overall arm thickness. Let’s take a look.
Jay Cutler’s Top 3 Triceps Exercises Explained
1. Rope Triceps Pushdowns
“Number one, always, always, always, start with the rope pushdowns,” advises Cutler. This cable exercise, using the rope attachment, will work the triceps brachii muscle that is located in the rear of your upper arm. The brachii actually contains three elements: the long, lateral, and medial heads and executing this pushdown, you will be loading up on all three components — so this is a seriously efficient move. Remember to engage your core and keep your feet slightly apart.
2. Lying French Press / Skull Crushers
“Now, whether you use a machine or you use a cambered bar, it doesn’t really matter,” explains Cutler, who points out that his preference lies with the cambered bar. Whether you call this move the lying French press, like Cutler, or refer to the exercise as skill crushers, the result is that the move isolates your triceps and allows you to reach a full extension. Owing to that deep stretch, you’ll put greater load on the long head.
3. Dumbbell Triceps Kickbacks
“Whether it’s single arm, double arm, make sure you guys work that,” enthuses Cutler, who demonstrated both variations of the move in his accompanying video. Triceps kickbacks is another super-move that blasts all three heads of the triceps, especially the lateral head. Some people prefer to kneel on a bench to perform these kickbacks much like with a dumbbell row, whereas other gymgoers prefer to work with the cable machine, but in any event, don’t neglect this exercise.
As with any muscle building exercise program, begin with some lighter warmup sets before aiming for 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps to keep you in the range of hypertrophy, and be sure to use a weight that will have you reaching failure, or close to failure, by the last rep in any pf your working sets. Now, get to work!
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