Bodyweight Triceps Extension

What the bodyweight triceps extension actually trains

A bodyweight triceps extension is an elbow extension exercise in which you lean forward onto a bar, bench or pair of rings with straight arms and lower your head past your hands by bending the elbows, then push back to straight arms.

All three heads of the triceps brachii extend the elbow. Kholinne and colleagues examined the roles of the individual heads and found they contribute differently depending on the position of the arm, with the long head in particular affected by what the shoulder is doing, since it is the only head that crosses the shoulder as well as the elbow.

That is what makes this exercise more interesting than it looks. Because your hands stay fixed in front of you while your body travels forward, the shoulder ends up flexed at the bottom of every rep, with the upper arms roughly beside your head. That is the overhead position in disguise.

Maeo and colleagues found that elbow extension trained with the shoulder flexed, that is with the arms overhead, produced substantially greater long head growth than the same work performed with the arms at the sides. A bodyweight extension puts you closer to that condition than a pushdown does, which is a real point in its favour.

Now the limitation, which is equally real. The load is set by leverage rather than by choice. You change the difficulty by walking your feet closer or further, and the resolution of that adjustment is poor. More importantly, the ceiling is low. Once you can do fifteen clean reps with your body close to horizontal, there is nowhere obvious to go except elevating the feet, and after that you are out of road. Bodyweight triceps work gets outgrown quickly.

Setting up and executing

Set a bar in a rack at somewhere between hip and chest height, or take a pair of rings or a suspension trainer. Grip it with the hands about shoulder width apart.

Walk your feet back so that your body leans forward in a straight line, arms straight, shoulders stacked over your hands.

Squeeze the glutes and brace the abs so that the hips do not sag once the set gets hard.

Bend the elbows and let your head travel forward and down, past the level of your hands. The upper arms should point forward, roughly beside your ears, rather than flaring out sideways.

Stop when the elbows are fully bent, then extend them to push yourself back to straight arms without the hips dropping.

Repeat, and adjust your foot position between sets if the difficulty is not right.

The mistakes that cost you the most

Hips sagging is the fault that ruins the exercise and is almost universal after the first few reps. Once the middle drops, your body stops being a rigid lever and the movement becomes a strange partial push-up. Squeeze the glutes hard from the start and treat the torso as a plank.

Turning it into a press is the same problem from a different angle. If your shoulders start driving you back to the top, you are doing an incline push-up with a longer range. The only joint that should be changing angle is the elbow. If you cannot keep it that way, make the angle easier.

Setting the angle too hard is why most people never get this movement working. Start close to upright, where you can do twelve clean reps, and walk your feet back gradually over weeks. There is no prize for failing at three.

Elbows flaring wide shortens the range and puts the shoulder in a less comfortable position under load. Keep them pointing forward.

And cutting the range short removes the stretched position that gives the exercise its value. Pallarés and colleagues found full range training beat partial range work, and Pedrosa and colleagues found long muscle length training particularly favourable, both of which point to letting the head travel properly past the hands.

Sets, reps and rest by goal

Because you cannot select a weight, reps and leverage are your only variables.

For muscle gain, three sets of eight to fifteen with ninety seconds rest. For strength, three sets of six to ten with two minutes, using a harder angle. In a fat loss phase, three sets of twelve to twenty with a minute at an easier angle.

Progress by moving your feet, not by adding reps forever. When you can complete fifteen good reps, walk the feet back a few centimetres and start again in the lower rep range. Once the body is close to horizontal, elevate the feet.

Control the descent for two to three seconds. Schoenfeld and colleagues found concentric and eccentric actions produce comparable hypertrophy when equated, so this is about maintaining position rather than chasing an eccentric effect, but on a bodyweight movement the descent is where the hips start to sag.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy, and the triceps also receive substantial work from every press you do, so three or four direct sets a couple of times a week is usually sufficient.

Refalo and colleagues found stopping a rep or two short of failure produces comparable growth to going to failure, which is worth applying here because the failure rep on this exercise is the one where you fold in the middle.

Where it fits in your split

After the pressing, in a push or arm session.

On push, pull and legs it goes on push day after the presses. On a bro split it follows the heavier triceps work on arm day. On an upper and lower split it fits either upper session. On a full body programme it is useful when the cable station is busy. On a bodyweight programme it is the main triceps isolation exercise you have.

Its best use case is straightforward: you are training at home, in a park, or in a hotel gym with no cable stack, and you want elbow extension work with the shoulder flexed. This gives you that with a bar and some floor space.

Its worst use case is as a permanent fixture in a fully equipped gym. A cable overhead extension does the same job with the shoulder in the same position, with a load you can select in small increments and progress indefinitely.

Twice a week at most, and treat it as accessory work. The triceps are already getting substantial volume from pressing.

Variations worth knowing

The ring or suspension trainer version adds an instability demand at the shoulder and lets you change the angle instantly by walking your feet, which is the most adjustable option.

The fixed bar version in a rack is the most stable and the easiest to learn on, since the hands cannot move.

The bench version, with the hands on a bench and the feet on the floor, is the gentlest starting point for someone who cannot yet hold position at a steeper angle.

Elevating the feet is the standard progression once the flat version stops being hard, and is essentially the only way to add load without external weight.

The overhead cable extension is the loaded equivalent with the shoulder in the same flexed position, and it is the version to graduate to.

And the skull crusher, performed lying on a bench with a barbell or EZ bar, offers the simplest load progression of all, at the cost of a slightly less flexed shoulder position.

What the evidence says

Kholinne and colleagues examined the distinct roles of the three heads of the triceps brachii in elbow extension and found their contributions vary with arm position, which underpins the idea that where your shoulder is changes which part of the muscle works hardest.

Maeo and colleagues found triceps hypertrophy was substantially greater after elbow extension training performed in the overhead position than in the neutral arm position, which is the strongest argument for this exercise, since the forward lean places the shoulder in flexion at the bottom of each rep.

Pedrosa and colleagues found training at long muscle lengths produced favourable hypertrophy outcomes, supporting the deep bottom position where the long head is most stretched.

Pallarés and colleagues found full range training produced better strength and hypertrophy outcomes than partial range training, which is the reason to let the head pass the hands rather than stopping halfway.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy, which sets the volume target given how much triceps work pressing already provides.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found concentric and eccentric actions produce similar hypertrophy when equated, keeping the tempo guidance modest.

Refalo and colleagues found training close to failure is not required for growth, which suits a movement where the last rep is where position collapses.

Common questions

How do I make this harder or easier?

By changing how far your feet are from the bar and how high the bar is. The closer your body comes to horizontal, the harder each rep. Raising the bar or stepping your feet forward makes it easier. Elevating the feet is the final progression once flat becomes straightforward.

Is this actually a triceps exercise or a chest exercise?

A triceps exercise, provided the only joint moving is the elbow. If your shoulders are contributing and your chest is doing the work, you have drifted into an incline push-up. The test is simple: your upper arms should stay roughly parallel to the floor angle you set, and your head should travel past your hands.

Why does this feel different from a pushdown?

Because your shoulder is flexed at the bottom, which lengthens the long head of the triceps. That is the same reason overhead extension work produces more long head growth than pushdowns do. It is the most useful thing this exercise offers.

Will I outgrow it?

Yes, and fairly quickly. The load is set by your leverage, and once you can perform fifteen clean reps close to horizontal with your feet elevated, you have run out of progressions. At that point move to a loaded overhead extension.

How does this compare to a skull crusher?

They train the same movement, and the skull crusher progresses far more easily because you simply add weight. This version has a slightly more flexed shoulder position, which favours the long head, and it needs no equipment. If you have a barbell and a bench, use the skull crusher; if you have a bar in a park, use this.