Women's Fitness | The Best Tricep Exercises for Women to Get Toned

The Best Tricep Exercises for Women to get Toned at the Gym

In the last few years, we’ve seen a surge in women getting into weightlifting and strength training, whether that be to build muscle or for the many benefits that come with it - like increased bone density, improved strength and posture, to name a few. Prior to this, many women have thought in the past that lifting weights would give them big, bulky muscles, without perhaps seeing the benefits of weightlifting for toning, fitness and health improvements.

As we all know, times are changing and so are the fitness goals of many women out there! Building muscle is something that has now become a priority for lots of ladies, but unfortunately the triceps tend to be forgotten about during workout sessions as they’re not as visible as other muscles such as the biceps or glutes. Here to explain why training your triceps is essential, as well as give us some great exercises to try.

What are Triceps?

The triceps muscle is a large muscle that covers most of the upper arm. It is made up of three parts: long, medial, and lateral heads.

• The long head attaches to the back of the scapula and runs down to attach at the elbow.
• The medial head attaches to the humerus just below where it meets with the ulna, and then runs down to attach at the elbow as well.
• The lateral head attaches on either side of where it meets with another muscle called teres major, and then runs down to meet at an attachment point on your humerus called olecranon process.

What's the role of the Triceps?

The triceps are responsible for two main functions.

• The first is to work with the biceps to extend and bend your elbow, allowing your forearms to move.
• The second is to help stabilise the shoulders. The shoulder joint has a huge range of motion, which makes it very unstable; the triceps help stabilise this joint and keep it healthy.

 

Why its important to train your Triceps?

 

• Improved upper body strength

The Triceps are one of the most used muscles in your upper body, although they aren't the power hitters like your biceps, or shoulder muscles, they work together with the rest of your muscles to give you stability and improved strength, so exercising and building your triceps will greatly improve your upper body strength.    

• Improved shoulder stability

The triceps muscle group works to stabilize the shoulder joint, which in turn can help to reduce your risk of injury both in your everyday life and during more strenuous physical activity like working out at the gym. Along with helping to keep your shoulders healthy, strong triceps can also improve the range of motion in your arms.

• Well defined arms

Though biceps are often more visible and, as such, receive more recognition in terms of arm muscles, the triceps actually make up two-thirds of your arm. Neglecting to work on this muscle will have a big impact on not only your upper body strength, but also how defined your arms look. If you want to achieve toned, lean arms, you need to incorporate triceps exercises into your workout routine.

• Improved vitality

Your triceps are put to use in a vast majority of upper body movements, from the more obvious like carrying and loading shopping, to the not-so-obvious like writing in a notebook. If any movement involves your shoulder, elbow, or forearm, it indirectly involves your triceps! Having strong triceps will help you to improve your performance and endurance for these daily tasks, making them feel simpler and less complex.

• Improved physical performance

Training your triceps not only gives you an edge in multiple sports but can also help to prevent injuries. The triceps are the muscles at the back of your upper arm and by working on these muscles, you can improve your endurance and power. This is beneficial for sports such as tennis, netball, and hockey. Not to mention, having strong triceps increases shoulder stability and therefore decreases the likelihood of sustaining an injury while playing any sport.

The Best Tricep Exercises for Women 

In this article, we will go over some of the best tricep workouts for women. We will discuss what is the most effective tricep workout, how to do a tricep workout, and how to get toned arms.

One of the best ways to grow your triceps is to maintain a routine that includes exercise, rest, and progressive overload. This means gradually increasing the weights you're lifting over time to continue seeing results. A healthy and balanced diet is essential for muscle growth, so make sure you're getting enough protein and calories to help your muscles recover.

We will start with a few things that you need to know before starting your triceps workout.

1. You should always warm up your muscles before working them out.

2. You should always work on both sides of your body (left and right) when doing any type of exercise for an equal amount of time.

3. You should always have a spotter when doing any type of weight lifting exercise so that you can avoid injury in case you lose control and cannot lift the weight anymore on your own.

4. Always use weights that are within your limits because if you use weights that are too heavy for you then it could lead to injury and muscle strain which can take weeks or months to heal depending

Compound Exercises

A compound exercise is an exercise that utilizes more than one muscle group, such as a squat and a bicep curl.

Compound exercises are a great way to get the most out of your workout. They help people build muscle and lose fat faster because they work multiple muscles at the same time.

 

Chest and Triceps dips

The chest dip and the tricep dip are two variations of the classic compound exercise that can be performed using only your bodyweight and a dip bar. Both exercises work to target the triceps, but the chest dip places more focus on the chest muscles. If your goal is to build bigger triceps, then this variation is ideal for you. However, if you find the chest dip too difficult, seated tricep dips are a great place to start.

The shoulder press

The shoulder press is a great exercise for targeting the shoulders and upper back, as well as the triceps. Overhead strength is essential for many activities we do on a daily basis, so this exercise is great for improving functional strength.

 

Varied press ups

This bodyweight exercise is perfect for targeting your chest, core, shoulders and triceps! Not only will it help you burn more calories, but it will also help you build strength and sculpt your upper body.

To do this exercise, start by bending at the hips and placing your hands on the floor just in front of your feet. Make sure that your hands are shoulder-width apart. Then, walk your hands out until you are in a push-up position and perform a push-up. Finally, walk the hands back to your feet and repeat the entire sequence.

We hope these exercises help you to achieve your weight loss goals to get the best results why not check out our article on How to make the Best Workout Plan

  

Dumbbell Bent Over Row

The Bent Over Row normally involves using the barbell, but it is more than possible to undertake this great workout using a set of dumbbells instead.

This great and targeted exercise, puts a strong focus onto the Shoulders, Triceps, Biceps, Abs and the middle Back. This exercise helps to increase core strength as well as improve your shoulder and middle back strength which can improve posture helping to lower the risk of injuries.

How to do a Dumbbell Bent Over Row?

Place one hand on a bench or step, and the same side knee on the bench. Keep your back in a straight position, pull the dumbbell in towards your abs and lower the dumbbell back down in a controlled manner.

Aim to complete a good 8-10 reps of this exercise. Rest and repeat 3 times or do a drop-set

Top tips with the Dumbbell Bent Over Row?

To get the very best from this exercise, try and keep your arms close to your side as you lift, and try and squeeze your back muscles as you lift and at the very top of the movement.

 

Isolation exercises 

Isolation exercises are a great way to focus on one specific muscle. By adding them into your workout, you can help to fatigue that muscle, which will in turn help you to build size and strength.

Looking to work on your tricep muscles? Here are some of our favorite isolation exercises to try. And if you need a little help visualizing how to do the exercises, we've included a link to a helpful video tutorial.

Standing Triceps Extension 

This simple exercise does a lot more than it looks its a great way to concentrate your training on your triceps, whilst the shoulder rotations will help build your shoulder strength.

It also has the added benefits of improving your core strength as you will be tensing a lot in your lower body and abs to control the weight. 

How to do an Overhead Tricep Extension?

This one is quite simple to undertake, holding a dumbbell in both hands above your head, lower the dumbbell weight slowly down as low as you can comfortably go.

Keep your elbows facing forward, and raise the weight whilst squeezing through the triceps to return to the starting position.

Aim to complete a good 10 reps of this exercise. Rest and repeat 3 times or do a drop-set

This is a great workout to strengthen them without buying expensive triceps training equipment

Top tips with the Dumbbell Tricep Extension?

Its all in the squeeze, try and squeeze your trapezius muscle in your upper back as you undertake this exercise, another way to dramatically improve the potency of the workout is by slowing it down, the slower the more toning and conditioning the workout will be

 

Straight Arm Raises

The lateral raise is a great exercise for targeting your shoulder muscle, it goes one step further though and be used to improve your traps or trapezius muscles, upper back, arms and also work your core.

How to do a Lat Arm Raises?

Lat raises are fairly simple to learn to complete, but they can bring a big range of benefits. Let see how you complete them.

1. Grab a dumbbell in each hand.
2. Keeping your core tight and your chest up, slowly raise each dumbbell up, keeping your arms straight so they are level with you shoulders.
3. Hold for a second and slowly lower the dumbbells back down beside your hips. Keep the movement controlled throughout.

Aim to complete a good 10 reps of this exercise. Rest and repeat 3 times or do a drop-set

Top tips with the Lateral Raises?

This one is all about speed and conditioning, try not to throw the weight up quickly but keep a controlled movement up and down, this is crucial to a good workout, unfortunately this is an exercise where physics really is again you, your arm length is going to multiple the force required by your shoulders.

Don't be afraid to go down to a lot lower weight, the key is controlled movements.

The Dumbbell Snatch

This exercise is a great way to work your whole body while also improving your power and coordination, snatches involve quick movements, that engage your core to improve your balance and require a lot of other muscles to keep the movements controlled, they are a great way for increasing overall strength.

Traditionally snatches are done with barbells, or Olympic bars, but you can easily do a one or two handed dumbbell snatch, we will teach you the one handed approach here.

 

How to do a Dumbbell Snatch?

With your legs slightly apart in the crouched down, squat like position, place a dumbbell on the ground just in-between your legs, grab the dumbbell and drive upwards powerfully towards the ceiling using your legs and thrusting your hips forward whilst trying to maintain a controlled movement.

This movement should give you the power you need to raise the dumbbell over your head and hold it in place. Keeping the dumbbell close to your body as you complete the moment will bring the you best results, slowly return back to the starting position and lower the weight back to the ground between your legs, before starting another repetition.

Aim to complete a good 8-10 reps per side of this exercise. Rest and repeat 3
 

Top tips with the One Handed Dumbbell Snatch?

Start of with a lower weight than you might be used too and try and keep a good form throughout the exercise, your going to be using a lot of other muscles to control the movements, so make sure you are warmed up well.

Snatches like any quick weight actions can be prone to pulling a muscle, make sure to keep good posture and form and be warmed up before hand.

Cable Machine Row

A cable row is a great exercise for targeting the muscles of the upper back, and traps. It is also a great toning exercise for the biceps and triceps, making it a great all-around exercise for developing the upper body.

How it differs from a traditional bar row!

A traditional row, involves lifting a weighted bar, such as a barbell or a Olympic bar with a set of weight plates, up to your chest whilst bent over at an angle, by using a cable machine instead, you can workout with increased safety as you don't have to worry about dropping the weight.

When using a cable you also only have to lift weight once your in the correct position.

How to do a cable row?  

The exercise can be undertaken seated or standing and can be achieved with just a single cable machine. 

1. To start, you'll need to attach an appropriate handle to the cable, you can use a triceps handle, a row handle or for the best results use a double rope attachment which will double as a great forearm trainer.
2. Set the required weight on the stack.
3. Face the machine, either sat down or with your knees slightly bent if your standing.
4. With arms straight out in front of you, take a few steps back until the weight is released from the rack.
5. Simply pull the attachment back to the middle of your chest with your elbows going past your body and level with your back, slowly and in a controlled manner release the weight back to the stack and then continue to another rep.

 

The Skull Crusher

Skull crusher exercise is an upper body exercise that targets the triceps, biceps, and forearms. This is a great exercise for building up these muscles in the arms and increasing arm strength.

The Skull crusher is a great exercise to undertake to improve your triceps as it offers targeted exercise.

Make sure you use a spotter to assist you during this exercise and only lift weights you are comfortable with lifting.

 

CONCLUSION

There are many benefits to having a strong upper body. It can be the difference between being able to lift heavy objects and not being able to. It can also be the difference between living a healthy lifestyle and not living one at all.

Having better upper body strength is important for people who spend most of their day sitting down at a desk. When you sit down all day, your back muscles and spine become tight, which can lead to back pain or discomfort.

Having stronger upper body muscles can help keep your spine in alignment so that you don't have to deal with any of those issues.

Building strong and flexible tricep muscles is key to this improved strength allowing your arms and shoulders to remain balanced through-out any weight lifting operations.   

 

 

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