Why everyone is wrong about Triceps Long Head training

Now that’s a “horseshoe”!

TLDR;

1. The majority of multi-joint push exercises do not train Triceps Long Head.
2. The only ones that probably do are Dips and Pullover (modified).
3. ALL of the single-joint elbow extension exercises train Triceps Long Head.
4. You can target Long Head slightly more by keeping your arms down.
5. The muscle should be trained near failure but with a limited weekly frequency.

Part 1: The basics (for the gym noobs)

How many times have you heard that to train your Triceps Long Head (LH), you need to do elbow extensions above your head, or at the very least halfway there with Lying Triceps Extension (aka Skullcrusher)? And how many times have you been told that Cable Triceps Pushdown are for the Lateral Head? Too many, I think.

Well, you were told wrong. But let me start from the beginning. First, what exactly is Triceps Long Head? Well, nothing special, just a biarticular (crossing multiple joints) muscle in a three muscle group of your Triceps Brachii (TB). The other two, Lateral and Medial Heads are monoarticular (cross only one joint).

Fig. 1 Gross, I know, but you need to know your anatomy before you talk about which exercise works what.

So, what’s the difference between these single-joint and multi-joint muscle types? To put it simply, when a muscle crosses multiple joints, that means it is capable of multiple actions. In the case of Triceps LH, not only does it extend your elbow (make it straight), but it can also extend your shoulder (bring the arm back down from a raised position). The human body has many such muscles. Funny thing though, it seems that in certain exercises these muscles do not seem to respond very well to training. Here are a few examples:

1. Hamstrings (rear thigh muscles) — extends your hips, but flexes (bends) your knees. Now if you’re trying to Squat, would you want this muscle to be active? A reminder: Squat on the way up extends BOTH hips and knees. So, if hamstrings were highly active, you wouldn’t be able to stand up. NOTE: they are active to a certain extent, mainly to stabilize the joints.

2. Rectus Femoris (front thigh muscle) — the opposite of Hamstrings, flexes your hips but extends your knees. Also does not work that much when performing Squat-like movements.

Fig 2 (left). The effect of squatting after a single workout. Very limited Hamstrings and Rectus Femoris activity. Fig 3 (right). Squat has a very limited effect on Hamstrings and Rectus Femoris growth.

Could it be that Triceps LH is the same? After all, it is a multi-joint muscle. Well, let’s see. As I mentioned before, it extends BOTH shoulder and elbow, so that’s already different than the leg muscles in the previous examples. But what happens when you press something above your head? Well, you still extend your elbow, but… flex your shoulder! So, effectively the same thing as with the Squat, just in reverse. Given this, it’s probably safe to assume that Triceps LH probably does not work very well with exercises that flex the shoulder and extend the elbow. Especially if the arms are above your head.

But why is that? The primary reason: a multi-joint muscle doesn’t change its length (much). While it lengthens on one end, it shortens on another, thus staying the same and only “transferring” the produced force (which is usually not a lot and is for stabilizing purposes only) from one joint to another.

Do you know what gets a massive activation in the Triceps Brachii though? Lateral and Medial heads. They are single-joint muscles, they have a singular purpose and they do their job. This is why most multi-joint elbow extension exercises are pretty much guaranteed to train them. There are nuances, of course, but I’ll discuss them later. For now, let’s continue.

So, does that mean that you cannot effectively train Triceps LH with compound exercises? Well, not exactly. After all, Hamstrings are pretty well trained with Deadlift. The key reasons for that are joint angles and peak forces. In Squat, the higher your hips are the easier it is to extend them. In Deadlift — not so much. Plus hamstrings are in a much more stretched position and that matters for growth (not all muscles experience this though).

Fig 4. Patterns are very different between Squat and Deadlift, which is one of the reasons why one practically does not train Hamstrings, while the other does.

Is there an exercise that could do the same for our arm muscles? Yes. It’s called Dips. Depending on how you perform it, there’s not a great deal of shoulder extension happening there, but there’s a great deal of elbow extension. EMG data confirms it. But that’s not all, Dips also have a great advantage over other multi-joint push exercises. More about that later.

Fig 5. Look at the first 4 exercises. They all indicate one thing — as your arms go up, your Triceps Long Head activation goes down. This is why Dips are your best bet with compound exercises.

Let’s switch gears and talk about real-life results. What evidence do we have where Triceps LH grows substantially? Not a lot, but consistent and convincing. First Bench Press vs Lying Triceps Extension — the muscle in question only grew with the latter.

Fig 6. Triceps Long Head didn’t grow AT ALL with Bench Press.

Then we have a study that compared different Range of Motion of Lying Triceps Extension. A shorter one won, but the key point here is that the same exercise produced growth, further supporting the study above.

Fig 7. Yes, Lying Triceps Extension grows the Long Head.

Lastly, we have a study comparing Cable Triceps Pushdown vs Cable Triceps Extension — both grew Triceps LH. Wait, what? Yes, you read it correctly.

Fig 8. A single-joint elbow extension is a single-joint elbow extension regardless of shoulder elevation.

Here’s what you need to take away from this: ANY single-joint elbow extension exercise will produce Triceps LH growth! It does not matter whether you are doing pushdowns, lying or overhead extensions — the Long Head is trained so little in compounds (see Fig 6.) that it will grow like a weed if you add even a single isolated elbow exercise.

Let’s stop here for a moment. If you are a casual gym-goer, what you read up until now is probably enough. Basically: add Dips, add some isolation exercises and you are golden. Then again, if you want to know more and increase your chances to get a bigger Triceps — read on. We have a lot more to cover.

Part 2: The details (for the aspiring bodybuilders)

By now, you should understand that joint angle affects muscle length. In the case of Triceps LH, when we elevate the shoulder or bend the elbow, we stretch the muscle. This mainly affects a few things: muscle moment arm, muscle activation, and produced muscle force. Well, some nerds wanted to figure out which shoulder/elbow angles have the best of each of those. Here’s what they found.

Fig 9. Sugisaki, Norihide et al. “Influence of muscle anatomical cross-sectional area on the moment arm length of the triceps brachii muscle at the elbow joint.” Journal of biomechanics vol. 43,14 (2010): 2844–7. doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2010.06.013

The longest moment arms for all three Triceps Brachii heads are at the near extension of the elbow. 30 degrees or so before the arm becomes straight. This is important as moment arms are part of the equation of what muscles your body tries to recruit when performing a specific action. It’s called neuromechanical matching and it’s complicated.

Fig 10. Kholinne, Erica et al. “The Different Role of Each Head of the Triceps Brachii Muscle in Elbow Extension.” Acta Orthopaedica et Traumatologica Turcica 52.3 (2018): 201–205. Acta Orthopaedica et Traumatologica Turcica. Web.

Next, muscle activation as measured with EMG. This is where things get interesting as they contradict the common gym bro wisdom. For one, Triceps LH has the highest activation when arms are down (literally next to your body). While Lateral and Medial heads are most active with arms over the head. Also, despite having the best moment arms at near extension, single-joint heads are most active at around 90-degree elbow flexion. The Long Head, on the other hand, is most active near extension (moments arms matter here!).

Force production is a bit different though. Regardless of the head, they all tend to produce most of it when elbows are fully flexed (90+ degrees).

With this information, we can start to draw some conclusions. If our goal is to isolate Triceps LH as much as possible, we better keep our arms close and we better ensure peak overload happens at near extension. In the case of the Cable Triceps Pushdown exercise, this would mean, we’d need to step a bit back to ensure the highest resistance is at near arm extension. As for the other heads, it would make sense to train them with Cable Overhead Extension where the highest resistance is when the elbow is most flexed.

And that should be that, right? Not so fast. There’s more. A lot more. We need to talk about the length-tension relationship — a principle that describes at what muscle fiber overlap we can produce the most force. You can read a decent explanation here, but for all intents and purposes just know there are three categories: ascending, plateau, and descending.

Fig 11. A quick explanation of the Length-Tension Relationship.

Ascending is when muscle fibers overlap too much, so they cannot fully produce force. Plateau is the sweet spot, where the perfect amount of fiber overlap. Descending is a weird one. Here, fibers are too far apart and thus also cannot produce enough ACTIVE tension, but they can produce another type of tension called PASSIVE. This is good, as muscles who enter this part of the length-tension relationship can experience stretch-mediated hypertrophy.

Fig 12. Murray, Wendy M., Thomas S. Buchanan, and Scott L. Delp. “The Isometric Functional Capacity of Muscles That Cross the Elbow.” Journal of Biomechanics 33.8 (2000): 943–952. Journal of Biomechanics. Web.

So, where is Triceps LH on this curve? As it turns out, mostly on the Plateau. So, you can train it at both long and short lengths. Which is why the short ROM study (Fig 7.) mentioned previously showed great growth. This also means that you can overload the muscle at different angles. There’s one caveat, though. The study that measured this relationship only measured with arms down. But we know that different joint angles can show different results. Hamstrings are a prime example (Fig 13.), where lying or seated position shows very different length-tension relationships. The thing is, I am not aware of any studies performing measurements on the Long Head with a flexed shoulder.

Fig 13. Maeo, Sumiaki et al. “Greater Hamstrings Muscle Hypertrophy but Similar Damage Protection after Training at Long versus Short Muscle Lengths.” Medicine and science in sports and exercise vol. 53,4 (2021): 825–837. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000002523

But what we do know is that when arms go up, Triceps LH increases its moment arm for SHOULDER extension (not elbow!). Think of a Pullover exercise. People keep arguing how it’s a Chest/Lat exercise, while completely forgetting Triceps involvement. Well, to be honest, there’s a reason for that. Not even doctors consider it in shoulder extension as it contributes very little. At the very least they require the elbow to be flexed to be added to the “equation” of evaluating shoulder (dis)function.

I think that’s a mistake. Pullover is a great way to train the LH and I will explain why (also see Fig 5. for EMG data). Tell, me, when was the last time you did this exercise? If it’s been a while — add it to your routine. Then wait a day or two, and tell me your Triceps is not deeply sore. Funny, huh? I thought Pullover doesn’t work on this muscle. Well, it does, but not in a conventional way. The soreness you get after adding the Pullover comes from the eccentrics part of the movement and stretching. Think, when you perform this exercise, it’s usually pretty slow on descent and fast on the ascend. This has a huge impact on muscle damage caused!

Except, muscle damage and soreness is not great indicator of muscle growth. This theory has been questioned for quite some time now. Still, this simple fact of actual feedback post-exercise should indicate something. And I believe it does. For one, eccentrics are known to cause hypertrophy in terms of muscle fiber length, not thickness. So, essentially you are adding extra ways to increase your Triceps LH size. And if it turns out that elevated shoulder position does shift the length-tension relationship into descending limb that means stretch-mediated hypertrophy. A double win.

Fig 14 (left). No need to muscle damage for muscle growth to occur. Fig 15 (right). Eccentric training seems to cause a preferential fascicle length increase.

The takeaway? You can train your Triceps Long Head either through isolated elbow extension, or isolated shoulder extension. Through elbow concentric and shoulder eccentric actions. This is why I believe a modified Pullover is probably the most efficient exercise to make your LH grow. Here’s how you need to perform it:

1. Starting position with arms slightly bent and hands positioned past your forehead.
2. Slowly lower the barbell/dumbbell below the bench while simultaneously bending your elbows as you go down.
3. Then come up at a normal pace extending shoulders and elbows at the same time.
4. Rinse and repeat.

You must keep your arms slightly bent and hands behind your forehead as you don’t want to lose tension. In the research mentioned previously (Fig 7.), constant tension seems to win out and since long head moment arms and activation is highest at near extension, this is where you want to keep the load. This way you get a two-in-one exercise. Try it, I can guarantee you’ll feel your Long Head like never before. By the way, this also implies that using accommodating resistance could increase the overall effect.

Also, this is where Dips have that extra advantage. If you do Dips variation where you never fully extend your elbows and have a slight lean forward (think Chest Dips), you are keeping constant tension on the Long Head, which is great for its growth!

If you read up to here — great. You already know 99% of what you need to know about Triceps Long Head training. But if that last 1% matters to you — keep going, we have more things to discuss.

Part 3: The advanced stuff (the “maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t”)

There’s some indication that Triceps LH can experience regional hypertrophy, by which I mean that you can not only target the muscle but target its regions! For example, one study (Fig 16.) found that doing Dumbbell Triceps Extension preferentially grows mid to proximal (closer to shoulder) region of the long head. Another study that compared ROM (Fig 8.) also seemed to confirm that shoulder elevation can have an impact. Specifically, if your arms are down or halfway elevated, you are probably going to grow close to the shoulder part. And if your arms are elevated, there might be some preference towards the distal area (closer to the elbow) of your Triceps.

Fig 16. Wakahara, Taku et al. “Association between Regional Differences in Muscle Activation in One Session of Resistance Exercise and in Muscle Hypertrophy after Resistance Training.” European Journal of Applied Physiology 112.4 (2012): 1569–1576. European Journal of Applied Physiology. Web.

This is where another Dips advantage comes in: you are preferentially training the meaty part (proximal) of your LH, which has a higher potential to grow. Best bang for your buck, so to speak.

Moving on, there is some evidence that speed matters (Fig 17.). Not in a sense of preferential LH training but in a sense of de-emphasizing your Lateral and Medial heads. It seems Triceps Long Head tires out faster at faster speeds. What this means in practice is that if you lift faster you are potentially saving your single-joint Triceps muscles from working too hard. This is great, as these muscles are worked in practically all compound Push exercises.

Fig 17. Hussain, Jawad et al. “Muscle Fatigue in the Three Heads of Triceps Brachii During Intensity and Speed Variations of Triceps Push-Down Exercise.” Frontiers in Physiology 11 (2020): n. pag. Frontiers in Physiology. Web.

This leads us to another important point: the rate of recovery. Triceps Brachii takes a long time to recover. That’s probably due to high Type II muscle fiber count in the muscle plus very high motor unit recruitment ability (>94%). This implies that training too often too much might not be the best choice for those concerned about their Triceps growth. Dedicated LH training should probably be no more than 1x or 2x a week with limited volume.

Fig 18. (left) Contrary to popular belief, you should not train your arms very often. Fig 19. (right) The Triceps Brachii has a disproportionate amount of Type II muscle fibers.

Speaking of activation (motor unit recruitment), since the muscle has such a high percentage, it is very likely that you need to train TB practically to failure because that’s where you are guaranteed to activate all of the muscle fibers. Remember, an inactive fiber is a fiber that’s not trained. This is also why doing high reps is also probably not a good idea as you are just wasting time on fibers that have already maxed out. Ideally, I would suggest some sort of cluster set where you do 2–4 reps at around 0–1 RIR, and keep doing it with short rests in between to make sure you are at a constant intensity level.

Fig 20. Cheng, Arthur J., and Charles L. Rice. “Voluntary Activation in the Triceps Brachii at Short and Long Muscle Lengths.” Muscle and Nerve 41.1 (2010): 63–70. Muscle and Nerve. Web.

With all that said, these advanced tips are in the “speculative” territory so, while there is rationale on why they could work, they also might not. It’s best to experiment and see.

Conclusion

Congratulations if you made it to the end! I hope this has cleared up the confusion about Triceps Long Head training. If not, hit me up, and I’ll gladly answer your questions. To conclude, this is what I would recommend based on your situation:

1. If you are a beginner/novice or do not care to differentiate between Triceps heads, all you have to do is add heavy (Chest) Dips to your training routine. They seem to do the job for general arm development.
2. If you are an aspiring bodybuilder, can name most of the muscles in your body, and the mirror shows a lagging bottom part of your arm (when flexing biceps), you might need more than Dips. I recommend adding a modified Pullover (3–4 sets/week max). Just one more exercise for a cycle or two and see whether there’s change. If there is — great, you just solved your problem. If there isn’t — read on.
3. Now, if it doesn’t look like you’re responding to Dips and Pullover. It’s probably time to think about some isolation work. Your best bets are Cable Triceps Pushdown and Incline DB Kickback (EMG is insane on these, look it up). Not more than two extra exercises and again, not more than 3–4 sets/week.
4. But if you’re happy with your Long Head’s overall growth except it seems there’s very little muscle in the distal region (closer to elbow), I recommend replacing exercises with arms close to your body with exercises above your head. Could be Cable Overhead Extension, could be Seated Incline Cable/Dumbbell Extensions.
5. Lastly, rotating exercises could be a good idea to make sure you have all your bases covered. By which I mean, one cycle you could do Cable Triceps Pushdown, the next — Lying Triceps Extension, another — Cable Overhead Extension. Basically, change the shoulder angle. 0–90–180 degrees of elevation. In addition, switching to different equipment might not be a bad idea either. Did a lot of cable work? Switch to a barbell. Did a lot of that too? Try dumbbells or even bands!

Update 2022 July

Fig 21. Maeo S, Wu Y, Huang M, Sakurai H, Kusagawa Y, Sugiyama T, Kanehisa H, Isaka T. Triceps brachii hypertrophy is substantially greater after elbow extension training performed in the overhead versus neutral arm position. Eur J Sport Sci. 2022 Jul 12:1–26. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2022.2100279. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35819335.

A new study by Maeo et al 2022 came out comparing cable overhead triceps extensions vs pushdowns. The results are extremely interesting. What the researchers found was that ALL (Long, Lateral, and Medial) of the Triceps heads experienced better hypertrophy when doing overhead extensions. That’s “weird” because only the Long Head is a multi-joint muscle and can be affected by shoulder elevation. They proposed two explanations for this:

a) Long Head contributing less to the overall force production and “making” Lateral/Medial heads work harder.
b) Blood flow reduction and subsequently increased metabolic stress.

The first explanation seems more plausible and can be backed up by other studies (check out Fig 10.).

This study also confirms Fig 8. results which were similar (but not significant) for the Long Head when compared overhead extensions vs pushdowns. That said, it does not show there is a preferential targeting of the Long Head when your arms are above your head. Only that overall Triceps growth will be larger. If you are untrained, that is. And this is a big caveat. What I would really like to see is a study done on trained people as I’m not exactly convinced that people who have a 1RM of 7.2 ± 3.7kg for triceps extensions are a good representation of what happens when you already have some strength and train with good mind-muscle connection, coordination, and intention.

The main takeaway of the study in question should be this: it’s probably better to use Cable Overhead Extensions as your main Triceps building single-joint exercise first. And once you max it out, switch it up with some other single-joint exercise. After all, for well-rounded muscle development, marrying yourself to just one exercise is probably not the best idea.

Putting all that aside, what I found the most interesting in this study is the confirmation that the Triceps Long Head works on the descending limb of length-tension relationship when the shoulder is elevated. And that means stretch-mediated hypertrophy! This gives more validity to the idea that a (modified) pullover is probably a very good exercise to grow your Long Head.

P.S. I heard a rumor, study testing some form of a Pullover for Triceps Long Head is underway. Can’t wait to see the results!

SPECIAL THANKS

• To all the sports scientists doing their job and trying to figure out the best way to train our bodies.
• To Chris Beardsley. Without his work, this article would have taken 100 times the effort to produce.
• To Neil Tomlins. His struggle (maybe not anymore!) to grow his Triceps convinced me I need once and for all to figure out this whole Triceps Long Head debacle.
• To all the readers who made it to the end, liked, and shared this article.

If you liked this article, check out my Instagram: Coach Andrius. I explore different facets of muscle and strength training quite often.