Muscle of the month – Triceps
Exercise #2 – Tricep kickbacks using Dumbbells
Personally, this is one of my favorite tricep exercises. While holding 1 dumbbell in each hand, slowly bend at the hips until your chest and eyes are facing the ground. It is very important to keep your back straight with no arch…a staggered pose (pictured below) with one foot in front of the other, rather than feet together, may make that easier. Bend your elbows to 90 degrees and slowly straighten the arms, and exhale, until there is just a slight bend. Keeping the arms close to the torso, inhale, and return to the starting position.
Kickbacks with staggered feet
April 8th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Court, you are a muscle machine!
April 8th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
[...] tried Court’s tricep kickbacks this evening at the gym in honor of the “muscle of the month,” and WOW. I’d never [...]
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Horrible exercise, ineffective and over rated for many reasons:
- The only portion of the movement that actually stresses the triceps is the last 30 degrees or so before lock-out. The rest of the movement is just your arm swinging back and forth. You could do that all day.
- It doesn’t target many muscle groups. You work your triceps directly, and use some shoulder muscles to stabilize that joint so you can hold your upper-arm in a fixed position, but thats about it.
- You can’t use serious weights. Even the strongest powerlifter wouldn’t be able to use more than 25 or 30 pounds.
April 26th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Jamieson:
Thanks for taking the time to comment on our blog and more specifically, this post. Let us address your comments about this “horrible, ineffective and over-rated” exercise.
The triceps kickback is one of the most common exercises for people looking to strengthen their triceps muscles. The proper way to do this exercise, as clearly illustrated in the post, is to hold your arms at 90 degrees and extend them backward. There is actually no “swinging” motion involved, unless you are talking about the controlled movement your forearms should be doing with the weights. When executed properly, the triceps will be sufficiently exercised. There are plenty of exercises that target a muscle group using a small range of motion. This doesn’t make them ineffective.
If you read the title of the post, you’ll see that it’s categorized as a “Muscle of the Month” exercise. This month’s muscle is the triceps, and so this exercise targets that muscle group. One could argue that other muscle groups are secondarily utilized during this exercise. But sure, the main stress will be on the triceps. But again, this is an exercise for the TRICEPS.
Since when did using “serious weights” be a prerequisite for an effective exercise? The push-up, which is one of the most basic exercises, uses no weights at all. I’d hardly call the push-up ineffective. Besides, “serious weights” means something for everyone depending on their fitness level.
Of course, all are welcome to read our blog and comment on our posts. Not all the exercises will work for everyone, and we understand that. If you are looking for specific exercises or tips, let us know! We want to provide value to our readers! In the meantime, we stand by this exercise and this post.