That's what you're going to do during the countup-countdown triceps blast finisher from Men's Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. This nasty series has you doing 20 reps of triceps work from two different angles, but you aren't just piling up reps, either. "You're also accumulating a ton of time-under-tension for the 'non-working' side," says Samuel. "Basically, save the split-second when your muscle relaxes after the more classic reps in here, your tris are never working."
This 20-Rep Armday Finisher Annihilates Your Triceps
To build arm size, strength, and muscle, you need to lift heavy and you need to lift hard. But the underrated key in the arm-muscle-building equation is one more idea, too: Time-under-tension. Your biceps and triceps need to squeeze and continue to squeeze throughout each rep and set, pushing blood into the muscle, and building a strong mind-muscle connection.
This 20-Rep Armday Finisher Destroys Your Triceps
That adds up to about a minute of constant work for your triceps, and you'll feel that in a vicious pump after every set. You'll need a looped resistance band to pull off the countup-countdown triceps blast. If you don't have one, try this set from WodFitters.
- Start in tall kneeling position, glutes and abs tight, ribcage down, shoulder blades back. Grasp a looped resistance band with straight arms, essentially in the bottom of a triceps pressdown position. Squeeze your triceps
- Keep your right arm in a tight, straight-arm position, making sure you're squeezing your triceps to maintain that position. With your left arm, bend at the elbow and return to the top of a pressdown position, then contract your triceps and press back down. Squeeze your triceps to maintain the straight-arm position with your left arm, then do a single rep on the right arm.
- Repeat this pattern again, this time maintaining the straight-arm position on the right arm while you do two reps on the left arm. Continue this pattern two more times, adding a rep on each time (so the final time, you'll hold a straight-arm position with one arm and do 4 straight reps with the other).
- Hinge forward, keeping your abs tight, and drive your arms out in front of you. You want your upper arms to be at approximately a 90-degree angle with your torso. Keep your abs tight to drive your ribcage closed. Look at the floor to keep your neck in neutral.
- Maintain the straight-arm position from this angle with your left arm while you do 4 skullcrusher reps with your right. Then repeat, holding a straight-arm position with your right arm so you can do reps with your left.
- Repeat this pattern, this time doing 3 reps with each arm, then 2, then 1.
- Do 3 sets.
You pile up time-under-tension, and your triceps will be screaming. But there's more to this series than that, says Samuel. "You need to focus on keeping your hips and shoulders square when you do this," he says, "and that's going to tax your core more than you think." Your abs and glutes will get benefit from this move, even if they're not completely worn out. "Not every core exercise is going to leave your abs on fire," says Samuel. "But trust me: They'll be putting in work on this one."
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You can use the countup-countdown triceps blast in a variety of ways. It can easily be a finisher to a triceps workout or it can be an accessory move on a bench-pressing day. It can also be an armday finisher. "Or, if you're in a time crunch," says Samuel," this is a nice way for a quick triceps pump as a standalone workout."
For more tips and routines from Samuel, check out our full slate of Eb and Swole workouts. If you want to try an even more dedicated routine, consider Eb's New Rules of Muscle program .
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