Purpose Of Machine Triceps Press
As you can imagine, the machine triceps press is an exercise designed with the intention to stimulate and develop the triceps – but it is also an effective chest, and shoulder builder.
Equipment Needed To Perform Machine Triceps Press
As the name would imply, the necessary equipment to perform a machine triceps press, is a machine triceps press machine – which is a popular machine made by many different manufacturers.
Difficulty Of Machine Triceps Press
On a scale of 1 to 5, machine triceps presses would rank between a 1 and a 2 – they are fairly simple to perform, and do not require much in terms of stability, but they do require the individual to focus on contracting the triceps hard or other, larger muscles like the pecs and delts will take over.
How To Do Machine Triceps Press
Now each and every machine triceps press may have its own individual quirks, but for the most part there are some pretty universal principles in terms of how to actually do this exercise.
The first thing to do is to set the height of the seat – you want the seat set so that the handles won’t exceed a certain height during the lowering of the weight to avoid putting yourself into a compromising position.
Generally this means having the handles set at lower chest height – but feel free to play around with it so customize it to your liking.
If you like a greater stretch, then by all means, give it a shot, and if you want to use more weight, or allow the weight to rest between reps, then that is ok as well. From this position, most machines will offer either a neutral grip, or overhand grip, and once again you can play around to see what works best for you as there’s no universal way for which grip one should use.
Once you are set, you begin by pushing the handles down towards the floor, focusing on contracting your triceps hard as you can while you extend your elbows, while also focusing on keeping your elbows tight to your body.
Pause at the bottom for 1-2 seconds, and then slowly allow the handles to come back up towards the starting position before repeating this sequence for the desired number of repetitions.
Key Points When Performing Machine Triceps Press
- Adjust seat so handles are level with lower chest – or slightly above, or below based on your preference.
- Grab onto handles with either overhand, or neutral grip – once again, whatever you prefer, or feel most.
- Press handles down, squeezing triceps hard, keeping elbows tight to body.
- Pause at the bottom before slowly allowing the handles to rise back up to the starting position – pause at the top, and repeat for the desired number of reps.
How Many Reps When Performing Machine Triceps Press
The machine triceps press is an exercise that benefits well from both low reps, and high reps.
Because it is a compound movement, heavy weight combined with low reps can be used for the purpose of recruiting as many muscle fibers as possible, while a lower load performed for more reps may be better suited for those looking to fatigue the triceps.
While this may be a rather vague recommendation, anywhere between 6-20 reps would work well for this exercise – but try to pick a more narrow bracket within this spectrum, for example: 6-8, 10-12, or 15-20.
Common Mistakes When Performing Machine Triceps Press
Some of the more common mistakes when performing machine triceps presses are:
- Allowing the elbows to flare out to the sides – this is by far the most common mistake, which generally accompanies using too much weight. If the weight is too heavy, what happens is the elbows will naturally begin to flare out to the side as your body’s way of trying to position itself for larger muscles like the pecs and the delts to take on a greater brunt of the load.
- Going through the motions – because the machine triceps press is a compound movement, multiple muscles are involved, which can be problematic because if you are not fully in tune with what you are trying to accomplish, you can easily end up with the wrong muscles doing the work – thus defeating the purpose of selecting the exercise in the first place.
- Locking the elbows at the end of each rep – you want to avoid locking the elbows at the end of each rep as this takes the emphasis off the triceps and puts the elbows in a vulnerable position
Modifications To Machine Triceps Press
Aside from adjusting the height of the seat, or using an overhand vs. neutral grip, there aren’t really any worthwhile modifications to the machine triceps press.
When To Do Machine Triceps Press
The machine triceps press is a good exercise to lead off a triceps workout because it facilitates greater loads to be used in relation to some of the popular isolated triceps exercises, due to it being a compound movement, but it is also a great finisher.
For these reasons, this exercise can be used effectively pretty much anywhere in a triceps workout.
Alternatives To Machine Triceps Press
There are numerous alternatives to the machine triceps press, but instead of overwhelming you with a rather long list, the primary alternative that will be discussed here is the bodyweight counterpart, dip – which can also be performed using an assisted dip machine if you are unable to lift your own bodyweight.
Machine Triceps Press vs. Dip/Assisted Dip Machine
The primary differences between the machine triceps press and the dip, is that you are a lot more stable in the machine than you are when using your own body as resistance – even if you are using the assisted machine, because your body is still moving through space which can still be somewhat relatively challenging.
If you are able to use your own body without assistance, then your core will definitely be more involved, which can be to your benefit depending on your goal.