Looking around in your gym may give you an idea about training your biceps but what about the other half of the arm? We all have seen big posters of bodybuilders flexing their biceps, but seldom with their triceps. Different muscles make up the human arm, and building strong arms require working on all the muscle groups.
Triceps make up almost half of our arms and help in all movements that involve pushing, whether it's the door, furniture, a car that's broken down or even with a barbell in the gym. The primary function of the triceps is to extend the forearm and help move the joints in our hands.
To get stronger, leaner and toned arms you need to train your triceps along with the biceps. It is necessary to first identify the muscle group - straighten out your arm to the point of hyperextending it from the elbow, and you will feel a muscle bulge at the back of the upper arm. That is your triceps.
The word triceps comes from Latin, which means three-headed muscle that includes:
- Long head: The largest part of the tricep that runs along the back of the upper arm.
- Lateral head: The smallest of the three muscles that is located on the outside of the arm.
- Medial head: Located right around the middle of the upper arm.
There are dozens of exercises such as dips, kickbacks, bench press and triceps extensions to train these muscles. However, very few movements train the entire triceps structure at the same time.