Build Huge Triceps with These Vital Dumbbell Exercises

The triceps are the biggest muscles in the arms, and you can build bigger triceps using these dumbbell exercises.

These dumbbell exercises will target your triceps, which will help you in your quest to build bigger, stronger arms.

While the biceps and dumbbells go together like peanut butter and jelly, it's important not to neglect the triceps on your next arm day. If you want a more powerful upper body, tricep dumbbell exercises will help grow your arms — this is because they make up two thirds of the muscle in your upper arm, which means they’re bigger and arguably more important than your biceps.

Your triceps are made up of three individual muscles, all connecting your elbow to your shoulder. They are a powerful extensor of the elbow joint, so any exercise you do that extends the elbow, will affect your triceps.

The triceps have three "heads" — hence the name; the long head, medial head, and lateral head. The superficial muscles of the triceps are the long and lateral heads, so these are the ones you’ll see when you start incorporating dumbbell tricep exercises into your workouts.

The medial head remains hidden inside the arm, but is just as important as the muscle you can see. It provides stability to the overall tricep group.

Isolating your triceps with dumbbells will help you grow muscle mass fast, due to the targeted nature of the exercise. Further benefits of bulking your triceps include:

Furthermore, you won't need access to an expensive gym or box space. Dumbbell tricep exercises can be done from anywhere as long as you have access to a dumbbell at a comfortable but challenging weight.

Here are 3 important tricep dumbbell exercises that you can incorporate into your next workout for bigger, stronger arms.

One of the most popular dumbbell exercises for the triceps, the dumbbell overhead tricep extension will blow your triceps and make them work.

There are two ways to do this movement, either seated or standing — both are as effective as each other. Here's how to do the seated variation:

Repeat the movement for 6 – 12 reps, and for 3 rounds. You should start to feel the burn along the back of both arms.

Chipper Time!

There are a few various ways to perform a dumbbell kickback; either with a bench, a single arm, or both arms at the same time. It's up to you which one you choose.

For this example we will focus on a standing tricep kickback. Here's how it works:

You can also use a bench, with your knee and inactive arm on the bench for support. The movement is essentially the same, but this variation allows you to ‘kickback’ more weight for more reps than the standing variation.

For this dumbbell tricep exercise you will need access to a bench. The movement is also known as a skullcrusher and can be done with a barbell, but can also be performed effectively if you only have dumbbells on hand.

Your elbows will have a tendency to flare outwards, so make sure you keep them tucked in. The exercise also doesn't put any pressure on the wrists like other tricep dumbbell exercises, making them great if you have a strain or injury.

Some further variations of all the above exercises can be found here.