Proper Cable Triceps Kickback Form | Men’s Health Muscle
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00:00 So I have long considered the dumbbell triceps kickback to be one of the least effective and
00:04 most overrated exercises for training your triceps. And there's a reason for that.
00:08 When we're doing the triceps kickback with dumbbells, for 90% of the range of motion,
00:12 our triceps aren't actually getting a ton of work. We're only getting work when we're in
00:17 that straight arm position for that very last moment of the triceps kickback.
00:20 Not a great use of your time, and it's not a great way to really put on muscle.
00:24 One change though that we can make, and instantly we can get a lot more out of this move,
00:28 we're just going to change tools. Instead of using a dumbbell to do the kickback,
00:32 we're going to use a cable machine to do a kickback. Instantly, you're going to get to
00:35 work over a larger range of motion, you're going to get a better triceps pump, and you're still
00:40 going to get that great squeeze at the top of every single rep. So let's take a look at the
00:44 cable triceps kickback. We'll show you how to do the move and how to turn this into an awesome
00:48 finisher for any triceps workout. So what are we doing really with any kind of triceps kickback?
00:53 What we get to do effectively that we can't do in our other triceps exercises is really
00:57 challenge the shortened position and get a really good squeeze as we finish every single rep. So on
01:02 most of our triceps exercises, we're challenging that stretch position. Whether you're doing a
01:07 triceps press down, or whether you're doing a skull crusher, you're under the most tension
01:11 when that triceps muscle is stretched out. But once we get to straighten out, our joints stack,
01:17 and we're not really going to get a whole ton of challenge. We have to really focus on squeezing
01:21 our triceps because we're not getting a whole ton of challenge from the resistance. The triceps
01:26 kickback, whether it's with a dumbbell or with the cable, is the exact opposite. During the
01:31 lengthened position, we're not under as much tension, but once we straighten out, we face the
01:36 full force of whatever load we are dealing with plus gravity, and that creates a really, really
01:41 good challenge for us to really maintain that straight arm position. We're training the triceps
01:46 in the shortened position most aggressively when we're doing the cable kickback and when we're
01:50 doing the dumbbell kickback. With the cable kickback though, we're adding more challenge
01:54 through the rest of the range of motion. So for the 60 to 70 percent of this range of motion,
01:59 you're going to wind up challenging your triceps. That leads to more time under tension,
02:03 and we're going to get a little bit more of a challenge on the negative too, as we have to
02:07 lower the weight. It is a lot of triceps bang for your buck. Let's get into it. So you're here in
02:12 the cable machine with Brett, and we want to set up the machine first to put us in optimal position
02:16 so we can get really good tension at the top of the move. To do that, Brett is first going to take
02:21 the handle off. All of these cable machines have a kind of ball or something like that that you can
02:26 grab with your middle finger or your ring finger. We're going to wind up grabbing the cable that way.
02:30 It's going to give us a little bit more of a consistent pull as we're doing our reps. The
02:34 other thing Brett's going to do, he's going to lower this all the way down to the ground.
02:38 That way, we get really, really good tension at the top of every single kickback rep.
02:43 Once we have the cable set up, the name of the game from a body position standpoint is all about
02:48 two things. It is about, one, creating as much stability as possible so that we can move as
02:52 much weight as possible and create as much tension through our triceps. And two, it is going to be
02:57 about keeping his elbow above or behind his torso as much as possible. That's going to lead to a
03:04 really, really good contraction through his mid-back. To do that, Brett's going to take a
03:08 staggered stance. He's going to basically, whatever you need to do to get a good stable position is
03:14 what you're going to do. If your cable machine has a handle or something like that in front that you
03:18 can grasp, that's a very good thing to do with your offhand. Or if you don't have something like
03:23 that, you can always dig your elbow into your thigh, but you want to create a good position
03:27 of leverage. The only other thing we're worried about here is we want Brett's shoulders ever so
03:31 slightly higher than his hips. We want to always protect our lower back, and we want to make sure
03:36 by doing this, we're also going to ensure that our mid-back muscles have to fire off and stay
03:41 really strong. From there, all Brett's going to do, he's going to grab the handle, and then we've
03:45 got one more step, and this is all about that elbow position. As Brett gets into this position,
03:51 he wants to think about squeezing his shoulder blades and look at where his elbow is relative
03:56 to his torso. It is above his torso, and for the life of this entire set that he's going to do,
04:02 he's going to keep it in this position. The strength of the triceps kickback happens
04:06 in creating this parallel line, parallel to the ground, from shoulders to elbow, and maintaining
04:12 that throughout the life of the set. That means we're taking our lat out of play, and we're really
04:16 making this a true triceps isolation exercise. From there, the exercise is simple. On every
04:21 single rep, without getting any sort of rock, Brett is just going to straighten out his elbow.
04:26 That position right there is where our triceps is working paramount, and then he's going to slowly
04:32 lower back to the cable station. Think about taking about two seconds. We can get something
04:36 out of the negative here that we can't really get with dumbbells when we're using the cables,
04:39 so take advantage of that on every single rep. The key things you want to avoid when you're doing the
04:45 cable triceps kickback, one is going to be breaking at the wrist. If Brett wants to keep that wrist as
04:52 long as possible, he doesn't want to break at the wrist, because what happens when he breaks at the
04:56 wrist is for a split second, show him a broken wrist, Brett. For a split second, that lever for
05:02 your triceps is ever so slightly shorter, and we're not getting that really good line of pull.
05:07 When Brett keeps his wrist in perfect neutral, we're ever so slightly longer with that. We're
05:12 going to challenge our triceps just a little bit more. Let's get the most out of the reps.
05:15 The other mistake you're going to see people make is they're going to rock at the elbow. Instead of
05:20 maintaining this high elbow position, let's come back to the correct position, Brett.
05:24 He wants to stay here, but it gets a lot easier, especially as you fatigue, to suddenly drop the
05:29 elbow and then drive it back up on every single rep. That little rock has now taken emphasis off
05:35 of our triceps for the entire range of motion. We're starting to involve our lats. We're starting
05:39 to involve a little bit of momentum, and you're just not getting everything out of the triceps
05:43 kickback the way you need to be. So the key way to execute this kickback, again, you want to keep
05:48 that elbow nice and high, straighten out your arm every time, keep that wrist in neutral, and then
05:52 just bang out these reps. You're really going to feel it smoke your triceps by the end.
05:57 The cable triceps kickback is a great way to finish out any triceps workout because we're
06:01 filling in the blanks in our triceps sessions. We have other moves that will let us go heavy,
06:06 but we don't have anything else that's going to give us this brilliant squeeze. It is not going
06:10 to be the first exercise in any of your sessions. Whether you're doing a triceps workout or an arm
06:15 workout or you're doing a push day workout where you're pairing chest and tris, this is the last
06:19 exercise you want to do. Hit some skull crushers first, do a couple press downs, do a couple close
06:24 grip presses, moves that will let you move a little bit more weight with your triceps, and
06:28 then you come to this. This is a very lightweight move. You're going to use 10, 15, maybe 20 pounds,
06:33 and that should be plenty of load. That is partly true because we want to keep the reps higher on
06:38 this. You want to think about going for three to four sets of anywhere from 12 to 15 reps,
06:43 and you can work back and forth on this very, very quickly. You can literally do a set on your left
06:47 arm and a set on your right arm. You don't need a lot of rest time in between because we're working
06:52 for a little bit more of a pump here, working for that squeeze, and we just want to build
06:56 my muscle connection. This is a great way to finish out your triceps though. It's going to
07:00 give you a really good pump if you get it right. You want to just focus on that squeeze, and let's
07:04 keep building those horseshoes.