Lying triceps extensions, also known as French extensions or skull crushers is a powerful weight lifting exercise that press involves the long head of the triceps, its bottom in particular. It also lengthens and thickens the bottom of the triceps. Although the French extensions pursue all three triceps heads, the focus of the stress clearly falls on the long head of the muscle. It is located at the back of the hand and is well separated.

In bodybuilding, French bench press is used for the overall development of the triceps, but primarily for target bombing of its long head to lengthen and emphasize its bottom. The thicker the head of the triceps is, the more massive upper arms look like, especially if you look at it sideways.

To start triceps extensions lie on the horizontal bench and firmly rest your feet on the floor. Straighten your arms upward, perpendicular to the floor, and ask your partner to give you a barbell. It is desirable to use a rod with EZ-barbell, but if you do not, you can perform an exercise with a traditional bar. The grip is overhand. You need to grip the bar and squeeze it up. Fully straighten your arms and don’t let them go back, toward the head, at 45 ° from the vertical. Now you are in the starting position.

Take a deep breath and slowly bend your elbows and lower the bar to the head. At the lowest point of the exercise the angle of the elbow joint is 90 ° and your upper arms, from elbow to shoulder, remain stationary. As you reach the lowest point, do not stop under any circumstances. Quickly change the direction of motion, and straightening the elbows, returning the barbell to the starting position. Do not exhale raising the bar, and pull your elbows forward. Upper arms should remain fixed in this position as well. Once you fully straighten your arms, stop for a few seconds, exhale and make extra efforts to even strain your triceps.

As you see, a proper technique is extremely important for this exercise. If the bar is too heavy, you cannot keep your hands straight up at an angle of 45 ° to the vertical, and you will involuntarily pull your elbows forward. This significantly reduces the load on the triceps. Also do not put your feet on the bench. They should firmly rest on the floor. Otherwise you increase the risk of losing your balance and making injury.

Performance of this exercise on a regular basis will improve your triceps significantly and will help to build an overall arm look.

Written by: Dennis Borisoff
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