Angle It

Every guy that’s put in any effort to build up his tri’s is familiar with the lying triceps extension, or what is known to hardcore bodybuilders as skullcrushers. We’ll bet our crazy magazine salary that you grab the bar and head over to the flat bench. But when’s the last time you did them on an incline, or (even crazier) on a decline? Changing the angle of this effective exercise effectively changes the triceps head that’s stressed.

The more the arms are placed in front of the body and overhead, the more the long head is emphasized. When you do skullcrushers on a flat bench, the arms are perpendicular to the body and so both the long head and lateral head are fairly equally involved, with even a good bit of involvement from the medial head. When you do them on an incline bench, the arms move more overhead, which places greater emphasis on the long head. And when you do them on a decline bench, the arms move down more towards the sides of the body, similar to a triceps pressdown. This places more stress on the lateral head than the long head, with some help from the medial head at the top of the rep.