How to Train Your Triceps to Be Toned and Tight
Flappy arms, or what some rude folks refer as bat wings, are actually a very common problem area for many people. But just because it is common doesn’t mean that we have to live with it. If this is an area that bothers you, here are some tips to help tighten and tone those triceps.
Brock Armstrong
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How to Train Your Triceps to Be Toned and Tight
If you can, go and stand in front of your bathroom mirror right now.
Raise your arms up like a cartoon cactus, and then wave to yourself in the mirror. Make a note of how much jiggling the skin on the back or bottom of your arms is doing.
Now, flex the muscles in your arms and try that same cartoon cactus waving movement again. This time, take note of the skin that doesn’t jiggle because that lack of jiggle is due to muscle tone. The stuff that still jiggles is fat and loose skin.
There is no pass or fail on the test, nor is there any judgement being made. This is simply a test to see if you have a tone issue, body fat issue, both, or neither.
Now, let me pause for a moment because I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I am not trying to sell you on the idea that you should be ashamed of that jiggle or that it is some kind of shortcoming on your part. It is not and you should not be. We all have skin and fat and muscle and it all jiggles in different and glorious ways. But some of you have written to me and told me that you don’t like the way this particular jiggle looks or feels and that you would like to do something about it. And, as always, from my point of view, if I can encourage a few more people to move their bodies in new and interesting ways by giving them a workout that can also address a specific area of concern, who am I to say no?
Having a healthy, well-balanced diet and a consistent exercise plan is definitely the best way to reduce overall body fat and therefore limit the fat and loose skin that causes the majority of that arm jiggle. But let’s talk about the other part of the equation: toning the muscle.
What Is Muscle Toning?
Firming or toning a muscle is very simply a combination of both increasing muscle tissue as well as lowering body fat so you can see the definition and shape of the muscles.
You can get the resistance training benefits as well as the cardio benefits in one awesome workout.
A common assumption is that when you work out, your muscles go from soft to hard, or when you stop working out, they go from hard to soft. While that is partially true, in reality the majority of softness is body fat and the hardness is muscle. So what we want to do is increase the size of the muscle and decrease the amount of fat. To do that, we need to engage in some strength training as well as decrease the layer of fat that is hiding your rippling muscles.
The cool thing is that the more muscle tissue you add to your body by doing strength training, the greater your basal metabolic rate (resting metabolism) will be. That means you will be burning more total calories (and fat) even when you are at rest. Win-win!
If you workout using large body movements and also keep your rest periods short, you will be able to elevate your heart rate and keep it there. That means you will be getting the same calorie- and fat-burning benefits of a traditional cardio session while you are strengthening. Win-win, again! You can get the resistance training benefits as well as the cardio benefits in one awesome workout.
How short should those short rest periods be exactly? Well, around 30 seconds should allow you to keep your heart rate boosted while still allowing your muscles to get a bit of a rest before their next set. You can use a stopwatch on your phone or the clock on the wall at first, but after doing this a few times, you will be able to feel when your heart rate is dropping too much.
To maximize your gains, you can also concentrate on lifting “to failure” (which means that you can barely squeeze out your last one or two reps). And don’t worry too much if the number of reps that you can do drops each set. With your rest periods being short, the metabolic byproducts generated by all this lifting won’t have a chance to be completely removed before the next set so the effort will definitely get harder and harder. This is a good thing and your body will adapt to it over time. But if you drop below eight to ten reps, you should probably decrease the weight so you can finish the set properly.
Another way to keep your heart rate up while lifting is to do something called Circuit Training.
What Is Circuit Training?
Circuit training is a term for going directly from one set of an exercise to another set of an exercise, that usually engages a different muscle group, and back and forth until you have completed the prescribed amount of sets. This is a great way to maximize your workout time while also ensuring that your heart rate stays and remains elevated.
This is one of my favorite ways to work out because, if you are doing a circuit training session, you can complete a full-body workout in 30 minutes or less. And in that 30 minutes, you get the benefits of muscle building and toning along with an intense cardio workout. The exercise options that you place in your circuit are pretty much endless and you can switch up the exercises frequently to keep your interest high and keep your muscles and mind working hard.
I will give you a killer arm-specific circuit training workout in just a bit, but first, let’s talk about the muscles that we want to target.
Anatomy of the Triceps
Triceps are the back portion of the upper arm between the elbow and the shoulder that are used for extension of the elbow.
I find that you need to come at the triceps from as many angles as possible to truly make them strong and t-shirt enhancing.
On the anatomy poster that I keep in my office, the technical term for these muscles is Triceps Brachii, which is Latin for “three-headed muscle.” The reason they are called that is because the triceps are composed of three different muscle bundles on the outside, inside, and middle of the back of your arms.
Because the triceps are made of three different muscles, you won’t be able to target them fully by simply doing one or two exercises. I find that you need to come at them from as many angles as possible, using a variety of exercises, moves, grips, and hand positions to truly make them strong and t-shirt bulging.
Triceps Exercises
Two of the best exercises for this part of your body are the Lying Tricep Press and the Close-Grip Bench Press, but those both can be intimidating ones to start with. Those exercises also usually require a trip to the gym, so let’s start with a few that you can do at home.
- Narrow-Grip Pushups: This is a home-friendly version of to the Close-Grip Bench Press that I mentioned earlier, but instead of lifting dumbbells or a barbell, you lift your own bodyweight.
To do this, simply do a regular push-up, or a wall or stair push-up, and keep your hands closer together than usual. You can form a triangle with your hands if you like and make sure your elbows brush your ribcage as you go down and back up.
- Dips: This one works many of the same muscles as the Lying Tricep Press but, once again, you are using your body weight instead of steel and lead.
To do this exercise, begin by sitting on a chair and placing your hands on either side of your butt. Now scoot your body forward so you are able to lower your backside down to the floor using just your arms. Then push yourself back up.
You can make this more or less challenging by bending or straightening your legs and moving your feet closer or farther away from you. To make it really challenging, try resting your feet on a stability (or yoga) ball way out in front of you!
- Tricep Pushdowns: This one you can do at home with a resistance band, a door, and some ingenuity—or you can go to a gym.
Throw the resistance band up and over the open door and then hold onto each end of it. Start with your arms bent at a little more than 90 degrees and then extend them (pulling against the band) until they are completely straight. By using different grips, like a front grip, a reverse grip, or a rope grip, you can use this one exercise to work all three heads of your triceps.
- Close-Grip Bench Press: This one you will either need to go to a gym for or invest in a set of dumbbells and some type of bench to lay on.
I am sure you know what a regular bench press exercise is—lay on your back on a bench and then push a weight away from your body. Well, a close-grip bench press is the same exercise, but you keep your hands closer together and keep your elbows close to your body.
- Skull Crusher: This exercise only lives up to its name if you drop the weight on your head. Avoid that!
Simply lie on your back on a bench, hold a barbell or dumbbell with your arms bent at 90 degrees and elbows on either side of your head. Then extend your arms until they are completely straight, then bring them back down to 90 degrees. By adjusting your hand position to knuckles up, knuckles down, or knuckles sideways, you can again target the different heads of your triceps muscle.
I would suggest doing this one with slightly lighter weights and increase the reps to the 10 to 15 range. Lifting too heavy a weight can cause elbow pain, and don’t worry, as long as you are failing by rep 13, 14 or 15, you will get the benefits.
- Dumbbell Kickbacks: You will definitely need some dumbbells (or something heavy that you can hold in your hand) for this triceps exercise.
Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing inward. Keep your back straight and bend forward at the waist so your torso is almost parallel to the floor. Hold the dumbbells with your arms at a 90-degree angle, between your forearm and upper arm. Keeping your upper arms still, use your triceps to kick the weights back until your arms are fully extended. Focus on moving just the forearm. Bring your arms back to the starting position and repeat.
Triceps Circuit Workout
Make sure you warm up well before you start this workout and until you have done it a couple times (and written down the weights you used for each exercise for future reference) be conservative. I don’t want you to have to call a loved one into the bathroom to help you wash your hair for 48 hours after you do this workout!
Having strong arms is important to support almost every upper body movement that you do each day.
Since our goal is to make your arms look great all around, I snuck some bicep work in here along with the triceps exercises.
Instructions: Do 10-12 reps of each of the two exercises, three times back-to-back, before moving on to the next set.
- Set 1: Tricep Pushdowns to Bicep Curls
Pro tip: Each time you do the workout, use a different handle or grip for the pushdowns.
- Set 2: Close-Grip Bench Press to Narrow-Grip Push-Ups
Pro tip: Do the close-grip bench press with a set of dumbbells and hold the dumbbells with different grip positions to target different parts of your triceps muscles.
- Set 3: Dips to Pull-ups
Pro tip: You can do the assisted version of both if desired.
- Set 4: Skull Crusher to Kickbacks
Pro tip: Aim for 15 reps of the Skull Crushers but keep the Kickbacks at 10-12.
Having strong arms is important to support almost every upper body movement that you do each day, and your triceps are quite often the ones that do the heavy lifting. Everyday movements like pushing a door open, pushing a shopping cart or a stroller, using a lawnmower, throwing a baseball, shooting a basketball, using a hammer, or lifting a heavy box over your head onto a high shelf, all rely on you having strong triceps.
Being strong is important and an added bonus of having strong arms is that they also look more firm, toned, awesome—and yes, if that’s what you’re looking for, less jiggly.
For more arm info, jiggle tips, and to join the toning conversation, head over to Facebook.com/GetFitGuy or twitter.com/getfitguy. Also don’t forget to subscribe to the Get-Fit Guy podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play or via RSSopens XML file .
About the Author
Brock Armstrong was the host of the Get-Fit Guy podcast between 2017 and 2021. He is a certified AFLCA Group Fitness Leader with a designation in Portable Equipment, NCCP and CAC Triathlon Coach, and a TnT certified run coach. He is also on the board of advisors for the Primal Health Coach Institute and a guest faculty member of the Human Potential Institute.