The TRX is a one stop training solution – and the [x] best tricep exercises will let you build amazing tricep and core strength at once.
Today we’re discussing the most important TRX tricep exercise choices. Having more tools in your toolbox is always great, and we’ll be covering exercise options that help you make the most of your TRX setup.
We’ll briefly cover the best exercises, how to get the most out of them (using correct form and the right starting position, e.g.), and who they’re for!
TRX Exercise: Training Triceps With Body Weight
The TRX is a suspension training device, with a focus on different types of leverage. This is a great way to build full body strength, emphasizing the triceps but also strengthening related muscles. Especially core strength and the flexion (and extension) of the shoulder.
Training Your Tricep: Bigger Arms With Bodyweight Workouts
The tricep is one of the easiest muscles to train effectively with bodyweight. Even with access to a full suite of free weights and machines, some exercises with the TRX are still going to be the best way to train. Equally, you can use the TRX to get excellent tricep gains at home, without any other equipment.
The tricep is the muscle group that extends the elbow – they’re pushing muscles that are also involved in exercises like the bench press and push-up. The TRX tricep movements we’re discussing today will build around this.
We’re looking at a variety of movements that offer different loads (heavy, medium, and light) as well as different ranges of motion. A good TRX tricep workout will blend these different types of movement to get the best results. Let’s take a quick look at how the tricep works and what you need to do to get the best tricep workout on your TRX.
Building Better Tricep Muscles With a TRX Suspension Trainer
The exercises that we’re looking for do a few things that we really like for building bigger upper arms and a stronger set of pressing muscles:
- Good range: stretch-mediated movements build more muscle and strength, and especially help with control in the most dangerous positions. Each workout should include at least one or two long-range exercises for the elbow joint to keep it safe and strong.
- Compounds: a compound movement is one that uses multiple joints or muscle groups – like the push up. These are primary exercises that you can use at the start to get most of your work done.
- Isolations: the isolation is the opposite of the compound movement – it focuses in on one joint or muscle group to directly build it up. This is the kind of option that should come later in your workout – once you’re getting tired – to focus on the tricep (e.g.).
- Scales: movements that can be made easier or harder on-the-fly are great for finishers and other types of training. They can be adjusted instantly so you can continue with an easier version as you get tired – the best way to keep your bodyweight workout moving!
- Total development: calisthenics training is best when it uses the whole body. Building awareness, control, and co-ordination are great benefits that come from deliberately practicing your body position during a movement. This is a huge bonus.
- Stability and other factors: training is better when you’re developing more than one thing at once. Exercises that help you build functional and transferable skills – like tucked elbows and upper back muscle control – are a priority over less ‘functional’ options.
These are just some of the criteria we look for. The items on our list today will all show at least some of these factors. Combining different options is almost always best to get better results. Let’s look at the best options for your tricep development…
The 6 Best TRX Tricep Exercises
These are the best options to develop your upper arm and pushing strength with just your own bodyweight. Building more strength here is perfect for transferring over to
TRX Tricep Extension
The TRX version of the tricep extension is the best all-purpose TRX tricep options. It’s the ultimate way to build triceps with the core engaged and a full body position- and movement-focus. It helps you build co-ordination and movement control, as well as massive triceps!
The end position stretches the long head of triceps, which is an important part of building bigger arms in a healthy way. It activates the stabilizing muscles around the shoulders, all while lengthening the triceps.
Important: The TRX tricep extension is the basis for almost all of the other exercises on this list, in one way or another. Proper form includes a small lean forwards, with the hands forward (facing up) and high, while you keep the hips and shoulders in the same, ‘straight line’ posture from the starting position.
TRX Push Up
The TRX push up can be performed in many ways – from a horizontal version to the classic ‘ring push up’ style. These allow you to train the chest and triceps more effectively – and in ways that carry over to exercises like the bench press and dip.
These are a simple but super-effective way to train your whole upper body pushing muscles in a way that emphasizes stabilizing muscles and develops proper shoulder and upper back strength and control.
Proper form: As in other exercises, you should try to keep the elbows stable throughout the movement and focus on hinging the elbow. You can adjust the position up and down to make the movement more or less difficult. You can also move your hands closer for more focus on triceps and wider for more focus on chest and shoulders.
You can also focus on locking and externally rotating the arms at the top of the movement. This is a way that gymnasts build amazing shoulder, tricep, and elbow strength. This requires – and builds – stability, strengthening the long head of the tricep where it crosses the shoulder.
You can also make the push up easier or harder by changing the starting position. By raising the feet in the starting position, you make the push up harder. If you lower the feet in the starting position (i.e. raise the hands or the TRX grips), you make it easier.
TRX Dips
TRX dips are a great option for building long-range tricep and chest strength. This is one of the most effective ways to build muscle, accelerating the development of the major pushing muscle groups all at once.
The dip is also great because it has longer range than any other exercise in the chest, and the added body weight (from not having floor-support as in the push up) makes it much heavier. The starting position will require some practice for stability, but it’s one of the most powerful body weight tricep exercises.
This might be more of a chest exercise, but you’ll still build great upper arms. This makes it one of our favorite TRX tricep training options. You can also use the bench dips style variation if you’re struggling with the support position, stability, or challenge of full dips:
TRX Body Weight Skullcrusher
This is a more challenging alternative to the TRX tricep extension we mentioned above. It uses narrow grip with hands forward, with the focus on hinging the elbow, and this makes it a powerful (but difficult) exercise.
Take a high-angle starting position and think about lowering your forehead to where your hands are, lean forward and put all the weight in your arms and elbows!
As before, focus on keeping the core engaged to maintain your starting position everywhere but the elbows. This exercise is a great way to isolate the tricep – and it’s a challenging trx tricep exercise for even the most well-developed calsithenics trainees!
TRX Tricep Kickback
This exercise can be difficult to get the hang of but is a fantastic light isolation exercise to develop the upper arm even after other hard exercises. It’s a perfect ‘finisher’ after heavy dips, push-ups, or similar.
The tricep kickback should focus on keeping the body mostly upright to reduce the difficulty. It works perfectly if you adjust your starting position to make it slowly more easy as you get more tired.
You can lean forward to get started for beginners, where this puts more weight in the feet – and reduces the amount of your body you have to move with the arms.
Tricep Pushdown
This exercise requires a little bit of ingenuity and fine balancing, but it’s a great way to isolate your triceps – especially if you can’t do a great skullcrusher yet. It’s an exercise with a very upright starting position – because the goal is to do lots of reps with less body weight.
This is a perfect choice for a beginner looking to develop stronger arms without the high barrier to entry of the bodyweight skull crusher. This exercise will make you stronger in every other tricep movement, too, which is perfect for other options on this list!
Focus on going light to start with, and presume the worst – you can make it harder over time, which makes it a great choice for scaling up and getting stronger. This is probably the best TRX exercise for beginners looking to build foundational, general strength.
Conclusion
TRX tricep exercises are some of the best possible training choices and force you to develop body awareness and strength. With more calisthenics strength, you’ll have a better sense of your body, and healthier joints, and you’ll be ready to take on more advanced exercise variants.
These come from being disciplined: using leverage to get the right starting position – to make an exercise as hard as you can reasonably achieve – is the key to getting more from any of these exercise options.
They’re all great but making sure you’re using the TRX tricep training properly is key to maximizing your arm growth.
Related Articles
- Bodyweight Tricep Exercises
- Isometric Tricep Exercises
- Lateral Head Tricep Exercises
- Medial Head Tricep Exercises
- Tricep Pushdown Alternatives
- TRX Tricep Exercises
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