Another pretty awesome benefit of
leucine is that when the body breaks it
down in the muscles, another sub-
stance is formed as a result of this
breakdown: HMB. What you need to
know about HMB, as a lifter, is that it’s
an extremely powerful anti-catabolic
substance, meaning it prevents the
body from eating its own muscle tissue.
However, only about 3 to 5 percent of
the leucine you take in is converted to
HMB. The rest is used to build muscle
and stimulate mTOR.
Of course, you can buy HMB as a
supplement. I recommend the calcium
salt form (it comes as a free acid too).
Consider taking it three times a day
with your breakfast, lunch and dinner.
It’ll provide an anti-catabolic muscle
shield, so to speak, pretty much around
the clock. As long as you are consum-
ing enough calories, your body will
be in a near-constant anabolic state
(which means it’s building things,
namely muscle).
The triceps is a three-headed muscle
that, generally speaking, originates in
the shoulder region and inserts just
below the elbow, on the posterior
(back) side of the arm. The three heads
are called the medial head (closest to
your ribs), long head (on the back side
of your arm, forms the inside of the
wishbone) and lateral head (on the
outside of your arm, forms the outside
of the wishbone). The muscle actions
the triceps performs are various and
essential: It pulls your elbow down from
an overhead position, extends your
elbow (straightens your arm) and also
plays a role in pronation of your hand
(turns your hand palm-down).
Training Your Triceps
So why do you need to know all this
science and anatomy info? Simple: You
need to know the muscle actions to
train them.
With that in mind, what follows are four
different moves that will help you build
bigger triceps. Not sure why we picked
these? Rest easy. We give you a short
explanation of what action it is working
on and why it’s important.
• Close-grip bench press works on
extension of the elbow and pronation
of the hands. Of course, that’s if you’re
doing it right. Also, you can’t really
hope to get large without at least one
THE WORKOUT
Dumbbell Shrugs On Back Day
EXERCISE
SETS
REPS Now this is just a
So where do you put these moves in your
workout?
Chin-Up
3 push 30
recommendation, but on your arm day,
day, back and tris, or whatever,
V-Bar
Pulldown
3 Be sure
12 to perform all moves in
do the
following as your triceps workout.
Wide
Grip Behind
The For
Neck
Pulldown
straight-set
format.
example,
do all 2 sets of 8 exercise one first, then all sets
T-Bar
Row two and so on. Also, select 3 a weight
12 that allows you to complete
of exercise
Dumbbell
Shrug reps, but no more.
4
12/10/8/6
the prescribed
EXERCISE
Close-Grip Bench Press
Rolling Skullcrusher
Pullover Press
Pressdown
*X= as many reps as possible
“
SETS
4
4
4
4
The muscle actions
the triceps performs
are various and
essential: It pulls your
elbow down from an
overhead position,
extends your elbow
(straightens your
arm) and also plays
a role in pronation of
your hand (turns your
hand palm-down).
“
the other two essential amino acids:
Isoleucine and valine.
REPS
12
15
12
X*
big, compound (multi-joint)
lift in your workout. And no,
traditional skullcrushers don’t
count – the wrist and elbow
are minor joints. The fact that
heavy compound moves acti-
vate mTOR is an added benefit
of this move.
• Rolling skullcrushers pull the
arms out of an overhead posi-
tion and also extend the elbow.
Two joints, two muscle actions
worked on and two heads of
the triceps emphasized.
• Pullover presses mainly
focus on elbow extension. But,
similar to the rolling skull-
crusher, they work on pulling
the arms out of that overhead
position as well. Again, two
muscle actions, two joints
worked and two heads of the
triceps involved.
• Pressdowns are unique in
the way that they can work on
all three muscle actions and
are best used as a finishing
move. Why? Although there
are a lot of joints involved, you
have to keep it light due to
the degree of hand pronation
required to do the move cor-
rectly. All three major muscle
actions and all three heads
stressed in this movement.
Use this workout for eight
weeks and your triceps are
sure to grow. Feel free to do
this workout as many times as
you want per week, as long as
you’re not sore prior to starting
it. You’ll be sore the first couple
of times you try this. Consider
yourself warned.
ironmanmagazine.com | AUGUST 2017 71