Tricep extension
Cable tricep pushdown
Works
Equipment
How to do it
- Stand facing the high pulley with a straight bar and a pronated grip.
- Keep your elbows pinned to your sides and your torso slightly leaning.
- Extend your elbows by pushing the bar down until your arms straighten.
- Squeeze your triceps at the bottom without moving your elbows.
- Return under control until your elbows bend to 90 degrees.
Common mistakes
- Letting the elbows leave your sides
- Using torso weight to push
- Not fully straightening the arms at the bottom
What the evidence says
Over 12 weeks, training one arm overhead and the other with the arm at the side, the overhead arm grew about 1.4–1.5 times more: +28.5% vs +19.6% in the long head and +19.9% vs +13.9% in the whole triceps — and that with lighter absolute loads. If you only keep one extension variation, make it the overhead one.
Maeo S, Wu Y, Huang M, et al. «Triceps brachii hypertrophy is substantially greater after elbow extension training performed in the overhead versus neutral arm position». European Journal of Sport Science, 2023. View the study
In trained lifters, eight weeks of doing only the lengthened half of the range produced the same elbow-extensor growth as full range of motion. The non-negotiable part is the bottom, the stretch: you can cut the lockout without losing anything.
Wolf M, Androulakis Korakakis P, Piñero A, et al. «Lengthened partial repetitions elicit similar muscular adaptations as full range of motion repetitions during resistance training in trained individuals». PeerJ, 2025. View the study
At 0° of shoulder elevation the triceps long head generates the most force; from 90° upwards the medial head takes over as the main elbow extensor. So the overhead position isn't where the long head contributes most — and it's still where it grows most.
Kholinne E, Zulkarnain RF, Sun YC, Lim S, Chun JM, Jeon IH. «The different role of each head of the triceps brachii muscle in elbow extension». Acta Orthopaedica et Traumatologica Turcica, 2018. View the study
What isn't settled: What's well measured is shoulder position (overhead vs at the side). What isn't is the comparison between the actual variations: nobody has compared lying EZ-bar extensions vs cable pushdowns vs kickbacks over time at matched volume. The kickback in particular has no growth study at all — only the suspicion that it loads the triceps at its shortest length.
Other variations
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