When you stretch your triceps by raising your arms overhead and then extend your elbows, your triceps grow more than when you don’t stretch them.
Scientific Claim
Overhead triceps extensions, which place the long head of the triceps at a longer muscle length, produce greater hypertrophy in the long head compared to pushdowns that maintain a shorter length.
Original Statement
“As for the biotic head of the triceps, called the long head, we have two studies comparing overhead extensions to push downs. The triceps long head will be placed at a longer length with the arm overhead. The two papers have seemingly conflicting results, but I'd argue that the stronger study design demonstrates greater longhead hypertrophy from overhead extensions.”
Context Details
Domain
exercise
Population
human
Subject
overhead triceps extensions
Action
produce
Target
greater hypertrophy in the long head of the triceps compared to pushdowns
Intervention Details
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
Triceps brachii hypertrophy is substantially greater after elbow extension training performed in the overhead versus neutral arm position
When you do triceps exercises with your arms overhead, your triceps muscle stretches more, and this study found that makes the long part of the muscle grow bigger than when you do the same exercise with your arms down by your side.