Workout 20: Triceps & Abs
Tricep Exercises
1. Dip
- Hold your body above the bars with your arms fully extended and nearly locked into the starting position.
- Inhale and slowly lower yourself downward. Your torso should remain upright and your elbows should stay close to your body to help to better work your triceps. Lower yourself until a 90° angle is created between your upper arms and forearms.
- Exhale and push your torso back up using your triceps (feeling a slight stretch in your shoulders) to bring your body back to the starting position.
2. Overhead Rope Extension
- Start standing with your feet shoulder width apart and dumbbells held in front of you.
- Raise the dumbbells above your head until your arms are stretched out straight.
- Slowly lower the weights back behind your head, being careful not to flare your elbows out too much.
- Once your forearms move beyond parallel to the floor bring the weight back up to the starting position.
- Repeat!
*Your upper arms and elbows should remain in place throughout the movement
3. Tricep Kickback
- Start with a dumbbell in each hand and your palms facing your torso.
- Keep your back straight, with a slight bend in the knees, and bend forward at the waist. Your torso should be almost parallel to the floor. Make sure to keep your head up. Your upper arms should be close to your torso and parallel to the floor. Your forearms should be pointed towards the floor as you hold the weights. There should be a 90-degree angle formed between your forearm and upper arm. This is your starting position.
- Now, while keeping your upper arms stationary, exhale and use your triceps to lift the weights until the arm is fully extended. Focus on moving the forearm.
- After a brief pause at the top contraction, inhale and slowly lower the dumbbells back down to the starting position.
- Repeat the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions.
*You can also do this exercise one arm at a time.
4. Diamond Push-Up
- Start by lying on the floor face down with your hands closer than shoulder-width apart. Hold your torso up at arm’s length.
- Lower yourself until your chest almost touches the floor.
- Using your triceps, press your upper body back up and squeeze your chest.
5. Crossbody Tricep Extension
- This is similar to the ordinary single arm tricep extension you’ve been doing, only here you’re extending across your body rather than straight down and back. The crossbody extension focuses on the lateral head while the ordinary tricep extension hits the long head in the back of the arm (although both exercises work the entire tricep!
- Lift a cable pulley all the way up and make sure there’s a single arm handle on it.
- Grab the handle, and stand horizontally in relation to the the cable like the picture above.
- Keeping your elbow in place and your wrist still, pull down and out until your tricep is completely flexed, hold for a moment, and slowly go back to the starting position.
- Switch sides when you’ve finished.
Ab Exercises
1. V-Up
- Lie straight on your back with your legs together and your arms together, straight above your head.
- In one motion, raise your legs off the floor while keeping them straight. Also raise your torso and hands to meet your legs in the middle of your body.
- Repeat!
2. Bicycle Crunch
- Lie flat with your lower back pressed to the ground. Place your hands behind your head slightly above your neck. Lift your shoulders into a crunch position.
- Raise yours legs so that your thighs are perpendicular to the ground and your shins parallel to the ground.
- Simultaneously, slowly go through a cycle pedal motion kicking forward with the right leg while pulling in the knee of the left leg.
- Bring your right elbow close to your left knee by crunching to the side. Then crunch to the opposite side as you cycle your legs and bring your left elbow closer to your right knee.
- Alternate sides.
3. Hanging Leg Lift
- Hang from a chin-up bar with both arms extended at arms length in top of you using either a wide grip or a medium grip. The legs should be straight down with the pelvis rolled slightly backwards. This will be your starting position.
- Raise your legs until the torso makes a 90-degree angle with the legs. Hold for 0.5-1 seconds.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
4. Plank
- Position yourself face-down on the ground and place your hands shoulder width apart. Keeping your back as straight as possible, push your body off the ground, through your hands.
- Inhale as you lower yourself downward, until your chest nearly touches the ground.
- Exhale and press your upper body back up to the starting position while squeezing your chest, arms, and abdominal muscles.