When people want muscular arms, they think that doing only bicep exercises will do the job. However, the key to big arms are tricep exercises, not bicep exercises. The tricep muscle takes about 70% of your whole arm. So if you want a horseshoe-shaped upper arm, you need to be doing a lot of tricep exercises. Due to Covid-19, all gyms are closed in my country. Therefore we need to work out at home. Unless you have access to weights, you have to do it with bodyweight exercises. I made a list of the best bodyweight tricep exercises you can do at home!
Diamond push-ups
We are starting off with diamond push-ups. You start off in a push-up position, but you place your hands together in a diamond shape. When you go down, you sure feel how much of a tricep exercise this is. Because your hands are close together, you only use your tricep muscle to push yourself back up. Doing a few sets of these will definitely set your tricep on fire.
Bench dips
For the next exercise, you are going to need an object or elevated surface. This exercise seems like an easier version of the traditional dip, however it’s not. Start in the position you see video below. Slowly go down until you reach a 90-degree angle with your arms. Push back up and repeat. To make the exercise a little bit easier, you can bend your legs. Also, make sure you do not go too deep you will hurt or even injure your shoulders.
Bodyweight tricep extensions(bar)
This exercise replicates the well-known tricep extension. However, we don’t need a whole cable mechanism with this exercise. All you need is a bar, a few decimeters above the ground. Grab the bar with a tight grip, and keep your body straight. Then, bend your elbows and try to get your head under the bar. Get back up and repeat the motion again. You can change the difficulty of the exercise by adjusting the height of the bar.
Bodyweight tricep extensions(floor)
Basically the same as the previous exercise, but this time it is on the ground. You do the same movement. However, your hands are not holding a bar, but you place them on the floor. As shown in the video, you are in a straight-arm plank position. You bend your elbows until they touch the ground and push yourself back up again. Besides a triceps exercise, you will also feel your abs after doing a couple of sets of these.
Bar dips
With the traditional dip, the focus lays less on the tricep(also a chest exercise) like in the other exercises I mentioned above. Yet, it will still do the job. For this exercise, you need a set of dip bars. You can buy these, make these, or find these at a calisthenics park. Place your hands shoulder-width apart on the bars. Bend your arm to a 90-degree angle and push yourself back up. And again, don’t go down too deeply, you will hurt yourself.
Bonus: The impossible dip
For the advanced calisthenics practices and those who want to step-up their tricep game, I challenge you to try the impossible dip.
If you never did these exercises before, you will probably fail when doing them. The impossible dip is an insanely challenging tricep exercise. If you are able to perform this exercise with perfect form, you already have superhuman triceps, without a doubt. Training for this skill can really help you build a strong horseshoe-shaped tricep. It is a bit different way of training instead of all those boring basic exercises.