Q: I’m a big fan of Position-of-Flexion mass training. Hitting the three “angles” for each muscle just makes so much sense, and I know stretch overload builds mass (bird study, etc.). That brings me to my question: The overhead triceps extension with a barbell, dumbbell, cable or two dumbbells, hurts my elbows. My triceps need fullness and sweep, so I don’t want to skip that stretch-overload exercise. What can I do to avoid the old pain-to-gain myth?
A: That’s a common complaint with overhead extensions. While it produces a great stretch for the long head of the tri’s, it can also irritate the elbow joint.
One of our favorite alternate exercises for triceps stretch is cable pushouts using either a rope or a short bar. Because the pull is angled up, not straight back, the elbow stress is much less…
So your POF triceps routine might be 1) close-grip bench presses for midrange, 2) cable pushouts for stretch and 3) pushdowns for contracted.
If your elbows are seriously inflamed, and you can’t even do pushouts, use DB pullovers. The long head of the triceps participate big time when the upper arms move from overhead to over the chest—and there’s zero elbow stress…
You’ll feel the lats and tri’s working to pack on new size.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com