Most people love to train arms.

If you’re one of those people, you’ve likely done every exercise variation for the biceps and triceps that you think of.

But not all arm exercises are created equally. Some arm exercises are much more sensible than others in terms of maximizing the stimulus to the biceps and triceps.

What are the qualities of an exercise that allow us to maximize a stimulus?

The exercise…

• Uses a resistance that requires the target tissue to respond.

• Is stable - meaning that it’s easy to create motion where we want it and limit motion where we don’t.

• Is straightforward to learn - meaning that it isn’t overly complex to coordinate (and this goes hand-in-hand with stability).

• Is easy to progress - meaning that we can add more weight or more reps seamlessly over time.

Many of the “traditional” biceps variations check these boxes: exercises like preacher curls, EZ bar curls, cable curls, and machine curls all are relatively easy to stabilize, learn, and progress.

But many of the traditional triceps variations - in my estimation - are a bit more difficult for people to stabilize.

And this is because of a clear physical difference between curls and extensions.

When we do curling variations, it’s very easy to set up using benches, preacher curl pads, and even our own body (in the case of “concentration curls”) to stabilize the shoulder so that we can just focus on curling.

But in order to stabilize the shoulder to train triceps, we need to be more intentional - and perhaps be willing to look weird - to stabilize the same way.

The Triceps Stability Conundrum

When we perform the common cable triceps extension - whether with 1 or 2 arms - the cable pulls our entire arm forward and upward, like this:

Many people tend to just assume that the only loaded joints here are the ones in the hand, wrist, forearm, and elbow.

But the shoulder functions as the anchor off of which we can move the forearm and hand.

Because the cable pulls the hand upward and forward, it pulls the entire upper arm forward with it, as the green arrow indicates here:

Unlike in a traditional biceps curl setup, we can’t put something behind the elbow (in this case) to create stability at the shoulder.

And this is why you often see people moving their shoulders all over the place while they’re performing triceps extensions - common examples include rounding/slumping the shoulders forward, swinging the arms forward and backward, and shrugging the shoulders upward in an attempt to push the weight downward.

The addition of shoulder motion isn’t always detrimental to the stimulus we receive in our triceps, but it makes these kinds of motions much more difficult to manage, learn, and progress.

On occasion, people also report feeling a variety of discomforts and “clunkiness” in the shoulders and elbows, which I believe to be a consequence of not having easily accessible anchors to control and limit shoulder motion as we do extensions.

So what can we do about this?

Anchoring For The Triceps

If a cable is pulling the shoulder forward in a triceps extension motion, we need an external object that is going to prevent the shoulder from moving in the forward direction - meaning that we often need something in FRONT of the upper arm to prevent it from getting pulled forward and upward.

There are exceptions to this rule - which we’ll touch on later - but in many cases, the shoulders end up moving all over the place to the detriment of stimulus and comfort.

One way to anchor the upper arm for triceps extensions is with some kind of belt or chain. I love using daisy chains (which are very cheap on Amazon) to do this:

The red arrow represents the direction that the daisy chain is pulling my arm - as long as I’m leaning into it - and the green arrow represents the direction that the cable is attempting to move my arm (just like in the variation above, forward and upward).

This may appear silly to some of you, but remember that this is NO different conceptually compared to something like a traditional preacher curl, where the pad supports the back side of the arm instead.

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of buying, using, and learning how to set up a daisy chain to support the arm (which admittedly can be difficult to do, at first), there are several other strategies we can use.

The key here is to focus on the principles, rather than the specific implement of your choice. For most triceps extension variations, we just need to find a way to support the front side of the arm.

Here’s another way that you can do this, using your OWN body instead:

The green arrow again represents the direction my working arm is being pulled by the cable. The red arrow on the left represents the direction my opposite hand is pushing (to directly stabilize the working arm) and the red arrow on the right represents the cable column’s force direction against that support.

You can also do this without leaning into the cable column itself, but it may be a little more difficult to coordinate.

Here’s another example of a similar concept, where I’m using my non-working hand (and forehead!) to support my working arm:

Again, the green arrow represents the direction my upper arm is being pulled, while the red arrow represents my own stability creation against the working arm.

Do Benches Work, Too?

Supporting the biceps side of the upper arm is not a hard and fast rule for stabilizing triceps training and using a bench to support the back side of the arm can also work.

While the direction of stability may not be as specific (in some cases) to the forces of the exercise, in my estimation, something to shove the upper arm into is more stable compared to not having anything at all.

Here’s an example of me doing an overhead extension with a bench support:

You can also use the cable column itself to stabilize the upper arm if the cable is oriented backward, like this (the variant I sent on yesterday’s newsletter):

Does Every Triceps Extension Need Anchoring?

If your goals are to train the triceps with a static upper arm position, I highly recommend finding something to use for stability, whether on the front or back side of the arm.

There are several different triceps variations, however, where the goal is best served by intentionally including motion of the upper arm, as in an exercise like these two:

As long as your goal is being accomplished, and you feel a clear rate-limiter in the triceps compared to every other muscle group, you’ve got a solid exercise option.

There is no single way to correctly anchor a triceps extension - so, play around with the equipment you have access to (using these principles), and find out what is most practical and comfortable for you!