Pursuing massive upper arms is a magical quest for almost every guy who picks up a barbell. This mystic lure is the same whether the person is an average bodybuilder who is not yet famous, or is among the list of gifted bodybuilders-turned actors. Long before the Terminator sequels, the upper arms of Arnold Schwarzenegger were said to stretch to a pumped 22 inches. It was not by accident that the same determination that went into building those arms, helped create a successful acting career, with seemingly endless body counts to his credit. In the days when Arnold competed, very few bodybuilders actually made the tape measure stretch past the elusive 20-inch mark, so his accomplishment was not trivial. More recent history indicates many bodybuilders today can stretch their pumped arms past the 20-inch mark; a few have even reached beyond 22-23 inches.

There are a number of reasons for the improvements in mass and shape, but the most important is training specialization and attention to all the details and aspects of the upper arm. No matter how genetically gifted, no one will ever reach the 20-inch arm without investing a lot of sweat into the posterior arms. Sure, most bodybuilders equate a massive upper arm with vein popping rock hard biceps, and if this fits your thoughts, you have likely also built your training program around this philosophy. While that is certainly not a bad concept, it is limiting, because almost two-thirds of the upper arm can be potentially derived from the triceps muscle. The triceps is really a huge upper arm muscle with massive potential for expansion. It actually has more muscle fibers and has a greater genetic potential for overall growth than the genetically smaller biceps. If you concentrate most of your arm training energy on the biceps, you are developing a muscle that has the potential to be only about one-third of your upper arm. That philosophy will never enable you to break the 20-inch arm barrier. Thus, if your quest is for huge and iron-hard arms that stretch the tape measure toward and beyond that barrier, you must give some special attention to your triceps muscles.

    Structure and Function
    The main function of the triceps brachii is to extend the forearm at the elbow joint. The triceps is a three-headed muscle (tri = three; ceps = heads). The fibers in all three-muscle heads taper to attach to a common triceps tendon. The tendon crosses the elbow joint to attach to the olecrenon on the ulna bone of the forearm. Therefore, contraction of the triceps brachii muscle extends the forearm at the elbow (straightens the elbow joint). The long head of the triceps brachii (to a bodybuilder this is the "inner head") begins on the scapula (shoulder blade) just inferior to (below) the head of the humerus bone at the shoulder joint. Because this muscle belly crosses the shoulder joint posteriorly, the arm should be moved posteriorly into shoulder extension (i.e., arms and elbows back) to fully stretch and activate this muscle head. The lateral head of the triceps brachii creates the outside (lateral) boundary of the triceps. Its fibers run from a small section of bone on the posterior part of the humerus (upper arm bone) starting about 2/3 of the way toward the shoulder joint and stopping short of the shoulder joint.  The medial head of the triceps brachii lies deeper and between the other two heads of the triceps. It encompasses two-thirds of the upper and posterior part of the humerus bone. It’s a very thick muscle, especially further up the arm toward the shoulder.


Skull Crushers (Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions)
Many triceps exercises are able to specialize on the lateral or medial aspects of this three-headed muscle. Lying triceps extensions, or “skull crushers” as they are called, is an exercise that hits all the regions of the triceps almost uniformly. They are also a great way to pack triceps mass quickly, because it’s intense and strict, but you can still hoist impressive poundages that will activate even the deepest fibers of this dense muscle. It is also reassuring that some of the greatest triceps builders, like skull crushers, can arrive by very simple and basic approaches and without the need for fancy or expensive equipment. In fact, all you really need is a barbell, a bench, and a gut-busting attitude to obtain the biggest triceps possible. It is an extremely effective exercise, but one you must not do sloppily. It is also important that you have a competent partner that will spot you as you begin to fatigue.

1.    Lie supine on a bench. Straighten your elbows and have a partner hand you a barbell as if you were at the top part of a bench press. However, move your hands close together so there’s about three inches between your thumbs. The palms of your hands should be facing in a pronated position (palms facing away from your face).

2.    Move the barbell so it’s now over your eyes. Keep your elbows pointed forward and your upper arm should be perpendicular to the floor. Keep your upper arm in this position as you slowly bend your elbows and lower the bar toward your forehead. Your elbow should point up toward the ceiling and not toward your feet as the bar is lowered toward your forehead.

3.    Continue the slow controlled descent of the bar, but stop just before the knuckles of your hands touch your forehead. Do this in a carefully controlled manner unless you like the look of permanently tattooed knuckle prints imbedded in your forehead.

4.    Try to keep your elbows pointing toward the ceiling, but let them move up toward your head as your hands approach your forehead. Reverse the bar’s direction by straightening your elbows and push the weight upward. Your hands should be in a line directly over your eyes as the bar is moving upward. Stop just short of completely locking out your elbow before returning the bar slowly toward your forehead.

5.    Make sure your partner is alert so that when you are no longer able to push the bar upward, your partner can safely move the bar and assist in the lift. There is no need to be a hero who does not ask for a spot, and then loses control of the bar part way through the set. It is not without reason that this exercise is called skull crushers!

Important Tips
This is a severe but effective triceps exercise because the actions are rather strict and your upper arms are not allowed to move around as your hands approach your forehead. The shoulder position puts enough stretch on the long head of the triceps so that it is activated, but there is not excessive stretch that would overly emphasize this head. In this way, all three heads of the triceps achieve relatively equal activation.

Because you will be hoisting some heavy iron before too long, it’s important that you do a few light warm-up sets before hitting the serious stuff. This is not so much a requirement for the muscles, but your elbow joints will definitely thank you down the road, if you invest in a few warm-up sets before each triceps day.

You can choose to do this exercise with an E-Z curl bar instead of a straight barbell, but this hand position will tend to shift some of the emphasis towards the lateral head of the triceps and it will tend to de-emphasize the long head of the triceps.
If you have always started your arm workout by training biceps, you should instead begin your arm days with triceps training. You will find that the extra energy at the beginning of your workout will allow you to stack the weights up just a bit more and push a little harder. This larger muscle will respond amazingly quickly to skull crushers and your posterior arm will quickly take on a new width and depth. If you wait until you have already hit a few body parts, your triceps will continue to lag and not quite reach their potential size.

If you stick with skull crushers for a few months, you’ll find that your effort will pay off. Your strength, mass and shape will all leap upward. Furthermore, you will soon be filling up the other two-thirds of your shirtsleeves. With a bit of effort, you can joint the 20-inch plus arm group. Your investment strategy will provide huge dividends if you buy into the fact that you cannot approach your ultimate arm size without adding shredded rock- like mass to your triceps. Skull crushers should be one of the basic cornerstones for your triceps training assault as you fulfill your quest for the ultimate arm.


References

Alway S.E., W.H. Grumbt, J. Stray-Gundersen, and W.J. Gonyea, Contrasts in muscle and myofibers of elite male and female bodybuilders. J. Appl. Physiol.  67:27-311, 1989.
Jurimae J, Abernethy PJ, Blake K and McEniery MT. Changes in the myosin heavy chain isoform profile of the triceps brachii muscle following 12 weeks of resistance training. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 74: 287-292, 1996.
Kanehisa H, Nagareda H, Kawakami Y, Akima H, Masani K, Kouzaki M and Fukunaga T. Effects of equivolume isometric training programs comprising medium or high resistance on muscle size and strength. Eur J Appl Physiol 87: 112-119, 2002.
MacDougall JD, Sale DG, Elder GC and Sutton JR. Muscle ultrastructural characteristics of elite powerlifters and bodybuilders. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 48: 117-126, 1982.
Mayhew J.L., J.S. Ware, R.A. Johns, M.G. Bemben. Changes in upper body power following heavy-resistance strength training in college men. Int. J. of Sports Med. 18:516-20, 1997.
Moore, K.L. and A.F. Daley. Clinical orientated anatomy, 4th edition. Lippincott William s & Wilkins, Philadelphia, pp.665-724, 1999.
Rasch, P.J. Kinesiology and Applied Anatomy, 7th edition. Philadelphia, London. Lea & Febiger, pp.117-120, 1989.

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