Regional Triceps Hypertrophy Training (Long vs Lateral vs Medial Heads) and How It’s Already Affecting You!

Aloha my friends!

Today I want to share with you one way in which the three heads of the triceps (long, lateral & medial) are differentially activated!

Now, it’s important to understand that there are MANY different methods, techniques, exercises, etc. that you can use to preferentially activate and grow the different triceps heads — I have about 20 of them so far in the Regional Hypertrophy Training section of my All-Access Memberships, with another 15 still needing to be uploaded — so today I’m just giving you ONE of them.

It’s an important one though, because it’s already affecting YOUR training results whether you realize it or not! It’s more of an overarching principle than a specific technique.

Here’s what it is:

• MULTI-JOINT (aka compound) exercises involving the triceps engage / shift load to the LATERAL (“outer”) head more than the long head! (The lateral head is highlighted in yellow-orange below)

• SINGLE-JOINT (aka isolation) exercises targeting the triceps engage / shift load to the LONG (“inner”) head more than the lateral! (The long head is now highlighted in yellow-orange below)

• While the MEDIAL (“middle”) head tends to be equally engaged with both types of exercises.

One reason this is ESSENTIAL to understand is that many people think they don’t need to do isolation triceps exercises, since they’ll already be worked during chest exercises like the bench press.

Now you know what’s wrong with that! If you only work your triceps via compound exercises, you’ll develop uneven / imbalanced triceps with an under-developed long head (which is the largest of the three)!

Researchers haven’t yet discovered exactly what causes this regional effect / why it happens… but I can deduce at least one reason by applying knowledge of muscular anatomy. Multi-joint triceps exercises almost always combine elbow extension with shoulder FLEXION (i.e. in a bench press movement)… which is the opposite of what the long head of the triceps does at the shoulder (it performs shoulder EXTENSION). So while one end of the long head is being shortened, the other end is being extended, making it unable to exert as much force, leaving more of the load on the lateral head, which is the next strongest!

Application: You need to work the triceps with both MULTI and SINGLE-JOINT exercises to effectively build the LATERAL and LONG HEADS!

Side Note: Research has also shown that the ORDER in which you perform multi vs single-joint exercises also significantly affects regional triceps hypertrophy… but we’ll save that for another day!

Relevant Previous FTF Tip(s):

1) Week 22  | Position-Specific Hypertrophy – Overhead VS Neutral Tricep Extensions

2) Week 16  | How to Work the Triceps Long Head at Max Contraction

Relevant Research Article(s):

1) Varying the Order of Combinations of Single- and Multi-Joint Exercises Differentially Affects Resistance Training Adaptations

Relevant Dr. Gains YouTube Video(s):

1) Use This Triceps Long & Lateral Head Alternating Combo Exercise for Balanced Tricep Growth!!

Relevant Dr. Gains Workout Program(s):

1) Hypertrophy Series Biceps & Triceps Program

2) Regional Hypertrophy Training