I have done them on and off for years with no elbow pain. However, I have had friends who have complained of elbow pain when doing them. The biggest problem was that they were using too much weight!
As with any isolation movement, you need to keep the weight a bit lighter and go for perfect form.
Sa the gut busting heavy poundages for the big lifts!
Zeb
I’ve never felt much stimulation from them. I found close-grip benches and board presses (pin-presses actually) to feel like they’re working my triceps much more effectively.
My personals experience with skullcrushers is like a lot of previous posters, that they are needlessly hard on the elbows.
Ted Arcidi did these frequently and HEAVY and ended up with calcification of his elbow joints.
I prefer weighted dips and lockouts for working the triceps heavy. I do lat machine pushdowns or tate presses for light, higher-rep work.
Any thoughts on the california press? http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459550
Still rough on the elbows?
the general thought seems to be that the traditional barbell skullcrusher is simply not worth it, especially when there are more effective (and safer movements to choose from). There also seems to be several who feel that when done with dumbells and “near perfect” form, the skullcrusher is an exercise which can be done safely and effectively.
I happen to love doing just about any tricep movement ( NGBP, Dips) from the bottom position, ie having the bar on pins and pushing from a deadstop position-I even have my dip bars set up this way.
I also like and reccomend doing a narrow grip press, on a 80 degree incline bench, starting the bar from the pins that are level with the forehead/hairline area. I guess you call these a seated half tricep press-very, very effective.
Good Stuff Everyone
How are you guys doing them that they cause your elbows so much pain?
Is it a weight issue? Or is it a form issue?
I train alone, so I don’t really know what ‘heavy’ is, but I consistently use over 120 pounds and I have never had so much as a twinge of pain in my elbow.
I dropped it on my head once, but still - no pain.
I like skullcrushers, but find it quite awkward to do heavy weight; but they’re one of the few tricep exercises I really feel them working. Dips are hard but they don’t feel like they really target the triceps even when doing them straight up and down; but when I superset them with skullcrushers my triceps get trashed.
So far I like dips and CGB press, superseted with either skullcrushers or cable pressdowns.
I haven’t quantified and difference in gains between the different exercises, but based on the feeling they give me I still think skullcrushers have merit as long as the form is good and the weight isn’t too heavy. When I see guys swinging their arms in a pullover/skullcrusher move with their lower bodies bouncing off the bench - that’s when it becomes a bad exercise.
Dropped it on your head and no pain?
Dude, that’s not a good sign.
[quote]Keith Wassung wrote:
I also like and reccomend doing a narrow grip press, on a 80 degree incline bench, starting the bar from the pins that are level with the forehead/hairline area. I guess you call these a seated half tricep press-very, very effective. Good Stuff Everyone[/quote]
Keith,
I’ve done a similar lift. Seated at~ 80 degrees. Narrow grip. Then I bring the bar all the way down to a military press start position - bar on shoulders. It forces less weight. More delt work at the bottom and then finishes the tris. I get a warm fuzzy feeling from full ROM narrow grip presses from horizontal all the way to vertical.
Anyone do overhead lockouts? I have done them a few times in a cage, with pins, while seated … actually felt pretty good.
BFG
[quote]michaelv wrote:
Dropped it on your head and no pain?
Dude, that’s not a good sign.[/quote]
it’s rainjack. all he knows is numbers. he only uses 10% of the 10% that most of us use. the rest is empty - full of nothingness - so he felt NOTHING.
BFG
[quote]rainjack wrote:
How are you guys doing them that they cause your elbows so much pain?
Is it a weight issue? Or is it a form issue?
I train alone, so I don’t really know what ‘heavy’ is, but I consistently use over 120 pounds and I have never had so much as a twinge of pain in my elbow.
I dropped it on my head once, but still - no pain. [/quote]
hey amigo,
they always hurt me from the very first warmup set with only the 22.5# ez-curl bar. (why does that thing weigh 22.5 #s, anyway?) so, since i have no choice but to get older, i opted for getting wiser too. if it hurts in a bad way, i don’t do it. if it hurts in a good way, i do it more.
BFG
I love skullcrushers. Along with weighted dips they are the only isolation work I do for triceps. I always use an EZ bar to take strain off the wrists, and I do them on a flat bench. I use Arnold’s variation of them from his MGTB book. This helps to isolate the triceps better.
The Skullcrusher was one of the main triceps lift for me. Then I started doing them with heavy weight (6 reps range) for a few months and I got the famous elbow pain from it. Thanks goodness it went away in a week. And I was stubborn mofo and try it again and felt the pain again. That’s why I stopped doing it. That was like 6 months ago and I am just start doing them in WM again today. Didn’t brother to go light and I don’t feel any elbow pain, so I guess I can I will be doing it on and off for varieties.
GB
I have always considered Skullcruchers to be the leg extension of arm exercises. For every other exercise, we try to incorporate more than one plain of movement, but then we break out the skullcrushers? That never made any sense to me.
[quote]Massif wrote:
I have always considered Skullcruchers to be the leg extension of arm exercises. For every other exercise, we try to incorporate more than one plain of movement, but then we break out the skullcrushers? That never made any sense to me.
[/quote]
I’m not a kinesiologist - heck I probably can’t even spell it right.
But it seems to me that skullcrushers - at least the free-weight version - recruit more than just a single muscle. I agree that it is more of an isolation move than CGBP’s, or dips, but you do recruit a bunch of stabilizers if you are moving much weight.
Besides - I like them, and I will use them and defend my use of them. You can have my skullcrushers when you pry the bar from my indented forehead.
[quote]rainjack wrote:
Massif wrote:
I have always considered Skullcruchers to be the leg extension of arm exercises. For every other exercise, we try to incorporate more than one plain of movement, but then we break out the skullcrushers? That never made any sense to me.
I’m not a kinesiologist - heck I probably can’t even spell it right.
But it seems to me that skullcrushers - at least the free-weight version - recruit more than just a single muscle. I agree that it is more of an isolation move than CGBP’s, or dips, but you do recruit a bunch of stabilizers if you are moving much weight.
Besides - I like them, and I will use them and defend my use of them. You can have my skullcrushers when you pry the bar from my indented forehead.[/quote]
You just like saying “Skullcrushers”, don’t you.
It’s like when someone asks what exercises you do in the gym, do you say “Good Mornings”, which sounds like having a cup of tea and reading the paper, or do you say “Skullcrushers”, which sounds more like you will kill the person if they ask you again.
I hate them.
I have never found a position that doesn’t piss my elbows rigtht off.
I’ve tried varying and tweaking my form, and doing them to my chin, my nose, my forehead… they all bug me.
Instead of skull crushers, I do rope/cable extensions where I’m facing away from the stack. I set the pulley about level with my head, turn my back to it, lunge forward with one leg for balance, and perform “standing rope skull crushers” and they feel just great.
[quote]rainjack wrote:
How are you guys doing them that they cause your elbows so much pain?
Is it a weight issue? Or is it a form issue?
I train alone, so I don’t really know what ‘heavy’ is, but I consistently use over 120 pounds and I have never had so much as a twinge of pain in my elbow.
I dropped it on my head once, but still - no pain. [/quote]
It isn’t a form issue. I go pretty heavy with most movements. That is what causes your arms to grow. This ONE movement hurts my elbows, therefore, it gets eliminated.
They used to be my favourite tri excercise, I found them really benefitical and got good size and strength results. I used heavy weight on low reps, up to 220lbs.
Then I got a really bad pain in my elbows, I have repleced them with heavy dips, floor and board press and have never looked back. I don’t have any pain now and hope to keep it that way !!!
[quote]Massif wrote:
You just like saying “Skullcrushers”, don’t you.
It’s like when someone asks what exercises you do in the gym, do you say “Good Mornings”, which sounds like having a cup of tea and reading the paper, or do you say “Skullcrushers”, which sounds more like you will kill the person if they ask you again.
[/quote]
LOL