Do they even exist? I have some pretty bad elbow (or triceps) tendonitis, but it MAY be getting a little better. I found changing up some movements for chest made a difference, wondering about the same thing for tri’s. Pushdowns may be okay. I personally can’t stand kickbacks. Thinking about trying close grip press on a decline, don’t know if that will be any easier on the joints. I also might try a slightly wider grip, I used to go only as wide as about may be 8 inches or so.
Yes, I would vote for anything that has a pressing pattern, over 100% elbow extention. Dips are king but if you have a pushdown machine, go for that, as the movement is similar without loading the joint in the hole.
I would think close grip bench or close grip floor presses would be elbow friendly. Out of interest mutantcolors when you say dips are king for triceps are you talking about parallel bar dips ?
Most everyone has access to parallel or V bar dips. I am clueless about how rings affect the joint, but my inclination is to say they’d be less stable and thus less ideal for a bad elbow.
They are a hell of a lot harder, I can say that.
Mutantcolors at the moment I only use close grip bench for my triceps as i’m trying to improve my bench but I would be interested to know if your triceps have got bigger from using dips and if it helped your bench or do you use both dips and close grip benches in your work outs ?
Hello everybody, I just signed up here and this is my first post.
I had really bad tendinitis in both elbows for a number of years, excruciating pain would wake me up in the middle of the night throbbing!
I finally overcame it by moderating the weights I was using and using higher rep ranges. It took a long time for it to heal but now I can train heavy again with no problems. Locking out hard under heavy loads on bench presses and not controlling the weight on tricep exercises are murder on elbows.
band pressdowns
also some good tips for tris/elbows here…
In all honesty, I am probably the last guy on the board to chime in about bench press. All time max of…205. Look out now!
I do use dips for triceps though, and while I have a fairly unimpressive set of arms, they have certainly helped out in the horse shoe department.
Extension movements where you are not completely keeping the elbow fixed about a single point. Essentially a pullover at the start, extension at the end. See the TRICEPS thread for ideas.
Wow, yeah, I spaced that one. Pullovers with elbow extension at the top HAMMER my tris. Be careful in the hole, that might wake up your elbows if you go heavy enough.