Increase Your Bench: Triceps Are The Key

Triceps Are The Key To Unlocking Your Lifting and Bench Potential.

It was January 2006. I had just finished playing my last college football game and my agent flew me out to Scottsdale, Arizona, to prepare for the NFL combine.

The combine consists of multiple tests you have to complete and one of the most important ones, at least for me as linebacker, was the 225-pound bench press rep test. The goal is to simply complete as many full reps as possible before your muscles fail.

The stronger you are overall, the more reps you can complete.

Tricep dips:

So here I am trying to figure out how to get as strong as possible as fast as possible in five weeks while I’m in Arizona. What was a MAJOR part of my program to achieve this?

Tricep dips.

I know that’s what I thought. Why not just do a lot of bench pressing?

Well, if you want to press more, you have to work on all the pressing muscles. But, one plays a huge role in helping you not get stuck under the bar.

Your triceps.

The hard part is making the triceps incredibly strong while still firing the other pressing muscles.

Tricep Cable Extensions:

When you do tricep cable extensions or bar presses, you limit how much weight you can add. As well as isolating the triceps so you don’t engage the chest or shoulder muscles.

This makes it harder to increase your overall bench.

With the weighted tricep dip, however, you can add a great deal of weight while still engaging your chest.

This allows you to focus on the muscles that keep the bar moving and allows you to increase your bench press strength.

Here’s another hidden benefit. The dip forces you to go through a balanced full-range motion from the very bottom of the dip all the way to a lockout.

Just like when you have to touch the bar to your chest on a bench press. Then lock it all the way out. The added balance factor comes in handy when you are trying to stabilize a heavy weight.

If you can’t keep the bar steady when you are benching, you’ll take your muscles out of their strongest patterns. You’ll struggle to finish the lift when the weight gets heavier.

Simply adding heavy tricep dips to my regimen allowed me to go from a max bench of 365 to 405 in just under six weeks.

So if you’re looking to get a boost in your bench, then add some weighted dips to your routine watch your numbers climb.

Anthony Trucks is an IYCA-certified trainer who covers strength training for SportStars.