The Best Home Tricep Exercises For Women That’ll Tighten Your Arms Up
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.
I’ve always been asked how to tighten the back of your arms up because it seems to be one of the stubborn spots for women. And that’s why I had to go over some home tricep exercises for women that can be performed right at home.
But before I go into these top home tricep exercises for women, I wanted to go over what makes up the rear part of our arms and what muscles we need to be targeting to tighten our arms up in general.
The Tricep Muscles
Your triceps are made up of a medial head, a long head, and a lateral head. Therefore, it’s important to hit all 3 heads to grow your triceps for maximal fat loss and toned arms.
No surprise here considering just about every muscle on our body comes in multiples. Such as your gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus. Or your shoulder muscles: trapezius muscles, the anterior, medial, and posterior deltoid muscles.
Before you go into these tricep exercises with weights, it’s best to perform the exercises without weights just using your body weight. And then as you establish your form, you can start incorporating weights such as these neoprene dumbbells you can order on Amazon.
Top 5 Home Tricep Exercises For Women
1. Tricep Overhead Extension Using Dumbbells 3×15
How to:
- Do it seated or standing
- Grab a dumbbell (or a water bottle)
- Keep your elbows by the side of your head (KEY: DO NOT LET THEM SPREAD APART. KEEP THEM CLOSE TO YOU.)
- Lower the dumbbell behind your head to where your arms make a 90-degree angle
- Move them up over your head without locking your elbows
- Then repeat
What does it work:
The overhead tricep extension works all 3 tricep heads. However, it especially targets the long head.
2. Lying Single Arm Tricep Extension 3×12-15 (each arm)
How to:
- Lie down flat on your back on a bench
- Raise the dumbbell vertically with a neutral grip
- Place your other arm below the elbow for support
- Lower the dumbbell where your elbows make a 90-degree angle
- Raise it back up without locking your elbows
- Then repeat
What does it work:
This exercise is similar to the overhead tricep extension where it hits the whole arm but mostly the long head. However, it’s an isolation exercise. It’s important to not move your whole entire arm, but rather just the forearm.
Related Posts
5 Exercises To Tighten And Build Your Glutes And Hamstrings
15 Postpartum Weight Loss Tips And How To Lose Weight After Baby Long Term
Macros Made Simple And How You Can Lose Weight With Macros For Women
3. Lying Single Arm Cross Shoulder Tricep Extension 3×12-15 (each arm)
How to:
- Lie down flat on your back on a bench
- Raise the dumbbell with your elbow pointing outwards
- Lower the dumbbell toward the opposite shoulder
- Raise it back up without locking your elbows
- Then repeat
What does it work:
The cross shoulder tricep exercise targets the lateral tricep head. Performing this exercise slow and steady is key!
4. Lying Single Arm Reverse Grip Tricep Extension 3×12-15 (each arm)
How to:
- Lie down flat on your back on a bench
- Raise the dumbbell vertically with a reverse grip (hold it as if you’re about to perform a bicep curl)
- Place your other arm below the elbow for support
- Lower the dumbbell where your elbows make a 90 degree angle
- Raise it back up without locking your elbows
- Then repeat
What does it work:
The reverse grip hits the medial head. Make sure to perform this exercise slow and steady!
5. Single Arm Tricep Kick-Back 3×12-15 (each arm)
How to:
- Grab a dumbbell
- Place the opposite hand on the bench
- Place that same side leg off the bench
- With a neutral grip, make a 90 degree angle with your elbow
- Kick back your arm without locking your elbow
- Then repeat
What does it work:
This tricep kick-back exercise works all 3 heads but targets the lateral head the most.
Sign up for a full-body 5-day workout plan with a free fitness workout log below!
Personal Tricep Journey Using These Exercises
Starting from the far left photo, I started noticing tricep growth in late 2013. Then second left photo in 2014 I continued to incorporate these tricep exercises for women to almost every workout of the week. The middle photo in 2015 I set aside a day or two each week just for arms including tricep and bicep exercises. The fourth photo is when I was on my NPC bikini competition prep where I was “cutting” (reducing my caloric intake). And the last picture was in 2017 eating a normal diet, exercising 4-5 times a week, and enjoying life.
What I’ve learned over the years is that building muscle takes time and patience. Even in that first left picture, it took me a solid year to really notice a difference in the shape of my arms. If I stopped exercising triceps the moment I noticed growth, I would not have the rest of the photos in the collage to show for.
This just shows what consistency and a little bit of effort each day can add up to. Every exercise, every workout, is building up for long-lasting muscle formation and growth. In addition to recovery, sufficient protein intake, and consistency.
In Conclusion
Essentially, all 5 of these home tricep exercises for women can be done lying down on the floor of your living room with or without weights. And if you choose to add weights but don’t have dumbbells, you can easily utilize a water bottle or anything else with a good grip and sufficient weight.
Check Out 6 Hamstring, Glute, And Lower Body Workout You Need To Incorporate
These are great exercises. I also love playing with pull up and push up negatives for a tricep burn.
Nathalia | NathaliaFit – Fitness & Wellness Blog
http://www.nathaliafit.com
Those are also amazing ways to feel the tricep burn!!