This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Stretching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
What is this muscle?
You can probably tell that the Triceps are made up of 3 separate muscles. Its full name is Triceps Brachii and the 3 muscles are known as the Long, Lateral and Medial Heads. They are positioned at the back of your upper arm between the shoulder and the elbow. They are not as popular to work on as the Biceps are even though they make up a larger percentage of the upper arm.
What do we use them for?
The main job of the Triceps is to straighten the arm at the elbow joint. They are the antagonist muscle (opposing muscle – Beeble) to the Biceps. Their secondary job is to pull the upper arm backward at the shoulder joint.
The Triceps are our chest’s best friend and in any pushing movement they are there to lend a hand. This means we use them in the most famous of chest exercises: the press up and nearly all chest exercises apart from the chest flies, as the arm does not move at the elbow joint during this exercise. More specifically we will use the triceps for exercises like the over head press, cable pushdown and the skull crusher (aka the dumbbell French press – Beeble).
Is it important to stretch them?
Whilst it can be argued that the triceps are not as important to stretch as the biceps, due to the muscle being an extending muscle and therefore very rarely in a contracted state, it is still very important to stretch them. After exercise they can contract and stay shortened and it is this that can lead to injury as well as a muscle that cannot be developed properly.
How to tell if your Triceps are too tight
(Ask them to lend you $30 - Beeble). It is actually quite difficult to tell if your triceps are too tight, and whilst there are no obvious tell-tale signs, one way you can find out is with this action: reach up into the air with your arm directly above you and then let your lower arm relax behind you, so that you are aiming to touch your shoulder with your hand and with your elbow vertical (as in fig. 1 – Beeble). If this is tight around the shoulder and at the back of your arm then it is possible that you have tight triceps.
Stretch those Triceps
For this stretch all you will need is yourself, which makes it a stretch you can do at any time.
This stretch is very similar to the test to see if your Triceps are tight. To begin with raise your arm so that it is vertical above your head. Now drop the lower arm down behind you by bending your arm at the elbow. Your elbow should now be in the air as vertical as you can get it and your hand should be touching or very close to touching your shoulder (as in fig. 1 – Beeble). Now with your other arm you need to reach across, in front of your head, and take hold of the front of your vertical elbow with your hand. You are now in position to start the stretch. Very slowly push the arm (that is vertical) backwards behind your body (as in fig. 2 – Beeble). Do it very slowly and make sure you keep breathing nice and deeply throughout as you are trying to get the muscle to relax.
Hold this position for at least 20 seconds and then repeat with your other arm.
How much to stretch
Using the perceived rate of exertion (PRE) which is a scale ranging from 1 – 10, 1 = very light, hardly felt, 10 = a very painful. We want the stretch to be a feeling of 7 out of 10.
This should be a “strongish” pull in the middle of the muscle. However if you feel the pull or pain in the shoulder or elbow release your vertical arm slowly forwards until it eases.
And a Warning
It is very important that you do this stretch slowly and with great control as there will not be much movement between not feeling the stretch to it really hurting and potentially causing an injury. “Listen” to what your body is telling you and only go as far as is recommended in the How Much to Stretch section.
Summary
There are not many ways to stretch the Tricep so make sure that you get this one perfectly right and really try to relax in all the stretching you do, because if your mind is relaxed your body can follow suit more easily.
Good luck with it and please let me know if you need any advice on a subject that we have not yet covered. Good luck and stay healthy.
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