What's going on Nation? Today, I'm going to
single-handedly rip a part a beloved go-to exercise of about
90% of the people in my new gym and that my friends is the triceps kickback.
But more specifically we're going to compare the kickbacks to my all-time
favorite triceps movement for gains the power bomb, also known as the dumbbell overhead
extension, now if you missed any of the other vs series videos
be sure to stick around to the end for the full link to the full playlist and if you haven't subscribed yet,
What the F$@%?! Also guys I will be releasing a full body
program very very soon on my website muscularstrength.com
So in the meantime, I suggest you hit either the PPL or cheat and recover programs
so you're ready for when it drops. Okay so kickbacks. Are they bad exercise?
No, but are you wasting your time incorporating them into your triceps routine?
Yeah
you probably are and this is why as
you know when trying to build muscle we mainly want to address two factors volume and
intensity
This means that we primarily want to be lifting enough weight to challenge our muscles and
progressively overload them with more resistance
effectively forcing them to adapt and ultimately grow bigger and stronger now the problem with
kickbacks, whether you're doing them with a dumbbell or a cable is actually twofold.
Number one it's an extreme isolator for the triceps
which means you'll be not able to lift a lot of weight and the mechanics of the exercise in relation to our joints
prevent this from lifting more than like 10 to 15 pounds with good form
although some of you and I mean some of you will be able to do 20 to 25
pounds with good form not momentum, but there's not much room for improvement from there.
It's not like you ever be able to use 50 pound dumbbells
effectively in the nearby future or any future for that matter unless you start using a lot of momentum
which for this exercise defeats the entire purpose of doing it. Number two
the kickbacks do not provide any kind of meaningful stretch to the triceps
in fact, it's quite the opposite due to the position of the elbow, which is in line with your body
kickbacks emphasize the contraction of the triceps and are
completely useless when it comes to trying to stretch them under resistance if
you've been following my channel for some time
now you would know that heavy negatives and weighted stretching is the ultimate way to spike muscle growth.
So, how should you train your triceps?
Well
you need to start utilizing one of the following two compound
movements the close grip bench press or dips
choosing the kickback for your first or even your second exercise for triceps is
simply wasting your time and energy then as soon as you're done performing your compound tricep exercise
whether it's the close grip bench press or with a dip
you should move on to the powerbomb, but why is the power bar better than kickbacks
again it's for two reasons.
Number one, although it's still technically an isolation exercise for the triceps
it allows you to overload with much heavier weights
in fact
I can easily use a hundred pound dumbbell on a bad day and
probably more like a hundred and twenty pound one on a good day a set of six to eight repetitions.
That's way more than 25 pounds you're gonna use when doing a kickback.
This means you have a lot of room for improvement in
potential future gains from this exercise and number two because the powerbomb places your elbows
above your head. It sets up the triceps for a major stretch at the bottom of the movement.
Not only does this emphasize the long head of the triceps
but it simply provides more growth potential for the entire triceps complex
So are kickbacks useless?
Definitely not, they have their place
but only in a couple
Scenarios the first scenario being if you're having trouble feeling your triceps contract
and you need to establish that mind-muscle connection.
In this case the kickbacks are the best exercise to get you started
in fact
I would perform even maybe a few light sets before
my actual triceps workout or even in between my heavy sets
for some extra stimulation in mind muscle connection
development and the second scenario would be to incorporate the kickback as part of a tricep
circuit that aims to bombard the triceps with volume without
tiring out the rest of your body because the
kickback is extremely difficult to perform even with very light weights
It provides you with more bang for your buck.
That means you can use less weight and still fatigue the muscle to failure.
So if you're performing some kind of biceps and triceps
superset or doing a circuit routine for overall calorie burning
trying to overload your arms with volume
kickbacks might be the way to go.
So as you can see kickbacks have their place but for growth and development guys
the only isolation type exercise you should be using is one that allows you to progressively overload
like the powerbomb be sure to smash that like button if you enjoyed
the video and if you have a suggestion for a future
VS video post your comments below and as always more good stuff coming soon. See you guys