What's up Champ! I'm Vince Del Monte of MassMechanics.com. In this video we have got
the truth about skull crushers. Alright. This videos gonna open your eyes
up to why this might not be the best exercise for building bigger triceps.
We're going to look at it from a mechanical standpoint. We're going to
save your elbows and your wrists in the process and I'll give you a better
alternative. Very simple. Let's get into it.
Like last time we've got to take our bodybuilding high off to really gain a
new perspective on this. So bodybuilding hats off. Throw them in the garbage and
let's open our mind and our eyes up to a new way of how the body wants to move.
it's actually quite simple guys. In the last video we did the truth about biceps
this videos almost going to be identical because this we're simply moving in the
opposite direction and what we discussed there is the biggest mistake people make
in the gym is trying to focus on the path of the dumbbell. Focusing on the
path of the barbell and not understanding that when you attach your
joint to a fixed object, they have to create solutions to move around that bar
because that bar isn't going to break. It's stronger than you so when we're
doing our skull crushers as you can see here, we are disrespecting the path of
the joint. If we look at the path of the joint, it wants to move like this. Alright.
If we look at this from the side, this is the path of your elbow joint, alright.
It's like a hinge door. A hinge wants to move in a linear fashion. That's the way
it was designed. I didn't design your elbows. That's how your elbows are
designed. They want to close and they want to open. This is the only function
of a hinge joint. So the moment you disrespect the path of the joint and you
resort to an exercise up bodybuilder "A" or bodybuilder "B" said, is a good exercise
for your triceps, you're now creating stress in and out
of the joint. So if we look at this tricep skull crusher when we put our
hands here, our elbows have to move in and out to maintain this, and our wrist even
have to do some changes, but this isn't the path of the joint. The path of the
joint would allow you to finish here. Not keep you fixed right in here and this is
how you smash up your elbows doing barbell skull crushers. Even if you go
with the EZ bar, you still have the same problem. So I'll be honest guys. If you
want to save your elbows, most barbell, EZ Bar exercises for your elbows are
going to cause you more harm than good in the long term. Yes you'll put a bit of
tension into your tricep but it's going to cost you your wrists and your elbows
in the process, alright. And there's no extra benefit to doing a skull crusher
with a barbell or with an EZ bar than there is doing it with a dumbbell. So if
we're working with the dumbbells here, we can now get external rotation at our
shoulder, we can keep this elbow in alignment the upper arm and the lower
arm in the path of the carry angle, and we can work in this path. We can respect
the path of the joint. We can focus on what the joint wants to do which is
going to save your elbows. It's going to save your wrists and you're going to
create just as much tension on your triceps. Yes you're going to have fewer
exercise options but that doesn't matter. You don't need a million exercises to
build your arms. You just need a few good exercises that you can produce force with
and create tension and you can build on over the years.
You don't need 12 exercises to build your triceps. You need just a couple.
Your body doesn't know, "oh, good job you're doing a skull crusher today we're going to
reward you some extra points" It doesn't work like that guys.
So it's very simple. Path of the joint. Start working with dumbbells, ropes, things
that allow you to respect this path, own this path and not change this stuff
because you're marrying your body to a relationship it was never meant to be in
a relationship with. I'm going to give you one more thing. We didn't go much in
depth on the biceps video with. Because this is the path of the joint we're
going to get better range of motion because when we focus on the path of the
joint we're now not thinking just about up and down which is what most people do,
we're actually thinking about forwards backwards. So your cues are forwards
forwards forwards, and then backwards backwards backwards. So it's no longer up
and down up and down which is this. It's forwards. Let's do this better.
Pretend I'm lying on my back. Backwards forwards backwards and we're thinking about
creating a big arc. Arc arc arc arc. So it's not this. Very small range of motion.
Trash your elbows. High risk low return. So one of the things we know about
building muscles is we want a great time under tension. How can we do that by
adding more distance, by adding more range of motion. So pretend I'm lying on
my back. These are my dumbbells right here. Now what we can focus on doing is
backwards and then we're not just thinking about up here we're thinking
about forwards backwards forwards and we're creating this big arc. Alright.
And that's going to create maximal tension on your triceps and what we're able to
do is we're going to be able to keep this wrist in alignment we're going to
keep these elbows in alignment and we're now not trashing this stuff up. You see
most people the wrists are doing all this kind of thing, the rate, the weights
are breaking them right here and they're wondering why is my wrist bugging me.
Their elbows are going in and out. They're working around the dumbbell and then they're
wondering why my elbows always bugging me. It's becuase you're not respecting the path of the joint. Alright.
You're listening to too many bodybuilders and bodybuilders look at
things differently. We have to look at things as a biomechanic expert and
just understand path wants to do this. It doesn't want to do this. It wasn't meant to
do that. Let's respect that. That's a good thing. Alright. And just let's now find
exercises that won't hurt us but will help us. If you're ready to take the next
step in your exercise execution so that you get more from less, check out
MassMechanics.com. Link up here. First link in the description. Five hours of how to
exercise execution coaching. Very in depth stuff. Stuff that I've learned from my
mentors over the last five six years. Stuff that very few people know and most
men will never come close to even discovering because they just listen
everything on YouTube here and they're not going to expert
and people outside of this YouTube world. Can you believe that. There's actually people
out there that know more than the people in here. I'll see you guys next time.
Thank you so much for watching.
Take Care.