It can also be useful if one arm is recovering from an injury or you have one side that is generally weaker than the other. How to do a Tricep Pushdown Attach a straight bar to a high-pulley machine with 25-50 lb weight plates stacked in it and grab it using a shoulder-width, overhand grip. That's the bottom of the rep. The traditional triceps pushdown is an isolation movement that is meant to activate solely the triceps. And the trick to getting the long head involved in the Tricep Pushdown is actually quite simple: Just tilt your torso forward at a 30- to 40-degree angle instead of standing straight up. When you let your elbows flare out it simply does not accomplish this task.
When people perform Triceps Pulldowns standing straight up, they fail to work the shoulder-extending function of the long head. The long head runs from the backside of the shoulder blade to the forearm. It is actually the only muscle of the triceps that connects to the shoulder. Throughout the movement, your shoulders and arms should be still and the forearms should be the only muscle group moving. The forward lean might make you think you're cheating.
A two-handed modification will work whether you're on a machine or using a resistance band. This is going to cause the lats to get involved in the movement in order to try to pull your arms back. Lower the bar by using your lats until your arms are fully extended by your sides. But what you're really doing is allowing the three heads in your triceps to move through their full ranges of motion, including that shoulder-extending motion of the long head. Whilst keeping your elbows close to your stomach and shoulders pinned back, grip the bar with a pronated grip palms facing downwards shoulder width apart. Perhaps you even do it this way where the cable is basically dragging on your forehead.
Throughout all of my athletic career, I was always taught to use a straight bar when doing pushdowns. Keep your elbows tight into your side and drive your hands down towards your waist. What you are going to end up doing is involving the pectoral muscles and front delts into the exercise and when they come in much of the triceps activation goes out the window. Again, a supinated grip upward palms actually is naturally going to bring your elbows close to the body which is what you want. Now, holding your forearms out perpendicular to the body, notice that naturally, your hands go into an angled position with your thumbs up above your pinkies.
And that is why exercises such as the are so damn effective for targeting the triceps and eliminating sticking points. Once again, just as with body positioning, your elbow placement is going to play a major factor in the level of activation you get out of the triceps muscle. You may see a straight bar, rope, or ones with bends in them, such as the E-Z bar and V-angled bar. Now, as a side note, there are instances where you can extend the elbows back behind the body. This seems like an obvious question.
This arm and wrist position should be maintained throughout the exercise. Make sure the forearms are pointing towards the pulley. And what lots of people think is the right way to do Pushdowns—standing rigid and upright, gripping the bar or rope with bent elbows, and keeping the elbows pinned to the sides of the torso—isn't correct at all. What this means is that whether or not your grip is pronated facing down or supinated facing up the ulna creates that hinge with the elbow exactly the same. The upper arms should always remain stationary next to your torso and only the forearms should move.
What we discussed here is the traditional cable pushdown. You can do it unilaterally, use a machine, use different pushdown bars or ropes and much much more. Exhale as you perform this movement. Step 1 Starting Position: Stand facing the cable machine and position the cable attachment at a height above your head. Doing one arm at a time allows you to slow down and focus on correcting poor form. The medial head and lateral head attach from the upper arm bone to the forearm and extend the elbow.
This is accomplished by standing away from the bar so that the cable must travel at a slight angle toward your body as seen in the photo of Arnold below: Notice how the cable maintains an angle of approximately 90 degrees to the forearm throughout the movement. Connect a cable bar attachment to a pulley machine. Tricep Pushdowns are one of the first exercises most lifters learn, and for good reason. From this stance, grip the bar or rope as you normally would and pull it down until your upper arm forms a 90-degree angle with your sides. When you are using a straight bar it tends to create a bit of unnecessary tension on the wrists.