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Body Position: the Forgotten Training Variable

How to use body position in triceps development

One of the keys to making the fastest gains possible is controlling the variables of training. Tempo, rest intervals, frequency, and exercise selection are among the loading parameters I look at closely when designing workouts. Another variable to consider is body position, an option that is often overlooked in the average training program.

Many bodybuilders, and strength coaches for that matter, continue to regurgitate and perpetrate training ideas that have been generally accepted as true but are off base. Among the most common of these are ideas such as Leg extensions can develop cuts in the quads. High-rep sit-ups will trim the waist, and Incline presses will targeted some mysterious muscle group called the ‘upper pectorals.’

One reason these nonsensical ideas have continued to exist for so long is that top bodybuilders often endorse them, and their big muscles suggest they know what they are talking about. If it were revealed in the latest issue of Hypertrophy Today that Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler used triceps kickbacks “to sharpen the shoehorn edges of his mammoth triceps,” young bodybuilders would tend to believe it.

What’s even more absurd is that the bodybuilders these articles are written about often have nothing to do with the article. One writer I know who has seen hundreds of his training articles published in national magazines told me that when he calls champion bodybuilders for interviews for training articles, the muscleheads often tell him they don’t care what he writes as long as he includes a plug for their guest posing services.

Urban legend bodybuilding theories aside, strength training and bodybuilding have evolved thanks to sophisticated testing methods that include muscle biopsies and electromyography (EMG). In one of the more creative research endeavors, sport scientist Per A. Tesch, Ph.D., used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine exactly how hard specific muscles worked during numerous common strength training exercises. For example, Tesch had subjects perform various types of squats to see which areas of the upper leg muscles worked the hardest during each exercise. His book Target Bodybuilding (Human Kinetics) provides a summary of these results. Although there are various limitations to MRIs, such research provides us with another string of data we can use to make more intelligent decisions about training to achieve specific goals.

The True Science of Specificity
During our “Anatomy for Strength Coaches” seminar, which is part of our Special Consideration Training Series, and throughout our PICP courses we show how we can use research to take exercise selection one step further by looking at how body position affects muscle recruitment. Performing a triceps extension from a seated position with elbows perpendicular to the floor, for example, does not has the same strength training stimulus as performing the exercise from a seated position with the elbows parallel to the floor. This is one example where the approach by many exercise gurus to limit the variety in their workout programs to “Keep it simple, stupid” (“K.I.S.S.”) is simply stupid.

A smarter approach is to look at how body position affects the triceps, specifically the differences produced from the option of performing triceps extensions on flat, incline, or decline surfaces.

The triceps has three heads: the long head, the lateral head and the medial head.
Because all three heads of the triceps join at a common tendon to insert on the ulna (elbow bone), it is impossible to purely isolate one single head of the triceps. However, by changing your body position to change the orientation of your upper arm in relation to gravity and to your torso, you can affect the percentage of contribution of each muscle. Here are some specifics:

Incline to Perpendicular: The farther away the arms are from the belly button, the more recruitment there is of the long head of the triceps. Exercises that would fit this definition are triceps extensions performed on an incline bench (incline position) and the overhead triceps extension (perpendicular position).

Flat: Performing triceps exercises on a flat bench will increase the contribution of the lateral and long head of the triceps.

Decline: As the arms get closer to the torso, as occurs during exercises performed on a decline bench, there is an increase in the contribution of the medial head of the triceps at the end of the range of motion. However, in the bottom position of the exercise, the prime mover is the lateral head of the triceps.

Incidentally, you also need to consider your hand position as you perform exercises for the triceps. Simply stated, pronation means “hands down” and supination means “hands up.” When the hands are pronated, the lateral head is usually more active; whereas when the hands are supinated, the medial head works harder.

Putting It All Together
How about a practical example? If you are training a bodybuilder with poor medial triceps development who wants to break a plateau in arm development, superset the following:

A-1 Decline EZ Bar Triceps Extensions with Chains: 4 x 6-8 on a 4110 tempo, rest 10 seconds.  I use chains because the strength curve provided by them during this exercise creates a better overload on the medial head of the triceps.

A-2 Decline Elbows under the Bar Close-Grip Bench Presses: 4 x 6-8 on a 30X0 tempo, resting 2 minutes. This elbow orientation, with the arms close to the torso, maximizes medial head recruitment.

I hope you get a chance to attend our seminars to learn more about the effects of body position on muscle fiber recruitment. There is much, much more exciting information to learn about this subject – just as there are many common myths that need to be forgotten.