Alright, let’s all be honest with each other for a minute. It’s no secret that most trainees tend to focus on their biceps during arm workouts. More curls, more girls, right? Wrong. If you want to build a serious set of pipes, you need to make sure that you have triceps to back up your arms (literally). Many people consider the bicep to be the more attention grabbing muscle of the appendage, but anybody with a serious knowledge of human physiology will reassure you that you should be focusing as much, if not more, on proper development of the triceps.
“But the triceps are on the back of the arm! They are a completely different muscle group from the biceps. How on Earth is triceps training more important?”
Well the triceps quite simply take up the vast majority of volume on your upper arm. Yeah, I said it. While your biceps may appear to be more prominent and while their peak in a front double bicep pose may appear very visually appealing to you (I don’t blame you; this is the pose everybody thinks of when bodybuilding is brought up), the triceps dominate the arm. So, if you plan on building up a serious set of pipes, it would be prudent to pay serious attention to your tris.
If you ask any top professional bodybuilder or fitness model, they will tell you the same! When exercising, it is key to ensure that we are working every single muscle group of the body and not taking any shortcuts. We don’t want to overdevelop one muscle group and notice that others are lagging, for this creates muscular imbalances and performance kinks in the body. So, if you have been neglecting tricep work (and remember, I asked that you all please be honest with yourself at the outset of this article), make a beeline to our awesome exercise guide, make note of a few of your favorite tricep exercises, and build a pair of arms that would even impress the great Phil Heath!