Dumbbell Kickbacks With A Little Twist
A small twist at the top of the dumbbell kickback can give added triceps growth…
Dumbbell Kickbacks, or triceps kickbacks as they are also known, are an isolation exercise designed to hit the triceps (as you probably guessed!) As effective as it is in itself, a small variation I’m going to give you can make it even better.
Allow me to explain the dumbbell kickbacks movement, and then the variation, and also why it works.
Take a dumbbell in one hand, and hold it so your palm is facing inward to you thigh. Take one foot a step further in front of the other – the forward foot being the same side as the hand you are holding the dumbbell. With your knees bent, place your free hand on a bench to steady yourself, leaning forward putting your torso and upper arm parallel to the floor.
Now, keeping your position static – particularly your upper arm – ‘kick back’ the dumbbell using the power of your triceps until your forearm is parallel with the floor, holding for a second at the top to give it a squeeze, and lower as slowly as possible.
This is how basic dumbbell kickbacks are done.
Now to inject the secret ingredient…
When you are about to reach the top of the movement, twist your thumb outwards slightly.
Doing this takes advantage of the triceps function of being the extensor muscle of the forearm, whose job it is to twist the palm downwards, as opposed to the biceps opposite job of turning the palm upwards.
You probably know that when you hold your arm out in front of you, palm down, and then rotate the palm upwards, the biceps becomes smaller and tighter, because it is somewhat contracted – it had to contract to twist the forearm around. Well, that is precisely what the triceps is doing here, but in the opposite fashion, and, that extra little twist helps to get more out of the triceps by putting it under even more tension.
One final tip…
Resist the temptation to lower the upper arm to develop a ‘swinging’ motion, although once failure is imminent, a slight cheat may help you to get a few more cheat reps in which will be particularly beneficial if you take care to utilise very slow negatives.
