Barbell Triceps Raise

This is a version of the triceps kickback that I first performed a couple of years ago, and subsequently managed to overlook. Whilst reading Bruce Lee’s The Art of Expressing the Human Body recently I noticed the same exercise (pp116-117) described by Lee as :

From a standing position, with the barbell held behind you so that it touches the back of your thighs, keep your arms stiff and raise the barbell upward, at the same time inclining the torso forward until it reaches a position parallel to the floor. Raise the bar just as far as it will go, and then give a little extra lift at the end to fully contract the inner [medial] head of the triceps.

I like this exercise for a few reasons.

• It doesn’t encourage cheating – unlike its dumbbell cousin.
• Leaning forward helps to ensure a good range of motion.
• Whilst it certainly hits the medial head, this is far from an isolation exercise – you’ll feel it in your shoulders (particularly posterior delts) in no small measure. NB: if you’ve already got less-than-perfectly-healthy shoulders, think twice before trying this.

Definitely worth keeping in the arsenal.