Advanced Workout

Two more exercises to go, and we are moving to an upper body workout.

As a reminder, whenever you are putting together your own exercise routines, you want to make sure that you work the protagonist and antagonist muscles, which are both muscles involved in movement of the joint.

Because we worked our bicep muscles earlier in the Two Arm Curl, we need to work our triceps. In this routine we are going to do the Triceps Kickback, which is an advanced-level triceps exercise.

For this exercise you will need a single dumbbell and a bench; however, you can perform the triceps kickbacks on the floor.

Let's start with our left triceps.

Place your right knee and your right hand on the bench so that the palm of your right hand is face down and your knee is bent at 90 degrees. At this point your back should be straight.

The dumbbell in your left hand should be hanging loosely to the side with your palm facing your body. Now, lift the dumbbell up so that your upper arm is now in line with, or parallel to, your back. At this point, your elbows should be bent at 90 degrees.

Extend your elbows so that you straighten your arm. As you're doing this, the dumbbell should be moving towards your lower back.

Once your arm is fully extended behind you, kick back your wrist so that you're moving the pinky side of your hand towards your forearm.

This "kickback" is a very important movement while doing the triceps kickbacks because it further isolates your triceps muscle. Hold this position for half a second, then return back to the starting position.

Perform eight to twelve repetitions on your left side, then perform eight to twelve on your right side. Three sets of eight to twelve should be performed on each side.

Next Advanced Exercise: Glute Kickback »