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The quickest way to add size to your arms that makes a visual impact is to build up your triceps. And if you’re serious about building big, muscular triceps, this is the list for you! But before I give you my Top 5 list for triceps-building success, let me explain my how I created this list.

First, the exercises I’ve chosen are simple and for beginners who need a solid foundation in triceps-building fundamentals in order to achieve long-term success from their workouts. Although these exercises are simple, this does not mean that they’re easy. Their simplicity lies in the intuitive benefits that come from each triceps-building movement and the fact that you can do these exercises with a minimal time commitment. But getting the most from these exercises will still require careful attention to training technique and workout variety – the 2 keys to triceps-building success that are not always easy for beginning bodybuilders.

My general rule for deciding whether you’re a beginner is the following: you’re a beginner if you’ve been training your triceps once or twice per week for 6 months or less. You’re also a beginner if you been trying to build your triceps for more than 6 months with exercises other than those provided on my list. Why? Because if you haven’t mastered the triceps-building exercises listed in my Top 5, you’re not ready for the intermediate or advanced workout methods that you’ll eventually need to build truly Awesome Arms.

Additionally, to make my Top 5 list, the equipment needed for each triceps-building exercise had to be available everywhere. That means that you can do all of these exercises with dumbbells, an EZ-curl bar and a basic workout bench which you can find in any gym or health club. You can also do these exercises at home with a very small investment in this equipment for your home gym. There’s no need for fancy machines or trendy gimmicks here.

Now that I’ve told you how I came up with my list, here are the Top 5 exercises for building the big, muscular triceps that you desire! They’re not listed in any particular order, so there’s no reason to think that one particular exercise is better than another. You must decide what works best for you by experimenting with each exercise. But rest assured that any triceps-building program that includes all of these exercises will definitely add inches, symmetry and power to your GUNS.

1. EZ Bar Triceps Extensions

This exercise, also known as “Skull crushers” is a terrific mass-builder for your triceps. For maximum growth, EZ bar triceps extensions require that you keep your upper arms in a position perpendicular (90 degrees) to the exercise bench throughout each repetition. If this position causes you any elbow strain or discomfort, you can lower the angle by moving your arms slightly forward to reduce the stress on your elbows. Don’t worry – making this minor adjustment won’t impede your ability to get the benefits of this exercise.

You should also place your hands in the narrow-grip position on the EZ bar which, when combined with proper arm position, ensures that each triceps head receives maximum resistance throughout the exercise motion. Lower and extend the weight in a smooth, continuous motion without jerking or swinging the bar with your back or shoulders. When done correctly, you can’t beat EZ bar triceps extensions for building big, muscular triceps.

2. Triceps Pushups

You’re probably familiar with standard pushups which are performed with your arms in a shoulder width position. While standard pushups involve the triceps, chest and shoulders in the “pushing” motion, triceps pushups are designed to minimize chest and shoulder involvement so as to maximize training resistance on the triceps. This exercise is deceptively simple in that it appears to the untrained eye as just another pushup. But like every exercise on my Top 5 list, technique is extremely important and proper hand position determines whether these pushups will add muscular inches to your triceps.

For proper performance, take a standard pushup position with your hands and arms extended and shoulder-width apart. Then slide your hands closer together until your thumbs nearly touch each other. This is the starting position. With your hands in this position, slowly lower your arms underneath you and then push yourself back up to the starting position as you would with regular pushups. Make sure that you keep your back straight and your head up for maximum resistance on your triceps. As you extend your arms, concentrate mentally on maintaining proper form and technique with each repetition. For added resistance or pyramid cycles, have a training buddy gently place a 5-5 pound barbell plate on your back to force your triceps to work harder and build greater mass.

3. Seated Triceps Dips

Seated triceps dips are another terrific triceps builder, yet I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen anyone doing them in the gym. Maybe people ignore them because, like triceps pushups, they look too simple to do any good. Well, the proof, as they say, is in the pudding, and seated triceps dips have certainly added considerable power and density to my triceps.

To do this exercise, sit on a workout bench with your legs together and extended on the floor in front of you. Your arms should be fully extended and shoulder-width apart behind you. Slide your body slightly forward to suspend yourself so that your arms are bearing your bodyweight between the bench and the floor. With your arms extended and your hands nearly touching behind you, slowly lower yourself as though to sit on the floor and then push yourself back up by extending your arms and returning to the starting position. This exercise, when performed properly, will add tremendous power, shape and definition to your triceps – guaranteed!

4. Single-Arm Triceps Extension

The single-arm triceps extension, also known as the “French dumbbell press” is a triceps-builder that I recommend primarily as a shaping movement. Although it is possible to build mass with this exercise, the over-head arm position may prevent you from using sufficient weight to generate the type of power and mass-building potential available from Skull crushers and triceps pushups. You should experiment with this exercise and use it in a manner that gives you the best results. But remember, I do not recommend using heavy weight with this movement because of the risk of shoulder injury. Consistent use of light-to-moderate weight will provide the best results.

5. Narrow-Grip Triceps Bench Press

If you’re familiar with narrow-grip bench press, you’ve probably done this exercise or seen it performed with a straight barbell. Just place your hands in a slightly closer than shoulder-width position on the barbell and perform the bench press motion.

So, that’s it – my Top 5 list of triceps-building exercises for beginning bodybuilders. When you try them, make sure that you use safe amounts of weight and proper training technique with every exercise. Have fun and watch your triceps grow and GROW!

The coal that has powered China’s economic growth . . . is also choking its people. 

– Elizabeth C. Economy 

At the root of many of China’s air-quality problems is its heavy dependence on relatively high-sulfur, low-quality coal for everything from electricity generation and industrial production to cooking and space heating in the home. China relies on coal for almost 75% of its energy needs. In fact, each year, China consumes more coal than Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States combined. 

The scale and scope of China’s coal power plant construction program is almost beyond one’s imagination. Consider that every single week, China adds one new large coal power plant to its energy base. Every single year, China builds enough new coal plants to light up the entire British Isles. In any given year, the amount of coal-fired capacity that China is building amounts to more than double that of the entire electricity-generating capacity of the state of California-more than 100 gigawatts. That China’s coal appetites are voracious is aptly captured in this passage from the Wall Street Journal: 

“On a recent hazy morning in eastern China, the Wuhu Shaoda power company revved up its production of electricity, burning a ton and a half of coal per minute to satisfy more than half the demand of Wuhu, an industrial city of two million people. “

It’s not just the quantity of coal used by China that matters. The large amount of coal in China’s “energy mix” is quite different from virtually all the other major economies of the world, which depend much more on oil. China’s heavy coal dependence, coupled with a woeful lack of pollution-control technologies, make China’s air-quality problem a very different one from that of developed countries, such as the United States and Germany, in at least three ways: 

First, unlike in the United States, Germany, or Japan where sophisticated pollution-control technologies are deployed, much of what Chinese power plants and factories spew in the air is not just sulfur dioxide but also a high percentage of fine particulate matter. This is a critical observation because particulate matter is the most damaging form of airborne pollutants. 

Second, small cities in China are no better off than large cities in terms of ambient air quality. This is because small cities are as likely as large cities to depend on coal in both their residential and commercial sectors. That means that China’s pollution woes are spread over the entire country in cities small and large rather than concentrated in a few large industrial hubs. 

Third, unlike the developed world where the automobile is the single largest source of air pollution, China’s current problem is primarily a “stationary source” one. These stationary sources range from large coal-fired power plants in huge factory towns to small coal-fired stoves and heaters in peasant homes. 

The nightmare here is that even if China is able to get better pollution controls on its power plants, and even if it is able to convert some of its population to natural gas cooking, China’s air basins are still likely to be overwhelmed in the next several decades by an explosion in the number of new vehicles on Chinese roads. Just consider this astonishing statistic reported by Elizabeth C. Economy: China is now adding 15,000 new cars a day to its roads, and it expects to have more cars than the United States — as many as 130 million — as early as 2040. In addition, Elizabeth C. Economy also reports the following:

First, China is expected to construct fully half of all the buildings in the world over the next 25 years. Beyond sheer quantity, the nightmare here is that these buildings will be electricity sinkholes because Chinese buildings are notoriously energy inefficient. This will only further exacerbate China’s coal dependence and collaterally gargantuan pollution emissions. 

Second, China plans to move almost a half a billion peasants off the farm into factories and cities over the next several decades. As a rule, urbanites introduced to the magic of refrigerators, TVs, and toasters use more than three times the amount of energy as their rural counterparts. 

On top of all this, Chinese manufacturers are extremely energy inefficient. To produce an equivalent amount of goods, they use six times more resources than the United States, seven times more resources than Japan, and, most embarrassingly, three times more resources than India, to which China is most frequently compared. If ever there were a blueprint for a global pollution factory, China would be the model. 

The above is an excerpt from the book The Coming China Wars

by Peter Navarro

Published by FT Press;  May 2008;$15.99US/$17.99CAN; 978-0-13-235982-5

Copyright © 2008 Peter Navarro