reckonerSingle-arm cable triceps extension
A triceps press-down done one arm at a time with a single handle on a high pulley. Each arm has to do its own work, so a stronger side cannot cover for the weaker one. Pin the elbow, straighten the arm, and finish one side before the other.
Elbow pinned, straighten the arm.
- Pattern
- Arm isolation
- Trains
- Triceps
- Kit
- Cable
- Loading
- A weight you choose
- Reckoner prescribes
- 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps at RPE 8
- Progression step
- 2.5 kg once the top of the range is clean
- Skill
- Some technique
- Recovery cost
- Very low
- Not prescribed if you have declared
- Elbow
Muscles worked
How to do it
Set a single handle up high
Clip a D handle to a high pulley and take it in one hand. Stand side on or facing the stack, close enough that the cable runs nearly straight down, so it pulls in line with your forearm.
Pin the elbow to your side
Bring the handle to about chest height with your elbow tucked against your ribs. It stays there for every rep, because a moving elbow brings the shoulder in.
Straighten the arm fully
Press the handle down until your arm is locked out beside your thigh. Squeeze at the bottom, where the triceps finish the job.
Let it rise, then switch
Let the handle rise slowly back to chest height. Finish all the reps on that arm, then do the other with the same number, so each side gets the same set.
What goes wrong
Twisting the torso into it
Rolling the shoulder over the handle makes a heavy rep move, so it feels like strength. The body is pushing, not the arm. Keep your chest square and let the arm work.
Elbow drifting away from the ribs
The elbow slides forward or out as you tire because that shortens the job. The shoulder takes over the end of the set. Pin it.
Different reps on each arm
Stopping the weaker arm early feels like listening to your body. It keeps that arm weaker. Match the reps, and start with the weaker arm if one is clearly behind.
How Reckoner progresses this lift
Six weeks of this lift, from 5 kg, run through the real engine. Nothing below was typed in: the prescription, the decision and the sentence beside it all come from the same code that writes your week.
| Week | Prescribed | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 x 10 at 5 kg | More reps 10 → 11 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does. |
| 2 | 3 x 11 at 5 kg | More reps 11 → 12 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does. |
| 3 | 3 x 12 at 5 kg | More reps 12 → 13 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does. |
| 4 | 3 x 13 at 5 kg | More reps 13 → 14 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does. |
| 5 | 3 x 14 at 5 kg | Deload 40% of sets offFive weeks of building, then one week lighter. About 40% of the sets come off. The load holds and your reps stay where you earned them, so you keep the strength and lose the fatigue. |
| 6 | 2 x 14 at 5 kg | More reps 14 → 15 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does. The lighter week is over, so this is back to three sets. |
Real engine output, not an illustration. Every row was produced by running the engine itself when this page was generated.
The full rule, and why the reps move before the load does, is in how Reckoner decides to add weight.
Questions people ask
Single arm or two arm press-down?
Same muscle and same movement. One arm at a time lets each side work on its own and takes twice as long. Use it when one arm is clearly behind or you want to feel the triceps better.
Should I also train the triceps overhead?
If size is the goal, it is worth having. In a twelve week trial the same cable extension grew the triceps more with the arm overhead than with the arm at the side1. A shorter six week trial in novices found no difference2.
Will Reckoner put this in my plan?
Not by itself. The rope press-down already covers this work in half the time, so the engine never chooses it for you. Choose it in the lift picker or as a swap, and it is logged one arm at a time. Elbow is recorded against it.
Similar movements
Reckoner eases the load first when this lift stalls, and offers one of these only if it stalls again after that. A lift already as light as your kit goes has no load left to ease, so the offer comes straight away. Each of them has a page.
Sources
- Maeo and colleagues, European Journal of Sport Science, 2023. Triceps brachii hypertrophy is substantially greater after elbow extension training performed in the overhead versus neutral arm position twenty-one adults training one arm with cable elbow extensions overhead and the other with the arm at the side for twelve weeks, whole triceps volume rising 19.9 per cent overhead against 13.9 per cent at the side
- Stasinaki and colleagues, Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 2018. Triceps Brachii Muscle Strength and Architectural Adaptations with Resistance Training Exercises at Short or Long Fascicle Length nine novice women training one arm with cable press-downs and the other with overhead extensions for six weeks, with strength and muscle thickness rising similarly in both. Over five years old, small, and the shorter of the two arm position trials