Your triceps make up two-thirds of your upper arm, and are involved in overhead presses, bench pressing, and other pushing exercises. If you want to build an impressive pair of arms while improving your upper-body strength, then you cannot neglect your tris. The skull crusher is one of the best exercises for improving your triceps. Below, we dig deep into the skull crusher to give form tips, outline benefits and provide alternatives and variations to best suit your training needs.
How To Do Skull Crushers
Equipment Needed: To perform skull crushers, you’ll need a weight bench and either a straight barbell, pre-loaded or fixed bar, or an EZ-grip bar. Weight plates can make the exercise more challenging, but extra weight isn’t required, especially if it’s your first time doing the movement.
- Step 1 — Start by lying down, back first, on a sturdy workout bench. The barbell should be locked out at the top position, with your hands set about shoulder-width apart. The width of your grip can vary based on flexibility and comfortability.
- Step 2 — Begin to lower the barbell towards the forehead (hence the name, skull crusher). It’s important to keep your elbows actively tucked in. If your elbows flare out a little, that’s okay, but too much flare may deactivate your triceps.
- Step 3 — After you’ve held the bottom position of the lift for a beat, drive the bar back up, reversing the path you took to lower the bar. You should keep your elbows tucked throughout the lifting (or concentric) phase.
Coach’s Tip: Don’t haphazardly let the bar drop behind your head. Control it. Slowly lower it past your forehead and behind you until you feel that stretch.
Video Guide
If you’re a visual learner, check out this how-to guide on YouTube for the skull crusher and its variations:
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Skull Crusher Variations
If you’re in the mood to switch things up, you can make a few small tweaks to the skull crusher and see some massive differences in the kind of stimulation and gains you receive.
Dumbbell Skull Crusher
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Why Do It: Dumbbell skull crushers are done similarly to the standard barbell version, however, you can attack the triceps unilaterally. This can be beneficial for lifters who may have muscle imbalances or coordination issues. Additionally, this may allow for a deeper elbow flexion angle, which may improve muscle development.
Equipment Needed: You’ll need a bench and at least one dumbbell for this one.
- Lie down flat on your back on the bench with your arms held straight, pointing up at the ceiling, dumbbells in-hand.
- From here, keep your upper arms rigid and immobile while bending at the elbow.
- Bend your arm to allow your hands to drop down close to your forehead, feeling your triceps stretch out.
- Reverse the motion and contract your triceps to return to the starting position.
Incline Skull Crusher
Why Do It: The incline bench skull crusher variation can be done with any loading (barbell, dumbbells or kettlebells, etc.) and is set up with the bench at a slight incline. By adding the incline, you can slightly increase the stretch on the triceps and hit the muscle from slightly different angles.
Equipment Needed: Get ahold of an adjustable bench and either a barbell or some dumbbells for this one.
- Set the bench anywhere from a 10 to 30 degree angle. A slight incline is plenty here.
- Lie on the bench and extend your arms straight upward toward the ceiling while holding the weight or weights.
- Bend at the elbow while keeping your upper arm immobile and let your hands drift down and back behind your head.
- Reverse the motion and straighten your arm with your triceps.
Skull Crusher Alternatives
It’s totally possible that the skull crusher just isn’t right for you. Whether you lack the proper equipment, have lingering elbow issues, or simply don’t enjoy the movement, you can still blast your triceps in a similar fashion by turning to some reliable alternatives.
Close-Grip Bench Press
[Read More: 3 Close-Grip Bench Press Mistakes and How to Fix Them]
Why Do It: The close-grip bench press is a bench press variation that targets the triceps and chest by narrowing the grip width on the barbell. In doing so, you must tuck your elbows in, which will kick up the level of triceps engagement. You can swap in some close-grip work in lieu of your standard bench press programming to prioritize triceps strength and size.
Equipment Needed: You’ll need a bench press station and a barbell for this one.
- Lie down on the bench and grip the bar with a narrow grip, either directly at shoulder width or slightly narrower.
- Unrack the bar and stabilize it directly above your shoulders with your arms straight.
- Brace your core and ensure your feet are firmly planted into the floor.
- Lower the bar down towards your sternum while keeping your upper arms tucked snugly against your torso.
- Reverse the motion, pressing up and back until the bar returns to its starting position over your shoulders.
Dip
[Read More: Ring Dips – Exercise Guide and Benefits]
Why Do It: Dips are a great mass building exercise for the triceps, chest, and anterior shoulders. You can do them with your own bodyweight or strap on a dipping belt to add weight and overload the target muscles even more.
Equipment Needed: To perform dips, all you’ll need are two stable parallel bars. Most gyms have a dip station somewhere. To add weight, you can hold a dumbbell between your ankles or add some plates to a dip belt.
- Suspend yourself from the dip bars by straightening your arms and bending your knees if necessary to ensure your feet aren’t touching the floor.
- Inhale, brace your core, and lean forward very slightly.
- Actively push your shoulders down and away from your ears and don’t let them shrug up at any point.
- Dip by bending at the elbows and slowly lowering your body down until your upper arm is at a 90-degree angle.
Overhead Triceps Extension
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Why Do It: The overhead triceps extension can be done with a dumbbell, a barbell, an EZ-bar, or — especially — on a cable machine. This exercise targets the similar segments of the triceps that the skull crusher does and, if you use a cable machine, may be less painful on your joints if you’re sensitive to working with free weights.
Equipment Needed: To do overhead triceps extensions, your best bet is to set an adjustable cable station to be around waist height.
- Set an adjustable cable station to be waist height and attach either a rope, EZ-bar, or grab the carabiner directly with one arm.
- Hold the attachment of choice and step back from the cable to pull it taut, then turn around so your arm is pulled up by your head with your elbow bent, as though you were going to unsheath a sword from your back.
- Brace your core and extend your arm(s) overhead.
Who Should Do Skull Crushers
There’s no getting around it: the skull crusher is a versatile, all-purpose movement that belongs in the repertoire of any responsible gymgoer. That said, there are a few specific populations that undeniably get extra value from the movement.
Strength and Power Athletes
The skull crusher is an awesome accessory movement to increase triceps strength and hypertrophy. If you compete in a strength sport like powerlifting or weightlifting, you’ll need an accessory routine that bolsters your weaknesses. The skull crusher is a great choice here due to its ability to isolate a muscle that you often use as part of larger movement patterns.
Olympic Weightlifters
The triceps are responsible for overhead stability and elbow extension in the snatch and the jerk portions of the competitive lifts. By increasing triceps training by implementing single-joint exercises like skull crushers, you can build more raw strength and muscle mass (assuming there is no technical fault).
Bodybuilders
The skull crusher, while not as “functional” as other pressing movements like push-ups and dips, can be a good option for physique enthusiasts looking to increase their triceps training volume without relying on endless sets of presses or dips.
[Read More: Try These 6 Unique Bodybuilding Arm Exercises to Spark New Muscle Growth]
As such, skull crushers are a mainstay movement in nearly every bodybuilding pro’s arm day. They also are vital for proper elbow extension and upper body strength.
Skull Crusher Sets and Reps
Fortunately, the skull crusher isn’t as intricate as the squat or deadlift. As such, you don’t need complex programming to reap the benefits. Since it is an isolation exercise, your programming options can be somewhat limited, but that doesn’t mean skull crushers aren’t versatile.
- For Muscle Growth: 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps at a challenging but manageable weight.
- For Endurance: 3 to 4 sets of 15 to 20 reps with a light weight and limited rest.
- For Beginners: 3 sets of 8 reps with a weight that allows you to focus on your technique.
Benefits of Skull Crushers
Below are four benefits of the skull crusher that lifters can expect when implementing it into their training regimen.
Stronger Triceps
Strong triceps are key for all pressing movements and overhead stability. Powerlifters must have strong triceps to assist in locking out of the bench press. Weightlifters must perform triceps work as they are necessary for elbow extension in the receiving phases of the snatch and clean & jerk. And strongmen who hoist logs that weigh over 300 pounds overhead need triceps strength to finish the lift. The stronger you get, the more you lift, and the more you lift, the more your triceps become a factor.
Improved Lockout Strength
The triceps are responsible for elbow extension, which is a key factor in finishing the end of the range of motion of the bench press, snatch, clean & jerk, and overhead press. Most power and strength athletes will see improvements in lockout performance with added triceps strength and hypertrophy work (assuming they are perfecting any technical faults resulting in press outs).
Healthier Elbows
Healthy joints often come from proper training volume, technique, and increasing muscle hypertrophy and force production so that volumes and loading can be absorbed by the muscles themselves rather than on the tendons, ligaments, and joints.
[Read More: The Bodyweight Skull Crusher Is An Underutilized Tool for Building Strong Arms]
Stronger triceps (along with using proper form) is key to increasing pressing performance and minimizing overuse injury to the joints and connective tissues.
Bigger Arms
For some strength and power athletes, bigger, leaner arms are an added goal. The triceps are roughly two-thirds of the arm, so more dedicated tricep work could help you achieve a superior set of pipes.
Muscles Worked by Skull Crushers
The skull crusher is a single-joint exercise that specially targets the triceps. Unlike other triceps movements, like close-grip bench press and dips, which recruit multiple muscles, the skull crusher primarily hits the triceps. That said, there’s another important — and often overlooked — muscle group that benefits.
Triceps
The triceps are responsible for elbow extension, which is a factor in most pressing movements (bench press, overhead presses, push-ups, dips, overhead stability, etc.). The skull crusher isolates the triceps by having the lifter perform deep elbow flexion while stabilizing the shoulder and wrist joints.
Shoulder Stabilizers
While the shoulder muscles themselves are not as engaged, the scapular stabilizers and rear deltoids are working diligently to stabilize the shoulder socket to allow the lifter to remain in a fixed position. By not allowing shoulder movement, the lifter can force the elbows to flex to acquire necessary ranges of motion, increasing the demands on the triceps to extend the elbow joint fully.
Common Skull Crusher Mistakes
It may seem foolproof since you’re only working one muscle, but the skull crusher can easily go awry. Make sure you’re sidestepping these common errors if you decide to include them into your program.
Lifting Too Heavy
No exercise is intrinsically dangerous, but the skull crusher does place a high degree of tension on your wrists and elbows. Furthermore, the setup of the movement can make it difficult to safely exit the set if things go wrong, depending on where you hit failure.
[Read More: The 15 Best Triceps Exercises for Building Muscle]
For these reasons, the skull crusher isn’t really a lift you should focus on using maximal weights with. You’ll find you get plenty of triceps stimulation from a moderate load and a solid muscular contraction.
Not Respecting Your Anatomy
There’s no universal technique for the skull crusher — everyone has different shoulders, wrists, and elbows. In the event that a straight barbell is painful or cumbersome on your joints, there’s no need to slog through using one.
A cambered bar, or even dumbbells, may allow you to perform the exercise much more comfortably and in a way that better aligns with your personal structure.
Crush Your Goals
Every gymgoer has their favorite movement for a given muscle. Some lean on push-ups to build their triceps, while others swear by the kickback. However, there’s a reason you’ll see skull crushers performed in just about every commercial or specialty gym on the planet. They work.
Triceps training is simple on the surface, but you’ve got to get the mechanics just right if you want to make the most gains possible. Luckily, with the right setup in mind, the skull crusher comes in second to none for building beefy arms.
FAQs
Do skull crushers early in your arms training. The reason being that the skull crusher can be loaded up with more weight, and so you don’t want to rob yourself of the potential to lift heavier by pre-fatiguing your muscles with other exercises.
Probably not skull crushers. First, if you’re experiencing any pain, you should consult with a doctor. However, a good rule of thumb is: if it hurts (and not in a typical workout way), you should steer clear. Try some cable variations, like pushdowns. These are generally a little easier on the elbow and shoulder joints.
Not necessarily. The aim of this exercise, like all exercises, is to tax the target muscle as effectively as possible. If you can feel your muscle working, then it is. And if you can’t, then you need to try something else. Which exercise works best is different for everyone. If you don’t feel your tris engage while using a barbell, then try attaching a triceps pushdown bar to a cable. Or use a pair of dumbbells. Even kettlebells work. Play with it.
Featured image: Skydive Erick / Shutterstock
