Exercise #3 - Tricep Floor Rollbacks

Training at home or while traveling (I was going to say "while on the road" but I just got a visual of somebody laying down on an actual road to do this exercise) presents special problems...the most prominent one is lack of actual training equipment.

I'm not about to let that stop you, though!

This a deceptively powerful exercise for hitting the triceps with a great contraction without any equipment at all.

For this one, you'll need a floor. That's pretty much it.

Lay on your back on the floor and place your hands flat on the floor by your butt, palms down.

Bend your knees up into your chest and hold them there, locked in that position as you do the exercise. Your legs are basically going to be your resistance.

Now push HARD against the ground with your hands (I like to press with my fingers, keeping my palms off the ground) in order to roll your body up and back, squeezing your triceps hard.

Remember, this isn't a leg raise for your abs...you need to focus on pushing with the triceps in order to make this hit the right muscles.

And because your arms are behind your back, you're hitting the strongest anatomically-possible contracted position of the triceps. That means it's going to be a VERY hard squeeze!

You can demonstrate this on yourself very easily right now. Hold your arms straight out in front you and contract your triceps. You'll get a bit of a squeeze.

Now, with arms straight, put them back behind you as FAR as you possibly can and squeeze.

Feel the difference?

Now just add bodyweight.

 

 

 

Dumbell Between the Feet

You can also adjust the resistance that you apply to the triceps in this exercise by straightening your legs a little or by holding a dumbell pinched between your feet. Here are a few pics with holding the dumbell between the feet.

The key here is keep that dumbell pinched SOLIDLY between your feet and use a weight you know you can do that with - you DO NOT want to drop it. I'm not speaking from personal experience on this one, luckily, but I have a feeling that's a lesson you'd only have to learn once.

This is a VERY simple way to get some extra resistance with this exercise. I think you'll be surprised at how effective this one is. Heck, lie down on the floor and try it right now (unless you're at a public location, of course...then again, maybe you're at a public location and just don't care!)