Pilates Exercises for a Great Tricep Workout: Part I

Today a client came in with a copy of a short article entitled “Ending the Under-Arm Jiggles.”  It had a few exercise suggestions, and I read it and said well I can’t believe I haven’t written a blog post about the triceps yet!  I thought back to the many times that someone came in with the goal of toning the arms, especially the triceps, and realized that most often the “underarm jiggles” are about shoulder instability and not about the tricep weakness at all!  We’ve been spending years at the gym “toning our triceps” when in fact we should have been learning how to move!  

Think about it.  How much do we use our arms in everyday life?  If our shoulders are moving efficiently then the triceps are working along with the rest of our arms when we type, wash the dishes, make the bed, hit a tennis ball, go swimming, open a door, write a check, or hold onto a hand railing.  If our shoulders are moving efficiently then we don’t have to do tricep-isolating exercises because our triceps are working all day long! 

Now I have posed this solution as if snapping the fingers will lead to magic efficiently moving shoulders, but unfortunately I’m afraid that is not the case…Our shoulders fall into repetitive movement patterns just as easily as our knees, hips, and back.  Our lives that keep us at the computer longer than we want, and the repetitive movements in our work and home life keep our hands in front of us, and then when we finally get to exercise the habits that are created during our lives stay and are there even when doing tricep exercises.  SOOOO what now?  Is it hopeless??? Absolutely not!!!

Let this blogpost be your first step! The following exercises will soon be on the Pilates Exercise of the Day Blog they will help you release the shoulders, and allow you to become aware of the relationship between the collarbone, the shoulder blade, and the upper arm bone.  This relationship is crucial to arms for an even muscle tone.  Once the shoulders have loosened up and your body has a deep understanding of the movement of the shoulders, the tricep exercises that I list next week will be so much more effective and beyond that, every arm movement that you do will be working the arm evenly!

First we have Elbow Circles on the Foam Roller

This exercise teaches the body how to use the collar bone and the shoulder blade.  When we think of arm movement often we are only aware of the shoulder socket, but in actuality there are three joints that are involved in all arm movement.  We have the Gleno-Humeral Joint (arm bones connected to the shoulder blades) the Acromio-Clavicular joint (shoulder blades connected to the collarbones) and finally the Sterno-Clavicular joint (collarbones connected to the Breast Bone).  These three joints create the range of motion that we have at our shoulders and as I said before when we spend most of our days with our hands in front of us, it gets harder to use our full range.  

To do these Elbow Circles lay on your foam roller, and place your hands on your shoulders, begin drawing circles with your elbows and then gradually let these circles become larger.  Become aware of the way that the arm bone moves in the socket.  Allow the collarbone to open as you circle the arm back.  Allow the shoulder blade to move as you circle the arm forward.  Be sure to keep the arm connected to the socket as you continue these circles in both directions.

Now take a break and find your way to sitting.  How do your shoulders feel?  Are they warm?  Do you feel additional width across the front and the back of your shoulders?  Have they dropped?

Next we will do Snow Angels on the Foam Roller

This exercise will help you find balance between the front and the back of the shoulders.  Once again because our hands are in front of us during most of our days, the muscles that run along the front of the chest get short and pull the shoulder joint forward, which makes it nearly impossible to engage the tricep.  The Snow Angels will help open the chest so that next week when the strengthening exercises come, your triceps will be available to you!

To do the Snow Angels lay on the foam roller and let your arms open out to the side so that your chest is open.  Then as if you are laying in powdery snow begin creating your angel wings by letting your arms move towards your head and then towards your pelvis.  Always trying to have the fingertips reaching to the ground.  Find the place that feels the most stretch, rest there, and breathe into the chest!

After this find your way to standing and try to engage your triceps.  Do you feel the entire muscle?  As you move your arm can you feel the tricep participating?

What Now?

Now you get to do me a favor! try these exercises on for a week.  If possible try to do them in the morning and right before you go to bed, and then in a weeks time, I will write the second part of this post that will have plenty information about strengthening exercises and even a video to go with it!

Katrina Hawley C.M.A, R.S.M.E

Co-Director of The Pilates Studio