How to Avoid Elbow Pain With Lying Triceps Extensions

Lying triceps extensions, elbow pain, and a simple fix for better gains.

If you’re built like me, then you’ve had your fair share of aching joints. I’m a relatively tall guy with long limbs. The advantage of such limbs is that I’m a fair “puller.” I’m not all that impressive pushing (a la bench press and squats), but I can certainly row, pull up, and curl for days.

With such a build, you may find some joints tend to act up–knees and elbows specifically. I recently did a workout program stint where I was training every body part more or less three times per week, just to see how it would feel. It was something I did many earth rotations ago when I started. But these days, I have a bit more mileage on my tires.

One movement in particular was lying triceps extensions with a barbell, or better known as nosebreakers or skullcrushers. I would perform these three times per week. Over time, I noticed my elbows getting a little more sore than usual, but I chalked it up to my body getting used to the new frequency.

After some time and some burning pain in my elbows, I decided to back off–way off and take a few days from the gym to heal up. Next, I isolated my triceps training to cable movements only in hopes to lighten up, put less sheer force on my elbows, and just give the dang triceps a break from barbell and dumbbell exercises.

After a few weeks, I started feeling better, had less sensitivity in the elbow area, and was ready to start the process of figuring out what the culprit really was.

Was it too much frequency? The angle of the movement? (I would angle the barbell over the top of my head instead of over my face and keep it there throughout the motion.) Did it have anything to do with my hand placement and wrist angle?

I concluded it was just pure sheer force stress on the elbow, with a little dash of age.

Wanting to plug them back into my program, I needed a new, safer way to perform lying extensions without the pain. Plus, the cable exercises were getting pretty stale.

This is how I perform lying triceps extension now with little-to-no elbow pain.

1. I take the same lying position with the barbell over my body, but now I will start with the bar straight over my chest instead of over my forehead or higher.
2. I lower the weight straight down. My elbows will start to move toward my waist, and the bar will lower down toward my chin. Think of it a little like a hybrid extension and close-grip bench press motion.
3. After slowly and deliberately lowering the bar under complete control, I reverse the motion back to the top, purposely squeezing the triceps the entire way.
4. I squeeze at the top, keeping the muscle under constant tension.

Performing the lying extension this way does a couple of things that protect my joints.

1. Performing this in more of a compound movement (both triceps and shoulder joints take the stress) protects the elbows.
2. Not sweeping the bar in a wide arch overhead reduces the sheer force on my elbows.

Here’s a little demo by Dr. Mike Israetel, but with dumbbells.

I still get a great stretch in the triceps, use a free weight for variation, and protect my aging joints all at once.

Give it a try and let me know how you do in the comments.

Happy lifting!