-: Okay. As far as elbow extensors are concerned,
the triceps are your main guys here.
And this one is split up into three primary heads,
hence the name triceps,
The most medial of all the heads
and the largest one is the long head,
which is, as its name suggests, the longest one.
And this one does cross the shoulder joint
and the elbow joint, being a biarticular muscle.
And so, its primary origin is going to be
at the infraglenoid tubercle,
which is actually on the scapula itself.
So from the scapula view here,
it's going to insert right underneath this glenoid fossa,
and it's gonna continue all the way down
and insert across the elbow joint.
So this is going to have
many implications as far as shoulder stability,
as far as, even in the case of various types of rows.
And also it's going to have a great moment
to pull this arm into shoulder extension.
The other two guys,
as far as the medial head is concerned,
this one is deep and right in the center,
and this is going to attach to the back of the humerus
and also cross that joint fusing into that common tendon.
And then we have the lateral head,
which kind of rounds out the last bit of that horseshoe.
And again, fusing into that same common tendon.
So two out of the three attach directly to the humerus,
and then the one that's the most medial
and the largest belly attaches straight into the scapula,
creating the full locked out position here.
And if we bring the arm into full shoulder extension,
that's going to be your absolute shortest triceps possible.
-: So when we're looking application for the tricep training,
couple things to consider
when we are looking at positioning the arm and whatnot.
Two things: one is we need to line the resistance up
as close as possible with the elbow motion itself.
So regardless of whether you're doing a machine,
a dumbbell, or a cable extension,
you want that resistance to match the path
that the actual elbow's going through. Right?
So for instance, if Adam comes here,
and he does an elbow extension,
it's not straight up and down.
So like a bar or a rope or something like that
isn't gonna be near as advantageous
as say like a crossover cable
that he could match directly with the path of his arm.
Now, a mistake that people make
when they're looking at the path of the arm
is they just stand straight behind and look at that.
And what you actually need to do is
that path of the arm needs to be
like you are going perpendicular toward
or in line with the direction
that the elbow joint is pointing. Right?
So if he's slightly internally rotated,
what the path of that cable needs to be
is I need to actually be right behind this elbow point
and judging the angle of resistance from there, right?
Versus if I'm here and that's slightly internal rotated
that cable's gonna look
like it's coming a little too low
when in reality it might be perfect.
So I have to judge the angle from
perpendicular from the humerus,
so that I'm matching the path of elbow,
whether there's an internal or external rotation component,
based off of the person's structure.
The other thing is then going to be
the humeral position that we pick.
So when we're trying to set this up,
first thing, since the long head attaches here,
wherever the scapula is
we do want it to be slightly stabilized.
So that means we're usually not gonna be
in a protracted state,
which pretty much every little dinky tricep handle
is gonna put you in there.
We're gonna want to be in a neutral shoulder.
So not over-retracted,
but in a fairly neutral shoulder position.
And what that's gonna do is
it's gonna put this scapular plane
to the point where it's really easy
to resist any forces that would pull that way. Right?
So if Adam does that,
and we wanna find the optimal position,
what it's gonna be is we're trying to find a line
that's gonna put these long head fibers
in line with all the way up to the insertion.
So if we come in here, you can kind of see
if this line were to come
and come across and kind of have to curve in.
So if he were to tense this,
what it would technically do
is it would wanna bring him out.
So the nice thing is usually
we have a nice line here up from the rear delts.
So if you think of the ridge of the rear delt,
that's giving you idea of what that scapula is tipped at.
And so we can essentially line the humerus up
perpendicular to that point.
And that's gonna usually be the point
where the tricep has the greatest stability
through the long head.
And then if I wanted to have extra range,
it is extending through that plane
that is perpendicular to here, right?
So it's not necessarily down here, around here.
It's that extension has to occur
in line with those rear delt fibers.
'Cause you gotta remember all of this stuff
is going to be stabilizing the humerus,
as he's acting on this elbow joint. Right?
So what we don't want to do is have
the stability this way be the limiting factor
for what he can do from an elbow extension standpoint.
So the more that we can get everything on this side
in a mechanically favorable position,
the less likely it is going to be the thing
that really reduces the amount of tension
that we can produce in the triceps.
Another thing to consider is,
when we go to a lengthened tricep,
if Adam were to come out here,
he has to internally rotate.
What that actually does is you can see
it starts to curve this around.
So if I actually keep the scapula roughly where it is,
this now actually would have
a external rotation vector on it.
So if you look at this tendon here,
if his long head of his tricep were to contract,
it would want to do this.
So depending on what type of force you're using.
So a lot of times somebody will
be using a rope behind their head,
and what people will do to correct them is be like,
"Oh no, you have to do this." Right?
And that's just a violation
of shoulder mechanics at that point in time,
especially as he gets further and further around, right?
So two things that can happen.
One is he goes around this way.
Now the triceps gonna want to carry him into this position,
which is kind of like
a 45 degree position.
But if he were to try and do this, right?
Now the long head of the tricep
is actually gonna want to carry him back here,
and that's gonna vary from structure to structure.
So the solution to be able to train this tricep
in the length and position
is to stop trying to wrap it around the body this way.
And instead, bring it closer to ...
Doesn't have to be a completely horizontal plane,
but something in this,
and then he can come up here,
so that now if he's in this position,
there's not much of a rotational force.
So if he's there,
he should be able to put tension through there.
And he wouldn't be trying to internally
or externally rotate that shoulder.
If there is the tendency to wanna do this or this,
that likely means you have
the long head of the tricep lined up incorrectly.
So your body has two solutions there.
Either it's gonna create unnecessary stress on the joint,
or it's gonna inhibit that long head of the tricep,
and you're not actually gonna accomplish
the whole goal of actually trying to get
to a more lengthened long head by bringing the elbow up.
So a lot of people ...
This is actually going to be as lengthened as they go,
because everything else that they get
is just gonna be shoulder elevation and scapular rotation.
And not really that much extra stretch on the tricep itself.
The tricep is also gonna have kind of that
compressive force on the shoulder girdle.
So anything that we are doing with
a pressing exercise or whatever,
we wanna make sure that this stays loaded,
because this is going to recycle
all the force that is going on
in terms of elbow extension.
It's gonna recycle that,
and to helping drive up on the arm.
So if we think of Adam doing a pulldown here, right?
He was doing a lat pulldown or a pullover even, right?
So let's say a pullover would be a good example,
where there's force at the elbow end here,
so that we have the lats pulling this way on the humerus.
But then the triceps in this case would be pulling this way.
So they would be helping
keeping that joint locked in,
so that it could pivot nice and easy.
Otherwise though what's happening is
you would actually have the lats
trying to pull the humerus out
of the the glenoid fossa up here. Right?
So they're trying to almost
dislocate the shoulder joint,
but the tricep and the bicep
are actually gonna be the things
that keep the shoulder joint seated,
so that the lat can create the shoulder extension.
If we don't have the bicep and the triceps there to do that,
we're gonna get extra stress
on those rotator cuff muscles
and all of the scapula muscles
that are holding the shoulder together.