Triceps Won’t Grow
If your triceps won’t grow no matter how often you train them there could be a simple reason why. The triceps are a set of muscles in our arms that normally do not get a lot of work in our every day lives. Since the triceps are not used as often as the biceps you might notice that if you have not trained your triceps for quite some time and then you have a reasonably intense triceps workout, the days following your workout your triceps get extremely sore. Usually this intense soreness in your triceps is much worse than any soreness you ever feel in your biceps.
Many people find their triceps won’t grow but continue with the same training routine week after week or for many months without ever noticing any growth in the triceps. If you find your triceps won’t grow and have been struggling with the same old routine without any success you need to try one of three things.
Firstly, if your triceps won’t grow there is a good chance you are training them too often. Your triceps muscles are a relatively small body part compared to large muscle groups like your back and legs so your triceps don’t need a lot of work each week to stimulate grow. For most people, one triceps workout specifically targeting the triceps muscles each week is enough. Remember that every time you train your chest and when you perform shoulder press exercises you are also training your triceps, so after training both your chest and shoulders once per week, you only need one triceps workout per week for growth, any more than this will probably lead to symptoms of overtraining and your triceps will stop growing.
Secondly, for those of you that find your triceps won’t grow you may need to change your exercises for new muscle growth. If you do the exact same triceps workout each week using the same group of exercises, the same rep range and the same number of sets your body will adapt to this very quickly and your muscle gains will stop coming. Depending on your level of muscular development you should be doing about 6-9 sets for triceps in each workout but try to choose different triceps exercises each week and alternate the intensity between 8-10 reps and 12-15 reps. The constant changes shock the body into growth.
Thirdly, although many young bodybuilders hate the idea of taking time off, I certainly did when I first started bodybuilding, taking a week off training every 3 months is an absolute necessity if you want to keep growing new muscle. One of the reasons you need a full week off weight training every 3 months or for some bodybuilders, it is even better to take a week off every 2 months, is because your central nervous system needs time to recover just like your muscles need time to recover. I have found myself training for many months without any significant time off and realized I was not making any progress and have taken a week or sometimes 2 weeks off weight training and have ultimately come back bigger and stronger than ever after the break once I resumed training again.
So if your triceps won’t grow, now you have three different alternatives to try that might help kick them back into grow mode and as they start to grow bigger and stronger you might find the rest of your body gets a boost in growth as well.