Triceps pushdown (cable)

The pushdown is the most used triceps exercise there is, and the easiest to get wrong without noticing. The weight goes down, the arm straightens, and your chest and lats did a fair share of the work.

The triceps has three heads, and the pushdown hits the two that do not cross the shoulder. The long head needs the arm overhead, which is why pushdowns alone are not enough.

Sets, reps and RIR

Single-joint work responds to reps and time under tension more than to heavy load.

RIR means reps in reserve: how many you could still have done when you racked it. RIR 2 is two short of failure.

How to do it

1. Set the cable high, roughly at chest height or a little above.
2. Stand half a step from the tower and lean the torso a few degrees forward.
3. Lock the elbows against your ribs. They are the only joint that should move.
4. Press down to straight arms without pushing the shoulders down at the same time.
5. Squeeze for a moment at the bottom with the elbow still tucked.
6. Let it back up under control past horizontal, without the elbow travelling.

Common mistakes

Elbows sliding back

You are using the lats to push the weight down. If you feel it in your back, this is why.

Leaning over the weight

A few degrees forward is right. Hanging over the bar with your whole torso means body weight is moving the stack, not your triceps.

Cutting the range short

Stopping before the elbow is straight skips the part where the triceps is shortest and working hardest.

Bending the wrist

Pressing with a bent wrist puts the load through the forearm. Keep hand and forearm in one line.

How it differs from the neighbouring variants

The rope lets the hands separate at the bottom for slightly more range, which many people feel more in the lateral head. The straight bar lets you go heavier.

The single-arm pushdown exposes side-to-side differences and lets the hand rotate freely. Overhead triceps extension, with a dumbbell or a cable, is the important partner: it stretches the long head that pushdowns never reach. Skull crushers sit between the two, elbow slightly behind the head. A triceps session should have one of each.

What it suits

The pushdown fits at the end of a pressing session, or as the first triceps movement if you want to warm the elbow before heavier work. Ten to fifteen reps with a still elbow is right. If you only do two triceps exercises, make one a pushdown and one overhead.

Muscles worked

Primary: Triceps.

Estimate your one-rep max

Epley's formula, from a set you have actually done. It is an estimate, and it drifts above eight reps, so keep the input between one and twelve.

What it is called elsewhere

• Norsk Triceps pushdown (kabel)
• Svenska Tricepspushdown (kabel)
• Dansk Triceps pushdown (kabel)
• Deutsch Trizepsdrücken am Kabel
• Español Extensión de tríceps en polea alta
• Italiano Pushdown ai cavi
• Português Tríceps pulley (barra)
• Русский Разгибание рук на верхнем блоке
• Français Extension triceps à la poulie

Related arms exercises

• Barbell curl
• EZ-bar curl
• Preacher curl (barbell)
• Skull crushers
• Standing French press
• Reverse curl

athlate logs this exercise, keeps the numbers, and tells you what you lifted last time.