Exercise Library
Barbell Lying Triceps Extension Skull Crusher
Lie on a flat bench holding a barbell with arms extended above your chest. Keeping your upper arms still, bend your elbows to lower the bar toward your forehead in a controlled motion. Pause briefly, then extend your arms to return the bar to the starting position, focusing on contracting the triceps throughout the movement.
Primary muscle
Triceps (long head
Secondary muscles
lateral head, medial head)
Equipment
Barbell
Category
Triceps
How to Do the Barbell Lying Triceps Extension Skull Crusher
- Lie flat on a bench with a barbell held over your chest, hands about shoulder-width apart with a pronated grip.
- Press the bar up and position it over your forehead or slightly behind it, arms angled a few degrees back toward your head.
- Keep your elbows tucked at shoulder width and pointed at the ceiling throughout.
- Inhale and bend only at the elbows, lowering the bar under control toward your forehead or just above the crown of your head.
- Stop when your forearms touch your biceps or just before the bar reaches your head.
- Exhale and extend your elbows to drive the bar back to the start, keeping the upper arms still.
- Finish just short of a hard lockout to keep tension on the triceps, then repeat.
Common Mistakes
- Flaring the elbows: letting the elbows drift wide shifts load to the chest and shoulders and puts the elbows in a weaker position.
- Turning it into a press: dropping the upper arms toward the torso and pressing the bar up recruits the chest and defeats the isolation.
- Lowering too fast: the bar travels toward your face, so a controlled eccentric is a safety requirement, not just a training cue.
- Going too heavy too soon: skull crushers stress the elbow tendons; build load gradually and stay 2 to 3 reps shy of failure on most sets.
Track This Exercise in the App
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