Tricep exercises for women: the best moves, with dumbbells or without

Tricep exercises for women usually arrive wrapped in a promise about the back of your arms, and that promise is always about making something go away. That's the wrong job description. Your triceps straighten your elbow. They finish every push-up, every bench press, every overhead press, and every time you shove yourself up off the floor. Stronger triceps mean a stronger press. That's the point.

Here are the best tricep exercises for women, with dumbbells and without, how to do each one, a short session to finish an upper-body day, how heavy to go, and how it fits around running. Program it by hand or hand it to a coach that programs your week for you. Your elbows won't know the difference.

Tricep exercises for women: what's different (nothing)

Ladies tricep exercises, women's tricep exercises, tricep exercises for anyone: same list. There's no female triceps. What changes from person to person is the plan around the exercises: your goal, your schedule, your equipment, and whether you're also training for a race. That's what a women's program you can follow should handle, not a separate exercise library.

And women respond well to upper-body training. A 2020 meta-analysis comparing men and women on the same resistance training programs found similar muscle growth between the sexes and a larger relative gain in upper-body strength for women. The studies were short and in young to middle-aged adults, so it's a direction, not a verdict, but there's no case for training your arms lighter or differently. For the whole body, there's a guide to workouts for women organized by body part.

The myth worth dropping: spot reduction

Training a muscle doesn't burn the fat sitting over it. In a 12-week study of 104 adults who trained only their non-dominant arm, MRI found fat loss was general rather than concentrated in the trained arm, and skinfold measurements showed no spot reduction in the women. Tricep exercises build tricep strength. That's a good enough reason to do them.

What your triceps do

The triceps have three heads, all of which straighten the elbow:

• ›Long head: the only one that also crosses the shoulder. It gets stretched most when your arm is overhead.
• ›Lateral head: the outer part of the back of the arm.
• ›Medial head: underneath, working in pretty much every elbow-straightening move.

That long head is why overhead exercises matter. In a 12-week study of overhead versus arms-down cable extensions, 21 adults trained one arm in each position. The overhead arm grew substantially more across the whole triceps, especially the long head, even though it was lifting lighter weights. One study, but a clean design: same people, same program, different arm position. Put at least one overhead move in your week.

The best tricep exercises for women

1. Close-grip push-up

Hands just inside shoulder-width, elbows tucked close to your sides, body in one straight line from head to heels. Lower your chest to just above the floor, press back up. Hands on a bench or a counter if the floor version isn't there yet; raise the hands less as you get stronger.

2. Close-grip bench press or dumbbell press

The heavy option. A narrower grip shifts work toward the triceps. A 2021 study of bench press grip widths in novice and trained men found the wide grip produced less triceps activity than the medium and narrow grips, and the narrow grip allowed lower six-rep-max loads. So "close" means just inside shoulder-width, not hands touching. With dumbbells, press with palms facing each other and elbows tucked.

3. Overhead dumbbell extension

Hold one dumbbell with both hands, arms straight overhead. Keep your upper arms pointing roughly at the ceiling and lower the dumbbell behind your head until you feel a deep stretch, then straighten your arms. Seated if your lower back arches when you stand. This is the move the overhead study above points to.

4. Lying dumbbell extension (skull crusher)

Lie on a bench, dumbbells held straight over your shoulders, palms facing each other. Bend only at the elbows, lowering the dumbbells beside your head, then straighten. Letting the upper arms drift slightly back behind vertical keeps tension on at the top.

5. Cable or band pushdown

Rope or bar on a high cable, elbows pinned to your sides, push down to straight arms and control the way back up. At home, loop a band over a door anchor or a pull-up bar. Easy to learn, easy to load, fine for higher reps.

6. Dips

Parallel bars, body upright, lower until your upper arms are about level with the floor, then press back up. Use an assisted dip machine or a band until you can do clean reps. Bench dips, with your hands behind you on a bench, are the usual home version, but many coaches skip them because they push the shoulders into an awkward position at the bottom. If they bother your shoulders, close-grip push-ups do the same job.

7. Dumbbell kickback

Hinge forward, upper arm parallel to the floor, straighten the elbow behind you. It's fine as a light finisher. It's also the most overrated of the lot, because the hardest part of the rep is the last few degrees and the weight you can use is small. If you only have time for one move, pick the overhead extension.

Dumbbell tricep exercises for women

If dumbbells are all you have, you can still cover every part of the triceps:

• ›Heavy press: close-grip dumbbell press or floor press.
• ›Overhead: two-hand overhead dumbbell extension.
• ›Lying: dumbbell skull crusher on a bench or the floor.
• ›Finisher: kickbacks or close-grip push-ups.

That's a complete set of tricep exercises with dumbbells for women, and it slots straight into our upper body dumbbell workout for women guide, which builds the pressing and pulling around it.

A 15-minute tricep session

Add it to the end of an upper-body day. These are coaching conventions, not law. RPE 8 means about two reps left in reserve.

If your upper day already has a bench press or push-ups, the close-grip press can go and the session drops to two exercises.

How heavy should tricep exercises be?

• ›Compound presses (close-grip bench, dips, push-ups): 6–10 reps, close to failure without grinding.
• ›Extensions and pushdowns: 10–15 reps. Elbows prefer moderate weights done with control over heavy weights done sloppily.
• ›Progression: double progression. Pick a range, say 10–12. When every set hits 12 cleanly, move to the next weight and drop back to 10.

Dumbbells jump in big relative steps on small muscles, so if the next pair is too much, add a rep, slow the lowering, or add a set first. And if an elbow actually hurts, rather than just working hard, stop that exercise and see a professional.

Balance the push with a pull

Triceps are pushers. Every program that adds pressing should match it with pulling, and the usual coaching rule of thumb is at least as much pulling as pushing across the week. Rows, pulldowns and pull-up progressions are the core of it, and the full list of women's back workout exercises covers gym, dumbbell and no-equipment options.

Arms are still the finisher, not the main course. Your lower body does more of the heavy lifting in a week, and the best glute workout for women and a squat-hinge-lunge session matter more to most goals than any amount of pushdowns. The other half of your arms gets the same treatment in women's bicep workouts: a couple of curl variations after your rows.

Where tricep work fits a running week

Tricep exercises don't touch your legs, so they fit almost anywhere. Put them at the end of an upper session, on an easy run day or after a quality run. The rules that do matter are the usual ones: heavy lower-body days go on easy run days, never the day before intervals or your long run.

Most plans take a lighter week every three to five weeks. Triceps included.

How exrsz handles it

exrsz builds a periodized plan from your goal, schedule, level and equipment, so a pair of dumbbells at home gets tricep work you can actually do. It balances running and lifting in one plan, adapts the loads each week to what you actually lifted, and reshuffles sessions you miss.

FAQ

What are the best tricep exercises for women?

Close-grip push-ups or presses for heavy work, an overhead extension for the long head, and a pushdown or skull crusher for volume. In a 2023 study, overhead extensions produced substantially more triceps growth than the same exercise with arms down.

What are the best dumbbell tricep exercises for women?

The close-grip dumbbell press, the two-hand overhead dumbbell extension and the dumbbell skull crusher. Kickbacks are a light finisher at most.

Can tricep exercises spot-reduce fat?

No. A 12-week single-arm training study found MRI-measured fat loss was general, not concentrated in the trained arm. Tricep exercises build strength in the triceps, which is the reason to do them.

How often should women train triceps?

Two sessions a week works for most people, usually two or three sets of extensions at the end of an upper-body day. Pressing exercises like push-ups and bench press already train the triceps.

Can I do ladies tricep exercises with no equipment?

Yes. Close-grip push-ups, from a counter down to the floor as you get stronger, are the main one. Add parallel-bar dips if you have access to a pair of bars.