Barbell Skull Crusher

The barbell skull crusher is the standard isolation exercise for the triceps, lowering the bar toward the forehead while the upper arms stay fixed. Keeping the arms angled slightly back rather than perfectly vertical is what puts the long head of the triceps under a real stretch, which is where a large part of the growth stimulus comes from and what separates this from a pushdown. The name is unfortunate but the mechanics are sound, provided the elbows stay where they belong. Letting them flare outward as the weight gets heavy shifts the strain onto the joint and turns the movement into a clumsy press. Use an EZ bar if a straight bar bothers your wrists, control the descent rather than dropping into it, and treat this as a moderate-load exercise. Lower toward the forehead or just behind the head rather than to the chest, since bringing the bar down onto the sternum turns the exercise into a close-grip press and removes the stretch entirely.