ActiveWorkoutsTricep dips vs skull crushers: which is best for supersizing your arms?Two of the most popular exercises for beefing up your arm, but is one better? An expert shares their insightWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
ActiveWorkoutsTricep dips vs skull crushers: which is best for supersizing your arms?Two of the most popular exercises for beefing up your arm, but is one better? An expert shares their insightWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Two of the most popular exercises for beefing up your arm, but is one better? An expert shares their insight
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
Jump to category:What’s the difference?BenefitsHow to doWhich is best?
Jump to category:What’s the difference?BenefitsHow to doWhich is best?
When it comes to adding size to our arms, most people turn their attention to the biceps. Busting out endless curls may feel great and leave you with an impressive pump, but what you should be thinking about is the triceps.
The triceps are bigger than your biceps, they’re actually the largest muscle in your arm and make up two-thirds of it. Neglect that amount of muscle and you’re only limiting your chances for super-sized arms. Not only that, but stronger triceps help you smash variouscompound exercises, like thebench press, as they help with lockout strength and shoulder stability.
Tricep dips and skull crushers are two of the top exercises for adding strength and size to the back of your arm. But is one superior to the other? With the help of an expert, we try and answer that very question.
Tricep dip vs skull crushers: what’s the difference?
Tricep dips are a bodyweight exercise that are often performed on a dip station and target the tricep’s medial head (located just below the long head) and lateral head (located on the outer portion of the tricep). They’re a compound exercise, so they fire up more muscles than just your triceps. “Dips also recruit your upper arms, front delts, and your pectoral muscles,” says Nick Mitchell, Founder ofUltimate Performance.
Tricep dip vs skull crushers: benefits
(Image credit: Shutterstock/Getty Images)
(Image credit: Shutterstock/Getty Images)
One of the great things about tricep dips is that they’re a scalable exercise that you can make easier or more challenging. “You can use chains, weighted belts or if you really want to feel the burn, you can slow down the eccentric portion of the dip to three or four seconds,” says Nick. Plus, you can even loop aresistance bandaround a dip station for extra assistance.
They can be performed on various bits of equipment too (yes you don’t need a dip station). Nick suggests placing two weight benches parallel to each other, with your feet on one bench and your arms on the other, so that you to replicate the same movement. No weight benches free? You can even do them from the floor.
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Similarly, you can use a mixture of equipment to perform skull crushers, from cable machines tobarbells, and dumbbells. “This means you can progressively increase the weight, which will constantly challenge your muscles to adapt and grow,” says Nick. You can still easily perform skull crushers from the floor too, the only caveat is you need some form of weight to perform the exercise.
Is one move easier than the other though? Well, tricep dips are challenging, as they require you to be able to control your own body weight and remain stable. However, don’t let this put you off: “This will have a strong carryover to exercises like thedeadlift, where your entire body needs to be working efficiently together to lift the load,” says Nick. Whereas, with skull crushers, you can easily pick a weight that’s suitable for you, and have the support of the weight bench too, but you need to nail the form (and people tend to ego lift), otherwise they’re pointless.
How to do tricep dips and skull crushers
How to do tricep dips
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
Nick’s tips:
How to do skull crushers
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
Nick’s tips:
Tricep dip vs skull crushers: which is best for building your arms?
If your goal is simply to thicken your arms and look good in T-shirts, Nick says you’re best opting for skull crushers. “Out of the three triceps heads, the long head is the one you really want to target if you want to increase the density, thickness, and size of your triceps, and skull crushers target this more,” he says. “Also, you can incrementally increase the weights which will drive hypertrophy.”
This doesn’t mean tricep dips suck (far from it) as Nick says they still “trash your triceps”. Nick says the time you may opt for dips over skull crushers is if you’re pushed for time and need to smash through an upper body session, as they target multiple muscles, or if you don’t own anyhome gym equipment.
“As a general rule, I would say that skull crushers are more effective are building overall strength in your triceps muscles, simply because it is a single-joint move that really isolates the long head,” he says. “But I would try to look at the two exercises as complimentary, rather than mutually exclusive and including both exercises in any workout is going to give you the most bang for your buck.”
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