Jeff Cavaliere is breaking down another great workout you can incorporate into your routine. On February 9, 2025, he outlined his perfect science-based triceps workout for building muscle.
When it comes to exercising and mastering fitness, Jeff Cavaliere is a savant. He boasts years of knowledge helping individuals achieve their peak bodies and goals in athletics. He once served as the assistant strength and conditioning coach to the Major League Baseball team the New York Mets.
With over 13.9 million YouTube subscribers, individuals pay attention when Cavaliere breaks out the whiteboard. He breaks down complex workouts and principles into easy-to-understand material, making his content highly sought after. Building full and well-balanced triceps can require attention to detail and hard work, so below, Cavaliere gave you the ins and outs to effectively get the job done.
Jeff Cavaliere’s Science-Based ‘Perfect’ Triceps Workout
Find his exercise selections below:
- Triceps Pushdowns (2-3 x 6-8 FF)
- Lying DB Extensions (2-3 x 8-10 + Eccentric Only Reps)
- DB/Cable Triceps Kickbacks (2-3 x 10-12 + Partials)
- Cobra Pushups (1 x Failure)
Triceps Pushdowns
To begin the YouTube video, Cavaliere dived into why triceps pushdowns are a fantastic option to start the workout.
“A basic movement, it’s the tricep pushdown. One of the big things we don’t do is take advantage of the fact that we can load this exercise up quite heavily here in the 6-8 rep range and push it to failure.”
This exercise allows lifters to effectively tax the medial head of the tricep.
“You will want to target the triceps and most importantly here, you’re hitting that medial-lateral head by getting your arms out in front of your body.”
Lying Dumbbell Extensions
He emphasized that they way in which individuals train the long head of the tricep has a major impact on results.
“Lying dumbbell extension. Now I mentioned before about the importance of the long head in terms of allocation of the size of the arm when it comes to that long head of the triceps, it’s really important but how you train it matters.”
“Are you training it through that stretched position or are you training it in that contracted position? As I mentioned, you’re going to have to do both,” he said.
His goal during this movement is to reach concentric failure and then finish with eccentric-only repeititions.
“As you see here, when I reach concentric failure, I want to still perform this eccentric only repetitions, where that’s where you’re just going to drap them across your shoulders low to put you in position to press them back to the top.”
DB/Cable Triceps Kickbacks
While many disregard the effectiveness of dumbbell triceps pushbacks, Cavaliere highlighted that they are one of very few exercises that gets the muscle into its fully contracted position.
“This exercise takes a lot of shit because people say it’s not worthwhile to do, I disagree, completely. It’s one of only few select that allows you to get in that fully contracted position and that’s why you need to start making sure you do it,” he shared.
Cobra Pushups
Lastly, he performed cobra pushups as a quick finisher.
“We’re already using our triceps in the chest portion of the workout.”
In addition, Jeff Cavaliere offered an optional Day 2 tricep workout in case in need of extra work. Below you can find his second routine:
- PJR Pullover
- Cable Triceps Pushaways
- X Pushdowns
- Bench Dips
This wasn’t the first time Cavaliere offered science-based health advice. He recently walked through an outline for staying lean for a lifetime, where he introduced concepts that anyone can use to take their physique to the next level.
If triceps training is difficult for you, Jeff Cavaliere believes his approach can produce results. Feel free to give his perfect tricep workout a try the next time you’re hitting the weights!
RELATED: Jeff Cavaliere Rates Best Chest Exercises and Reveals Which Ones To Exclude from Your Workouts
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