Skull Crushers Workouts: Bulk and Tone Those Triceps!

Your Complete Guide on Skull Crushers Exercise for Massive Triceps Gain!

Performing skull crushers exercise doesn’t mean you have to crush your skull, but your triceps will be melted out. 

Whether bodybuilders or fitness freaks, developing upper arm muscles is no less than wrestling.

Even after having a whole planned workout involving exercises like overhead presses, bench pressing, and other workouts, you observe no noteworthy difference.

For impressive bulkier arms and greater upper body strength, your triceps require attention!

Skull Crusher is perfect is for the job. Not only it improves your arms muscle but elevates your upper body strength.

Whether you are a seasoned powerlifter or a regular bodybuilder, the exercise will get you a solid muscle pump.

In this blog, we’ve dealt with everything about the Skull crusher exercises. You will know how to do skull crushers, how to perform them correctly, the main benefits, other possible variations.

So, let’s kick start…

How to Do the Skull Crushers?

Here, we’ve shared a step-by-step guide on the proper way to do skull crushers barbells.

Step 1 — Align Your Wrists and Shoulders

• Lay down on your back on a study workout bench.
• The barbell should be locked out at the top position.
• Your hands should remain shoulder-width apart. The gap should depend on your comfort and flexibility.
• You should feel the flex of your upper back muscle and the squeeze of your shoulder blades.

Step 2 — Lower the Barbell

• Now, start letting down the barbell towards your forehead. Here’s the name comes from. It feels like crushing the skull.
• Make sure your elbows are tucked in. A little bit flared out elbows are okay and natural. However, the excessive flare will decrease the effect of barbell skull crushers form.

Step 3 — Stretch Your Triceps

• Once the barbell reaches your forehead, drop your shoulders, and roll the arms back so the bar goes behind your head.
• Now, the entire back of your arms engages giving intense stretch.

ALSO READ – 6 Simple Steps For How To Stretch Triceps Quickly!!

Step 4 — Remain Tight and Lift

• Once you have held the bar at the bottom position, reverse back to the initial position.
• Throughout the skull crusher barbell, your elbows should be tucked throughout the lift.

Skull crusher workout is easy to perform. Still, people miss out on the key to the exercise, which creates trouble.

Not only it makes the workout ineffective but may result in injury.

Thus, it becomes inevitable to be aware of the best way to do skull crushers. This only includes the keys to the workout involved by leading fitness trainers.

How to Perform Skull Crusher the Right Way?

People talk about the skull crushers muscles worked. Obviously, it makes your triceps muscular, ripped, sculpted.

So, even a newbie at the gym wants to give it a shot. There isn’t anything bad at performing skull crushers dumbbell sitting or barbell.

The problem is when they focus on the steps, but overlook the basics of workouts. Eventually, this makes the exercise insufficient for your tris. And the ultimate consequence is injuries.

To help you out, we’ve shared the key to performing a proper skull crusher in the right way.

Here’s what expert fitness trainers suggest.

Your Back Should Not Arch

You need to maintain a stable sturdy body position. Your feet should be flat on the floor.

You need to squeeze your glutes. Your core should be active so you don’t have an arch on the workout bench.

Well, the arch thing drops in terms of every workout. Still, for making most of the skull crusher workout, this is the point is vital.

You need to have at least a perpendicular upper arm angle to your torso. Anything less than will miss the point of performing a skull crusher.

Indeed, arching your back make it impossible to get the proper angle.

Maintain Your Shoulder Position

Once the bar reaches over your head, it’s time to get active. Steer your shoulders intensely into the bench while regulating a little bit of tension in the mid-back. Now, incline your upper arms back somewhat.

Usually, the powerlifter maintains their upper arms at 90% to the floor. Indeed, a 91 or 92 degree isn’t a bit bad. The slight change increases tension on the triceps while you straighten your arms.

Eventually, this prevents the straight-armed position from converting into a rest position.

Now, you have to fully flex your triceps to straighten your arms.

Your Elbows Should Be Tight

As you lessen the weight, make sure your elbows are in. Your wrist and elbows should be at shoulder-width distance. Neither closer nor farther.

Usually, people let their elbows flare out while performing skull crusher. You need to avoid this mistake.

In fact, it can lead to a shoulder injury and even lessen the emphasis on your triceps. You won’t get much benefit from the movement.

Use One Lever Only

Once you enter the position, drop the barbell to your head, while moving only at the elbow joint.

Obviously, you would tend to let your upper arms roll back as you drop your lower bar toward your forehead.

Now, move your upper arms forward as you engage weight back up. This removes the emphasis from your triceps gets you other muscle engaged.

So, aim only at moving your elbows by maximizing your efforts on your tris.

Whether you perform skull crushers standing or sitting, these are keys to performing the exercise effectively.

These basics not only ensure the effectiveness of the workout but protects from a possible shoulder injury.

Attaining the proper skull crusher form is necessary for developing biceps. Nonetheless, the move isn’t worth spending time and effort in such a case.

The benefits of the skull crushers exercise are undeniably impressive. This is why people want to give it a shot even if it’s impossible for them in the first place.

Benefits of Skull Crushers

The workout doesn’t only benefit your triceps but strengthens your upper body.

In fact, proper implementation of the movement can give an edge to your workout regime.

The reason is the impressive benefits of the skull crusher to your bulking goals.

Here are the main skull crushers workout benefits.

#1: Strengthens Triceps

The stronger the triceps, the easier are pressing workouts and overhead stability.

Henceforth, powerlifters focus on gaining stronger triceps to lockout out the bench press.

Also, weightlifters need to have stronger triceps. This enables necessary elbow extension during the phases of the snatch and jerk while lifting weights.

Moreover, strongmen lifting logs weighing more than 300 pounds overhead need stronger triceps to finish the movement.

With a bodyweight skull crusher, your triceps will become stronger.

The stronger you are, the bigger you lift, the more you lift, the stronger your triceps becomes. Indeed, it’s a cyclic process.

#2: Better Lockout Strength

The triceps muscles are responsible for elbow extension.

In fact, it plays a key role in the final concluding range for a motion for different workouts and movements. This includes the snatch, clean & jerk, bench press, and overhead press.

Standing Skull crushers workout improves lockout strength of triceps.

Eventually, this helps powerlifters and strength athletes to improvise the lockout performance and hypertrophy work. Also, this diminishes the technical faults leading to press-outs.

#3: Better Elbows Joints

When it comes to healthy joints are important. They have a direct impact on your training volume, technique, elevation in muscle hypertrophy, and increased production.

This helps volume and weights work on the muscles rather than on the ligaments, tendons, and joints.

Stronger and muscular triceps in proper form elevates pressing performance.

Moreover, it lessens the overuse injury occurring to the connective tissues and the joints.

#4: Bigger Muscular Arms

For some powerlifters and bodybuilders, bigger, leaner, toned, and muscular arms are an additional goal.

Indeed, triceps make up two-thirds of your arms. The dedicated triceps workout like the Skull crusher exercise is going to pipe down your goal.

#5: Muscles Worked

The skull crusher exercise is a single joint workout targeting the triceps particularly.

When other triceps-focused moves like close-grip bench press and dips focus different muscle groups at once, the workout goes a step ahead.

In fact, the skull crusher technique directs hits the triceps. Also, the movement benefits the muscle group intensely.

Indeed, the muscle worked makes the skull crusher the best triceps workout.

#6: Triceps

The triceps muscle group is necessary for elbow extension. This is why it is important for different pressing moves like overhead presses, dips, bench press, push-ups, overhead stability, etc.

Indeed, the skull crushers exercise isolates your triceps. The workout makes the elbow flexion while steadying the shoulder and wrist joints.

#7: Shoulder Stabilizers

The move doesn’t engage your shoulder muscles. However, the scapular stabilizers and rear deltoids work effectively to stabilities your shoulder system. This helps you stabilize in a single position.

Restricting or stabilizing your shoulder moves help the elbow flex.

Further, this aids in the required range of motion, elevating the demands of the triceps to expand the elbow joints completely.

In short, a skull crusher workout will improve your shoulder stability.

With a number of benefits of Skull Crushers at home, its popularity isn’t a bit vogue.

The workout doesn’t jeopardize the intent behind your workout. On the contrary, it contributes to your dynamic training regime by focusing on your shoulder muscles in ways.

If you want to seek out greater dimensions of your shoulder and triceps, the movement is worth heeding. Still, you need to ask, whether the workout is for you?

Who Should Do Skull Crushers?

Every workout isn’t for everyone!

Too fancy a line, but it’s true for skull crusher. The movement involves a wide range of motion and requires a pro-level of training to execute properly.

Undoubtedly, such a workout possesses greater injury threats. In short, you shouldn’t blind yourself with the benefits and hit the workout bench in a go.

All gym-goers, in general, can again have similar benefits as mention. Still, you need to have clear execution of the workout to get results.

Here, we’ve shortlisted people for whom reaping benefits of Skull Crusher workouts is easy-peasy.

#1: Strength and Power Athletes

The skull crusher is an additional move to escalate triceps strength and hypertrophy. Also, it helps amplify injury resistance for the elbow joint.

Meanwhile, it benefits overall elbow extension crucial for intense performance.

This makes the workout the best fit for a training program of Strength and Power Athletes.

#2: Olympic Weightlifters

For competitive lifts, the snatch and the jerk phase, the reliance on triceps are great.

They are responsible for overhead stability and complete elbow extension.

By elevating triceps workouts by applying single-joint workouts like skull crushers you can increase your raw strength.

Moreover, it helps build up more muscle mass crucial to lock out the lifts.

#3: Bodybuilders

The skull crushers exercise isn’t as functional as other pressing moves like dips and push-ups.

Still, it is good for top bodybuilders wanting muscular triceps without adding wear or tears on the shoulder and chest muscles.

Indeed, the workout is essential for proper elbow extension and upper body strength.

If you fall in the above categories, you can go straight for the move. If not, you can still try to move according to your comfort.

Nonetheless, there are other easier variations of skull crusher workouts, you can give a shot.

Skull Crusher Variations You Didn’t Know Your Workout Needed

Not everyone is comfortable performing skull crusher workouts.

However, the variation of some workouts is easier to perform. Or, if you want to intensify the movement, the skull crusher variations offer an edge.

#1: Dumbbell Skull Crushers

Skull crushers workout with dumbbells is similar to the barbell variation.

The movement targets the triceps unilaterally by employing dumbbells.

Skull crushers exercise dumbbell is best for people having muscle imbalances or coordination issues.

Moreover, the move allows a deeper elbow flexion angle. As a result, it improvises your muscle building.

#2: Incline Bench Skull Crushers

You can perform the skull crusher variation using any weight.

Whether you use a barbell, dumbbell, or kettlebell, it targets your triceps intensely. The setup with the bench remains at a slight incline.

Well, the additional incline escalates the stretch on your arms muscle. The move hit your muscles at different angles intensifying the workout.

#3: Negative-rep Skull Crushers

Negative or eccentrics variations are good at developing muscle damage and hypertrophy.

To perform the move, you need to have a potter spot them as they slowly drop the supra heavyweight down under control.

The spotter should maintain control and ensure the weight doesn’t drop down crashing on them.

When it is time to lift the weight, the spotter can lift the load to the top position. Again, he can repeat the reps.

These were some skull crusher workout variations.

While some are simple and easy version, other are intense and robust move.

Whether you want to cool off your training program or give it an edge, the variation can work for your dynamic program.

Still, finding it hard to try the movement?

There are Skull Crusher Alternatives working on the same muscle with the same intensity, providing the same edge to your training.

Skull Crusher Alternatives

Not everyone can perform a skull crusher workouts. Likewise, not everyone can perform its variation.

Still, you would want your triceps muscle worked.

There is always another way. This goes in terms of the skull crusher alternative as well.

Fitness trainers and experts have other ways to boost triceps size and strength.

For this purpose, you can try the recommended Triceps alternative!

#1: Close-Grip Bench Press

The close grip bench press is a variation of the normal bench press workout.

Unlike the core workout, it targets your triceps and chest by shrinking the grip width on the barbell.

• To perform the variation, the lifter needs to cling their elbows into respective sides. Indeed, you can swap the variation with the normal bench press.

This would be best when you are having trouble locking out bench press reps. Or, you have limited shoulder participation in the press.

#2: Dips

The movement works best for working chest, triceps, and front shoulders muscles.

• You can perform the workout employing your own body weight.

Instead, to add weight, you can use a dipping belt and overload your target muscle. This intensifies move more than the skull crushers bodyweight workout.

#3: Overhead Triceps Extension

• You can perform the move using a dumbbell, an EZ bar, a barbell, or a cable machine.

The workout focuses on similar muscle groups of triceps like skull crusher workouts.

Moreover, the move is comparatively less painful if the lifter has any elbow issues. This doesn’t mean you should ignore the pain. As per requirement go for a medical review.

These were some tricep skull crusher alternatives.

. If you are having trouble performing the move, the alternatives to switch to. Not only do they work on the same muscle group but are intense in equal form.

Our review on the skull crusher workout ends here!

At last, we are leaving with our final thought on the intense and robust workout.

Should you add the move to your training program or not?

Let’s find out the answer…

Skull Crushers Exercise – Final Thoughts

Who doesn’t want their arms bigger in size and strength?

This requires work on your triceps.

Skull crushers exercise works on the muscle group increasing its size and strengthening your upper body. In short, it is a perfect addition to your dynamic training program.

When performing the skull crushers with bar, you need to pay attention to the technique involved.

This can prevent injury while intensely working on the focused muscle.

If you aren’t comfortable performing the workout, you can try the variation or other alternatives.

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