Medial Head Tricep Exercises: Anatomy, FAQ and Workouts

It’s a triple-headed monster.

If you work out, that is. The triceps have the power to become absolutely beastly and do some serious heavy lifting in your body.

Although they may not have the star reputation that your biceps do, training your triceps is just as important if you want the physique of a Greek God with perfect proportions.

Seriously.

Tough triceps will make you feel amazing if you work out for aesthetic reasons or want to build up your upper body, they can help create harmony if you’ve been doing extra chest workouts with dumbbells or building stronger front delts.

What do the triceps do?

These large muscles on the backs of your upper arms mainly work to extend your elbows. When you straighten your arms, you are coming into elbow extension.

The name “tri” + “ceps” comes from the Latin name that means “three heads.” As is suggests, the muscle is composed of three different heads with tendons that originate from the same spot, but come together to form one tendon.

This tendon has an insertion point at the olecranon process on the ulna. In other words, the back of your elbow.

Here, you can learn more about the anatomy of your triceps: Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Triceps Muscle

Where is the triceps medial head?

To understand where the triceps medial head originates, we should put into context where the other two heads come from.

The triceps’ long head comes from the infraglenoid tubercle of your scapula. This is a part of your shoulder blade.

The medial head, which we’re concerned with today, comes from the back of the upper arm bone (dorsal humerus) below the radial groove. This can factor into how your triceps look.

Triceps are typically known for forming an arch or horseshoe shape on the back of your arm. If you work to develop the medial portion of these muscles, it can help to give your muscles a fuller, more rounded-out look.

The lateral head of the triceps sits above the radial groove, so this groove separates these two heads of your triceps muscle along the humerus bone.

The medial head of your tricep originates from the humerus, which is the main bone in your upper arm. It's the smallest of your three tricep heads, but plays a powerful role in elbow extension.

The medial head also isn’t as resistance-dependant as the other two. Any time you extend your elbow, whether you’re applying resistance to the muscle or not, the medial head steps in to power the muscle. Your lateral and long tricep heads work mostly when more direct force is involved.

So how to we target the medial head specifically?

Take a look at some medial head tricep exercises to hone in on your triceps for growth.

Close Grip Bench Press

Bench pressing is an all-around powerhouse move when it comes to growing your chest, biceps, triceps, and shoulders.

This is one of the most powerful exercises you can do to build a strong upper body. The close grip variation targets both the lateral and medial heads of your triceps at the same time. To perfect this move:

• Set-Up: Lie on your back on a flat-weight bench at a bench press station. Load up a comfortable yet challenging weight on your barbell.
• Grip: Most barbells come with a smooth midsection in between two or more rougher grip areas. The rougher areas are called knurling and help you to increase grip friction on your bar so it doesn’t slide or fall.
• Hold your bar right at the spot where the knurling meets the smooth metal of your barbell. Typically, your hands should be stacked in line with your shoulders in this position. This grip might not seem “narrow.” But a traditional bench press is done with a wider grip.
• What we really mean in this case is narrower than usual.
• Press: Unrack your barbell and lift your weight over the center of your chest, keeping your arms straight and shoulder blades pulled in. Benhd into the elbows keeping them close to the sides of your ribcage to lower your barbell. At the bottom of your movement, it should hover just above your chest. Lock out your wrists so they don’t flop backwards.
• Reverse: Exhale sharply to straighten your arms, driving your barbell back up to the starting position.
• Reps: Perform 4-6 sets of 5-10 medium-heavy reps to build muscle, 3-6 sets of 4-6 reps for strength and 3 sets of 8-12 lighter reps for endurance.

Want to learn how to bench more? It’s a key skill to ace, so you’d do well to read up a bit more on how to kick your bench press up a notch.

You can read these articles to learn more about become a bench press expert:

• Push-Ups vs. Bench Press
• Chest Workouts With Dumbbells
• Best Incline Bench Angle
• Dumbbell vs. Barbell Bench Press

Diamond Push-Up

Diamond push-ups narrow the hand placement significantly compared to traditional push-ups. In this variation, you lower your body down even further to the floor than in a conventional push-up.

This stimulates the medial head of your triceps much more directly.

• Set-Up: Plant your palms on the ground and bring the tips of your index fingers and thumbs to touch, forming a diamond shape between your hands.
• Body Position: Get into a high plank position with your abdominal muscles braced, making a straight line from your head to your heels.
• Push-Up: Bend into your elbows and lower your body down so your chest hovers just above the ground.
• Reverse: From the bottom of this move, drive through your hands to bring your torso back up to the starting position.
• Reps: 3-4 sets of 10 reps.

Seated Barbell Tricep Extension— Close Grip

You’ve probably come across this version more commonly using a dumbbell, but the barbell variation of seated tricep extension provides an alternative way to work with a close grip. (Hey, what’s the difference between barbell v. dumbbell anyway, and why do people have such strong feeling about it?)

When you flex your elbows in this movement, you put a ton of pressure on your medial tricep head to help it grow.

Using a close grip:

• Set-Up: Take a seat on a weight bench with a lighter barbell in front of you. Grasp the barbell with an overhand grip.
• Body Position: Fully extend your arms up and over your head holding your barbell. Make sure your wrists are engaged and not sagging backward. This is your starting position.
• Extension: Engage your triceps and lower the barbell down behind your head toward the base of your neck. Keep your back straight the whole time. Make sure your abdominal muscles are engaged too. This will help you sit up straight so all of the effort stays in your triceps and you don’t compensate with other muscles.
• Reverse: From the bottom of your movement, exhale and drive through your triceps to lift your weight back up to your starting position.
• Reps: Repeat for 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps.

Tricep Kickback

The tricep kickback is an old classic move designed to help your train one arm at a time.

If you’re stronger on one side, unilateral training (single-sided training) can help you improve muscle imbalances.

It’s also a great way to improve your focus on one tiny area of a muscle. In this case, we want to train the medial head of our triceps specifically, so this type of mental isolation can make it easier to really envision the part of the muscle that you want to hit.

• Set-Up: Plant one knee and one hand on the side of a flat weight bench. This position will help you balance as you work the dumbbell with your other hand.
• Body Position: Hold a heavy dumbbell in the other hand. Make sure your shoulders and pelvis are squared toward the front of your weight bench and that you’re not dipping into either shoulder. Engage your abdominal muscles and keep a neutral spine. Hitch one elbow up and back to about 90 degrees. This is your starting position.
• Kickback: Without moving your elbow, send the hand of your working arm straight up and back behind you so that your elbow is in extension.
• Reverse: Resist your weight through the tricep to bring your hand back down to the starting position.
• Reps: Repeat for 3 sets of 10 reps per side.

FAQ

Can your medial triceps head grow?

Any part of your triceps can grow, but the medial head is the smallest part of this muscle.

Compared to the lateral head and the long head, your medial tricep head has the least potential to grow. It primarily plays a role in the overall strength of your tricep. Not so much the size.

Regardless, it’s still a good idea to train and target the medial head of your triceps. It not only offers an added challenge, but lets you try out some moves you may not see as much in conventional workout plans.

Can you isolate the medial head of your tricep?

It’s not possible to completely isolate one head of the triceps to work independently of the others.

Despite this, you can change your grip or hand placement to focus on a certain section of the triceps, or create more muscular activation in that area. Triceps exercises in general will work the muscle as a whole, though.

In summary

Working out the medial head of your tricep is a great way to stimulate your muscles to grow if you find they’re stubborn.

Medial triceps can help you build a better arch in your muscles that can enhance the appearance of your triceps for a more rounded and well-balanced shape.

Training the medial head specifically is a great way to fine tune your tricep workouts and throw a little fun into your conditioning. Due to its location on your arm, a lot of medial head tricep exercises work with a close or narrow grip.

If you don’t often work with close grip, this can be a lot of fun to experiment with. Moves like tricep kickbacks, seated close grip extension, close grip bench presses and diamond push-ups are all simple moves to add to your workout toolkit to hit your triceps in a new way.

References

Kholinne, E., Zulkarnain, R. F., Sun, Y. C., Lim, S., Chun, J. M., & Jeon, I. H. (2018). The different role of each head of the triceps brachii muscle in elbow extension. Acta orthopaedica et traumatologica turcica, 52(3), 201–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aott.2018.02.005

Maeo, S., Wu, Y., Huang, M., Sakurai, H., Kusagawa, Y., Sugiyama, T., Kanehisa, H., & Isaka, T. (2023). Triceps brachii hypertrophy is substantially greater after elbow extension training performed in the overhead versus neutral arm position. European journal of sport science, 23(7), 1240–1250. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2022.2100279

Tiwana MS, Sinkler MA, Bordoni B. Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Triceps Muscle. [Updated 2023 Aug 28]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK536996/