PHOTOSnFIBERS
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So a preface real fast. I started lifting at 12, spent a lot of my youth back in the 90s reading magazines and talking to gym rats for info. One thing i had always heard was, to target the long head of the tricep (or bicep), you have to stretch the muscle. Want to target your bicep peak? Sit on an incline bench, let your arms hang and do curls.
Same with triceps, overhead tricep extensions ect. Stretch that muscle and voila, but it didn't really mesh with what i felt while lifting, or results i saw. I've always had a great bicep peak but NEVER did stretched curls, in fact i've usually done the opposite as i was a pull up junky as a kid. Pull ups, concentration curls and lat pull downs, all things that DON'T stretch the biceps.
Enter my 30s where i completely screw up my neck. 2 bulges and a herniation, plus a pinched nerve. Nerve damage left my lower left pec completely numb, as well as my lef long tricep head. Yes the lateral and medial were fine, long head fully numb. That was a strange feeling indeed when flexing my arms. Ok enough of the life story.
Eventually, after 7 or 8 years some of the feeling started coming back in those muscles, and i started focusing on things that would specifically target my long head, and what i had always read wasn't working. It just wasn't engaging that slab of muscle. I've always known about the actual anatomy of our body so i started trying new things and that's when i was convinced a stretch just isn't enough.
For anybody who doesn't already know, the long heads cross two joints, the elbow and shoulder (even your quads have this setup too, knee/hip). So your bicep long head curls your lower arm up but also flexes your shoulder just like your front delts do. Long tricep head does the reverse, it extends the lower arm and aids rear delts and back to extend the shoulder (upper arm) backwards. Ok so far so good.
Problem is it always made sense to me that if the long bicep head helps the front delts, what happens when you engage the rear delts and the biceps at the same time, like with a back row? Should be a conflict of interest as the biceps are pulling in concert with rear delts/back yet the long head acts like a front delt too. Same with the tricep with presses, it aids rear delts so how can it engage when you are doing bench press?
I've come to find it doesn't, but many sources of info on long head activation don't mention this. In fact, they ONLY mention stretching them to target them and that's not enough. Our nervous system will disengage the long head during bench and only the two smaller heads work, to target the long head you have to do a tricep exercise with a movement that engages the rear delts at least slightly, that way your brain takes the brake off the long head so to speak.
Something else that made sense was my nerve damage, the long head operates on a different nerve path than the other two tricep heads, clearly as i only had nerve damage on the one tricep head. So when i got back to the gym and tried to target the long head specifically with this mindset, it worked, i could FEEL the long head doing the work albeit at a weaker level due to atrophy.
What spurred me to start this thread was an article here actually, one recently about long head training. In that article, one of the few that addresses this mechanical issue, it discusses needing to move the humerus (extension) at the same time as you extend the elbow, which allows the long head to engage through both joints.
Now i know the more experienced lifters here will mention they already know this but it's not something i have read in many places, EVERYBODY mentions the stretch but that's not correct. A stretch alone does not help, there must be tension of both joints (in the same direction) in order for the long head to contract. Same with the bicep long head, you have to engage your front delts while curling at the same time (or at least have zero extension contraction of the rear delts) as the long head causes flexion in both joints.
I just wanted to share this with anybody who is less experienced with biomechanics and maybe to correct anybody who has received bad advice. Any pressing movements (bench, close grip bench, dips ect) will not effectively stimulate the long head, same with any compound pulling movements for the bicep peak. Hope this OP wasn't too long, feel free to add your own comments ect.
Same with triceps, overhead tricep extensions ect. Stretch that muscle and voila, but it didn't really mesh with what i felt while lifting, or results i saw. I've always had a great bicep peak but NEVER did stretched curls, in fact i've usually done the opposite as i was a pull up junky as a kid. Pull ups, concentration curls and lat pull downs, all things that DON'T stretch the biceps.
Enter my 30s where i completely screw up my neck. 2 bulges and a herniation, plus a pinched nerve. Nerve damage left my lower left pec completely numb, as well as my lef long tricep head. Yes the lateral and medial were fine, long head fully numb. That was a strange feeling indeed when flexing my arms. Ok enough of the life story.
Eventually, after 7 or 8 years some of the feeling started coming back in those muscles, and i started focusing on things that would specifically target my long head, and what i had always read wasn't working. It just wasn't engaging that slab of muscle. I've always known about the actual anatomy of our body so i started trying new things and that's when i was convinced a stretch just isn't enough.
For anybody who doesn't already know, the long heads cross two joints, the elbow and shoulder (even your quads have this setup too, knee/hip). So your bicep long head curls your lower arm up but also flexes your shoulder just like your front delts do. Long tricep head does the reverse, it extends the lower arm and aids rear delts and back to extend the shoulder (upper arm) backwards. Ok so far so good.
Problem is it always made sense to me that if the long bicep head helps the front delts, what happens when you engage the rear delts and the biceps at the same time, like with a back row? Should be a conflict of interest as the biceps are pulling in concert with rear delts/back yet the long head acts like a front delt too. Same with the tricep with presses, it aids rear delts so how can it engage when you are doing bench press?
I've come to find it doesn't, but many sources of info on long head activation don't mention this. In fact, they ONLY mention stretching them to target them and that's not enough. Our nervous system will disengage the long head during bench and only the two smaller heads work, to target the long head you have to do a tricep exercise with a movement that engages the rear delts at least slightly, that way your brain takes the brake off the long head so to speak.
Something else that made sense was my nerve damage, the long head operates on a different nerve path than the other two tricep heads, clearly as i only had nerve damage on the one tricep head. So when i got back to the gym and tried to target the long head specifically with this mindset, it worked, i could FEEL the long head doing the work albeit at a weaker level due to atrophy.
What spurred me to start this thread was an article here actually, one recently about long head training. In that article, one of the few that addresses this mechanical issue, it discusses needing to move the humerus (extension) at the same time as you extend the elbow, which allows the long head to engage through both joints.
Now i know the more experienced lifters here will mention they already know this but it's not something i have read in many places, EVERYBODY mentions the stretch but that's not correct. A stretch alone does not help, there must be tension of both joints (in the same direction) in order for the long head to contract. Same with the bicep long head, you have to engage your front delts while curling at the same time (or at least have zero extension contraction of the rear delts) as the long head causes flexion in both joints.
I just wanted to share this with anybody who is less experienced with biomechanics and maybe to correct anybody who has received bad advice. Any pressing movements (bench, close grip bench, dips ect) will not effectively stimulate the long head, same with any compound pulling movements for the bicep peak. Hope this OP wasn't too long, feel free to add your own comments ect.
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