---
title: "Bodyweight triceps exercises"
description: "Diamond push-ups, close-grip push-ups and bench dips. Technique on video, plus how much of each move hits triceps and how much hits chest."
locale: en
url: "https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/triceps/bodyweight"
count: 9
type: combo
muscle: TRICEPS
equipment: BODYWEIGHT
---

# Bodyweight triceps exercises

The triceps straightens the elbow, and every push away from the floor is exactly that. Which is why
training without equipment comes out far better here than it does for biceps: your bodyweight lines
itself up against the working muscle, and all you have to do is narrow your hands or move them
behind your torso.

One caveat about the list below. A few entries are stretches rather than strength work, and you can
spot them by the name and by the fact that you hold them for tens of seconds instead of counting
reps. The real work comes from two families, push-ups with the hands set close and bench dips, with
a handful of extensions off the floor and from overhead alongside them.

## How much goes to the triceps and how much to the chest?

A push-up is shared work: the chest, the front delt and the triceps press together. Narrowing your
hands does not switch the chest off, it only shifts the proportions, and the atlas says so plainly -
the close-grip push-up description tells you to push yourself up with the triceps and the chest, both
at once.

Bench dips move those proportions harder, because the upper arm travels behind the line of your
torso, where the chest has very little leverage. The closest thing to isolation is the kneeling
extension and the overhead version, where the shoulder stays put and only the elbow moves. The price
is load: it is a fraction of what you handle on a push-up, and in the overhead version the resistance
comes purely from tension you create yourself.

One simple thing follows. If your week already has push-ups in it, adding dips changes more for the
triceps than another push-up variation does, because it brings in an arm position that was not there
before.

## Why do bench dips bother some shoulders?

On a dip your hand is locked behind your torso while your whole body travels down. The shoulder goes
into extension and internal rotation, a position plenty of people feel at the front of the joint,
especially deep. The descriptions in the atlas set the limit themselves: you go down until your upper
arms are parallel to the floor or your elbows make a right angle, and that is where the rep ends.

If the front of your shoulder still complains at that depth, nothing forces you to do dips. The
push-up family gives you the same elbow extension with your hands in front of you, and the kneeling
and plank extensions restrict the shoulder even further. The bent-knee version is also a gentler way
in than the straight-leg one, because it lets you control how much weight really ends up on your
arms.

## Common mistakes

- **Elbows out to the sides** - The diamond your hands make does nothing on its own. If the elbows drift out wide, the movement goes back to the chest, and the descriptions of these push-ups ask outright for elbows kept close to the torso.
- **Hips away from the bench** - On dips, the further your hips sit from the edge, the more of the work the front delt takes. They should travel down right along the bench, almost brushing it.
- **A sagging torso** - Extensions from a plank and from your knees only make sense if your body is one rigid beam, which is why the descriptions ask for tight abs. Let the hips drop and the movement gets easier than it looks.

## Progress the movement

1. **Narrow your hands** - The close-grip push-up and the diamond push-up are the same movement with the hands set differently. The closer they sit, the more is left for elbow extension and the less goes to the chest.
2. **Straighten your legs on dips** - With the knees bent your feet sit close to your hips and carry a good share of the weight. Straighten the legs and the support point moves away from your hands, so your arms get noticeably more.
3. **Come off your knees onto your toes** - The kneeling extension and the plank version differ in one thing only, and that is lever length. Moving onto your toes is a step of its own here, not a cosmetic tweak.

## All Bodyweight triceps exercises

- [Diamond Push Up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/diamond-push-up) - Triceps · Bodyweight
- [Close Grip Push Up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/close-grip-push-up) - Triceps · Bodyweight
- [Bodyweight Triceps Extension](https://hi.fitness/exercises/bodyweight-triceps-extension) - Triceps · Bodyweight
- [Diamond Push-up (On Knees)](https://hi.fitness/exercises/diamond-push-up-on-knees) - Triceps · Bodyweight
- [Bodyweight Kneeling Triceps Extension](https://hi.fitness/exercises/bodyweight-kneeling-triceps-extension) - Triceps · Bodyweight
- [Bodyweight Overhead Triceps Extension](https://hi.fitness/exercises/bodyweight-overhead-triceps-extension) - Triceps · Bodyweight
- [Overhand Tricep Stretching Single Arm](https://hi.fitness/exercises/overhand-tricep-stretching-single-arm) - Triceps · Bodyweight
- [Overhead Triceps Stretch Side Angle](https://hi.fitness/exercises/overhead-triceps-stretch-side-angle) - Triceps · Bodyweight
- [Triceps Light Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/triceps-light-stretch) - Triceps · Bodyweight