Overhead triceps exercises are the best way to target the long head. Because the long head is the only part of the triceps that crosses the shoulder joint, any exercise that extends your elbow while your arm is raised overhead places it under a deeper stretch and drives significantly more growth than the same movement performed at your side.
Why the Long Head Responds to Overhead Work
The triceps has three heads, but only the long head attaches to your shoulder blade (specifically, a small bump just below the shoulder socket). The lateral and medial heads both attach to your upper arm bone. This means the lateral and medial heads only cross one joint, the elbow, while the long head crosses two: the elbow and the shoulder.
That double-joint anatomy is the key. When you raise your arm overhead, you flex the shoulder, which stretches the long head to a length the other two heads never reach. A study in Acta Orthopaedica et Traumatologica Turcica confirmed that the long head significantly increases in length during shoulder flexion, while the lateral and medial heads stay the same length. Training a muscle at these longer lengths turns out to be a powerful growth stimulus.
A study published in the European Journal of Sport Science put this to the test directly. One group did elbow extensions in an overhead arm position, and another did the identical movement with their arms at their sides (neutral position). After the training period, the overhead group grew their long head by 28.5%, compared to 19.6% in the neutral group. That’s roughly 1.5 times more growth from the same basic movement, just by changing arm position. The researchers noted that this greater hypertrophy occurred even though the overhead group lifted lower absolute loads, meaning the stretch itself was a major driver of the results.
Best Overhead Exercises for the Long Head
Any elbow extension with your arm raised overhead qualifies, but a few variations stand out for practicality and effectiveness.
Overhead Cable Triceps Extension
This is the single best option if your gym has a cable machine. Cables keep tension on the long head throughout the entire range of motion, including the fully shortened position at the top, where a dumbbell would lose resistance due to gravity. The setup is also easier on your wrists and simpler to get into compared to hoisting a heavy dumbbell behind your head. You can do these with a rope attachment facing away from the cable stack, or single-arm with a handle.
Overhead Dumbbell Triceps Extension
The classic version works well, either one arm at a time or both arms holding a single dumbbell. The dumbbell provides the most resistance in the stretched (bottom) position, which aligns nicely with the long head’s growth stimulus. The tradeoff is that tension drops off near the top of the movement and heavier loads can feel awkward on the wrists and elbows. If you only have dumbbells, this is still an excellent choice.
Incline Dumbbell Triceps Extension
Lying back on an incline bench (set to about 30 to 45 degrees) and lowering a dumbbell behind your head combines the overhead position with back support. This takes your core out of the equation, lets you focus purely on the triceps, and keeps your shoulder in a flexed position throughout the set. It’s a good alternative if standing overhead extensions bother your lower back.
Skull Crushers (Angled Variation)
Traditional skull crushers performed flat on a bench keep your arms roughly perpendicular to the floor, which places the long head in a relatively neutral position. To shift emphasis toward the long head, angle your upper arms back slightly so they point toward the wall behind you rather than straight at the ceiling. This small change increases shoulder flexion and puts the long head under a greater stretch at the bottom of each rep.
What About Pushdowns and Dips?
Cable pushdowns, bench dips, and close-grip bench presses all build triceps mass, but they keep your arms at your sides or in front of your body. In that position, the long head never reaches its full length. Research shows that during these neutral-arm movements, the medial head actually takes over as the primary elbow extensor, while the long head contributes less force. That doesn’t make pushdowns useless for the long head, but if your goal is to prioritize it, overhead work is clearly superior.
A well-rounded triceps routine includes both. Compound pressing movements and pushdowns handle the lateral and medial heads effectively. Adding one or two overhead exercises ensures the long head gets the stretched-position stimulus it needs to grow proportionally.
How to Program Overhead Triceps Work
For muscle growth, moderate loads in the range of 8 to 12 reps per set are the most commonly recommended approach, and they work well for overhead extensions specifically. The triceps long head is not a muscle that benefits from going extremely heavy on isolation work. Lighter loads with controlled form keep stress on the muscle rather than on your elbow joint.
Most people respond well to 6 to 10 direct sets of overhead triceps work per week, spread across two sessions. If you’re already doing significant pressing volume (bench press, overhead press, dips), your triceps are getting indirect work from those movements, so you can stay toward the lower end. If your pressing volume is low, lean toward the higher end.
The most important execution detail is controlling the lowering phase. Let the weight stretch your triceps fully at the bottom of each rep rather than cutting the range short. That deep stretch is where the long head gets its strongest growth signal. A two-to-three second lowering tempo works well. At the bottom, you should feel a distinct pull along the back of your upper arm, from near your armpit down to your elbow.
Signs You’re Undertraining the Long Head
The long head makes up the largest portion of your triceps mass and is primarily responsible for the thickness you see when viewing your arm from the side or back. If your triceps look well-developed from the front but flat from behind, or if the inner portion near your armpit lacks size compared to the outer sweep near your elbow, it’s a sign your long head is lagging. This is common in people who rely heavily on pushdowns and pressing movements without any overhead work.
Swapping even one of your existing triceps exercises for an overhead variation can make a noticeable difference within a few training cycles. Given the research showing 1.5 times greater long head growth from overhead versus neutral positions, the adjustment is one of the highest-return changes you can make to an arm training program.