When you are standing, do you ever feel you need to stretch the back of your arms or triceps? How about stretching the chest while you are bringing your arm up and over your head? Today, I’ll go over the over the head triceps stretch exercises.

These over head triceps stretch exercises not only help stretch the triceps out but works on improving your posture. These are good neck exercises as well for the chest muscles to improve your posture and reduce neck tension. Your neck can also feel relief when the upper trapezius muscles are relaxed with these stretch exercises.

These elbow extensors or triceps stretch exercises actually stretches more than just the triceps. When you bring your arm up and over your head, you actually stretch latissimus dorsi, teres major and minor and posterior deltoid. When you bring your shoulders back and squeeze your shoulder blades, you actually stretch the pectoralis major and minor. These over head triceps stretch exercises are great for when you are taking breaks at the office or school.

These over head triceps stretch exercises can be done sitting or standing. When you do these sitting you have a good back support but may not feel the stretch as much. A compensation that is seen with these stretch exercises is to arch your back when you bring your arms back. You will have better control and balance when sitting. I’ll be describing these over head triceps stretch exercises in standing.

Standing Position:

• Feet shoulder width apart
• Knees slightly bent
• Your pelvis tucked in where your tailbone is pointing to the opposite wall in front of you
• Tighten your abs or stomach muscles as if there were a belt around you
• Your chest up and pointing in the direction of the wall in front of you
• Relax your shoulders
• Perform a chin tuck where your chin is drawn back towards your shoulder blades
• Relax your jaw
• Keep your eyes level and straight ahead

Over Head Triceps Stretch Exercises:

• Breathe in
• Raise your right arm up so that your arm is near your right ear
• Bend your right elbow and have your forearm go behind your head
• Your right elbow should be pointing up towards the ceiling
• Your right palm should try to reach towards your left shoulder blade
• Take your left hand and place it on your right elbow
• Breathe out
• Gently bring your right elbow towards your left shoulder
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together
• Relax your shoulders
• Hold this position for 30 seconds
• Repeat 3 times
• Slowly bring your right arm back to the start position
• Reverse directions to stretch your left triceps

You should feel a stretch feeling in your chest, triceps and in the back. There should be no pain or numbness or tingling while doing these stretch exercises. Be sure to keep your shoulders down with these neck exercises. After these over head triceps stretch exercises, you can do other neck exercises to reduce any neck tension or stiffness. When your chest is stretched out, you can keep your shoulders back and maintain good posture. Other triceps exercises will be described at a later time.