What muscles do tricep pushdowns work?

The triceps, all three heads. The long head is less stretched than in overhead exercises.

Rope or bar for pushdowns?

Both work. The rope lets your hands spread at the bottom and is often easier on the wrists; a bar usually lets you lift a little more.

Are pushdowns enough for big triceps?

They build the triceps, but a 12-week study found overhead extensions grew them about 1.4 times as much. Doing both covers the triceps best.

Why do my elbows hurt during pushdowns?

Try a rope instead of a bar, a lighter weight with more reps, and a smooth tempo. If the pain stays, have it checked.

Tricep Pushdown: Muscles Worked and How to Do It

How to do a tricep pushdown

Attach a rope or a straight or angled bar to a high cable.
Stand facing the machine, feet hip width apart, leaning forward slightly from the hips.
Take the handle with your elbows bent and tucked against your sides, forearms about parallel to the floor or a little higher.
Push the handle down until your arms are fully straight. With a rope, spread the ends apart at the bottom.
Let your forearms come back up slowly until they are just past parallel, elbows still at your sides.

Cues that help

"Elbows glued to your ribs": only the forearms move.
"Straighten all the way": lock the arms out at the bottom and squeeze.
"Pull the rope apart": the ends finish beside your thighs.
"Slow up": the cable should not yank your hands back up.

Common mistakes

Elbows drifting forward and back. It brings in the shoulders and chest; keep them pinned.
Leaning over the cable and pushing with your body weight. A slight lean is fine; folding over it is not.
Stopping short of straight arms. The squeeze at the bottom is where the triceps finish their job.
Letting the handle fly up to your face. Control the return.
Going so heavy that your shoulders roll forward.

Pushdown or overhead extension?

The long head of the triceps, the biggest of its three parts, also crosses the shoulder. With your arms by your sides, as in a pushdown, it is relatively short; with your arms overhead it is stretched.

A 12-week study had 21 adults train one arm with cable elbow extensions overhead and the other with the arm by the side, the same sets and reps for both. The whole triceps grew about 1.4 times as much in the overhead arm (+19.9% against +13.9%), and the long head grew most (Maeo et al., 2023). The pushdown still built the triceps; adding an overhead extension makes the most of them.

Sets, reps and weight

For muscle: 2 to 4 sets of 10 to 15 reps, stopping 0 to 2 reps short of failure.
Rest 1 to 1.5 minutes between sets.
Pair it with an overhead extension in the same week for full triceps work.
Add weight once you reach the top of your rep range on every set. If the next pin is too big a jump, add reps first.

Variations and alternatives

Rope pushdown: the ends spread apart at the bottom, which many people find most comfortable.
Straight or V-bar pushdown: usually a little heavier.
Single-arm pushdown: one side at a time, with an underhand or overhand grip.
Overhead tricep extension: arms overhead for the long head.
Dips and close-grip bench press: compound pushes with a lot of triceps.

Tracking your pushdowns

PushBeyond logs the weight and reps of each set and charts the history of the exercise. Its muscle map counts the pushdown for your triceps.

Tricep pushdown: muscles worked and how to do it

At a glance