How to do the Standing One-Arm Dumbbell Triceps Extension

Steps

1. To begin, stand up with a dumbbell held in one hand. Your feet should be about shoulder width apart from each other. Now fully extend the arm with the dumbbell over your head. Tip: The small finger of your hand should be facing the ceiling and the palm of your hand should be facing forward. The dumbbell should be above your head.
2. This will be your starting position.
3. Keeping your upper arm close to your head (elbows in) and perpendicular to the floor, lower the resistance in a semicircular motion behind your head until your forearm touch your bicep. Tip: The upper arm should remain stationary and only the forearm should move. Breathe in as you perform this step.
4. Go back to the starting position by using the triceps to raise the dumbbell. Breathe out as you perform this step.
5. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
6. Switch arms and repeat the exercise.

Tracking it in OneRep

Add the standing one-arm dumbbell triceps extension to a routine and your previous weight and reps sit beside every set, so the decision to add load is made by what is already on the screen rather than by memory. Exercise history and volume trends are one tap away, and logging works offline for the gyms where signal does not reach.

Because OneRep tracks food on the same timeline, a stall on this lift can be read against what you were actually eating that month — which is the difference between a programming problem and an eating one. More on that in tracking progressive overload without a spreadsheet.

Where the instructions come from

The steps above come from free-exercise-db, a public-domain exercise dataset. They are general guidance, not coaching for your body: if a movement hurts, stop and get someone qualified to look at it.