Exercise library

How to do the Tricep Dumbbell Kickback

A beginner isolation exercise using dumbbell, working the triceps.

Primary musclesTriceps
Secondary musclesNone recorded
EquipmentDumbbell
LevelBeginner
TypeIsolation
ForcePush

Steps

  1. Start with a dumbbell in each hand and your palms facing your torso. Keep your back straight with a slight bend in the knees and bend forward at the waist. Your torso should be almost parallel to the floor. Make sure to keep your head up. Your upper arms should be close to your torso and parallel to the floor. Your forearms should be pointed towards the floor as you hold the weights. There should be a 90-degree angle formed between your forearm and upper arm. This is your starting position.
  2. Now, while keeping your upper arms stationary, exhale and use your triceps to lift the weights until the arm is fully extended. Focus on moving the forearm.
  3. After a brief pause at the top contraction, inhale and slowly lower the dumbbells back down to the starting position.
  4. Repeat the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions.

Tracking it in OneRep

Add the tricep dumbbell kickback 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.