How to Actually Do Skull Crushers (Full Guide)

🏋️ Here's something most people don't know: the long head of your tricep is arguably the most important head for arm size — and skull crushers, when done correctly, are one of the best exercises to target it. But most people are accidentally cutting that activation in half with one setup error. In this video, I break down the complete science and technique of the skull crusher — from tricep anatomy to the 2017 constant tension study to the exact arc path that maximises tricep overload on every single rep. 🔑 What you'll learn: ✅ The three tricep heads — and why the long head matters most for overall arm mass ✅ Why 90 degrees of shoulder flexion is the optimal angle for long head activation (and how skull crushers hit this perfectly) ✅ The three-exercise tricep programming system covering overhead, at-sides, and behind-torso positions ✅ EZ bar vs straight bar — why the semi-pronated grip reduces wrist strain without sacrificing activation ✅ The floor skull crusher variation — how it allows heavier loading and prevents progressive range-of-motion cheating ✅ The 2017 constant tension study: why mid-range training produced nearly DOUBLE the tricep hypertrophy compared to full range ✅ The arc path descent — why lowering in an arc beats dropping to your forehead for tricep torque ✅ Elbow position and flare — what the research actually says about individual skeletal variation ✅ Why excessive shoulder movement during the ascent reduces tricep activation (and how to stop it) ✅ Dumbbell skull crusher benefits — asymmetry correction and shoulder rotation flexibility No fluff. Just the complete anatomy-backed technique breakdown with the 2017 research citation that changes how you think about range of motion for tricep training. ⚡ Watch until the constant tension section — the research behind nearly double hypertrophy will permanently change how you set up every skull crusher you ever do again. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ CHAPTERS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 0:00 Why skull crushers are one of the best tricep exercises 0:40 Tricep anatomy — three heads and their functions 1:25 Long head crosses the shoulder joint — why this matters 2:05 90-degree shoulder flexion — the research-backed sweet spot 2:50 Three-exercise tricep programming philosophy 3:35 Equipment — EZ bar vs straight bar and why it matters 4:15 The floor skull crusher variation — heavier loading and depth control 4:55 Bench setup — shoulder blade retraction and head position 5:40 The 2017 constant tension study — nearly 2x hypertrophy 6:30 Starting position — bar back for constant tension from rep one 7:10 The descent — arc path, elbow position, and how deep to go 8:00 The ascent — tricep squeeze, hand pressure, and shoulder stability 8:45 The two most common skull crusher errors explained 9:25 Dumbbell skull crusher — when and why to use it 10:05 Programming skull crushers into your complete tricep routine ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔍 RELATED SEARCHES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ skull crusher form • skull crusher technique • tricep long head exercises • best tricep exercises • skull crusher vs overhead extension • EZ bar skull crusher • constant tension training • tricep hypertrophy research • floor skull crusher • dumbbell skull crusher ⚠️ This content is for educational purposes only. Always use appropriate weight and ensure you have a spotter or use a safe setup when performing skull crushers with heavier loads. #skullcrusher, #skullcrusherform, #triceptraining, #triceplonghead, #armday, #tricepworkout, #skullcrushertechnique, #EZbarcurl, #constanttension, #tricephypertrophy, #musclebuilding, #hypertrophy, #strengthtraining, #gymscience, #sciencebasedtraining, #tricepgrowth, #armposetraining, #longheadtricep, #skullcrusherresearch, #2017study, #elboweextension, #gymtips, #liftingtechnique, #tricepexercises, #overheadextension, #dumbellSkullcrusher, #floOrskullcrusher, #arcpath, #midrangetraining, #tricepanAtomy