Starting Strength

of a good biceps contraction. The camber of the bar is specifically intended to decrease the supination of the forearm, and anything less than full supination results in a less-than-complete biceps contraction.
     

    Figure 7-61. The effect of supination on biceps contraction, and the main reason that the EZ Curl bar is best left for triceps work.

    But the EZ Curl bar works perfectly for the lying triceps extension. The triceps is composed of three bundles of muscles, which originate on the humerus and the scapula and share a common insertion point on the olecranon process of the elbow. (The lateral and medial heads of the triceps originate on the humerus; the long head originates on the scapula.) The angle of the hand on the bar makes no difference in the quality of the triceps contraction. The more prone grip afforded by the EZ Curl bar is more comfortable for this exercise and does not reduce its effectiveness.
    The thing that distinguishes the LTE from other triceps exercises is the inclusion of the proximal function of the triceps, where the design of the movement produces shoulder extension, using the long head of the muscle, as well as elbow extension. It also includes the lats, some pec, costal muscle, and abdominal involvement, and the forearms. This exercise dramatically increases the number of other muscles activated and is the first choice when you are adding a triceps assistance exercise to your program.
    The LTE, like the bench press, requires a spotter at heavy weights. Take a position on the bench, with the top of your head just past the edge of the pad. Receive the bar from the spotter, who has deadlifted it into position, handed it to you, and stepped back out of the way. The EZ Curl bar has three angles in the middle; take your grip on the inside-most angle with your hands prone (palms facing up), and the middle bend in the bar facing down. Your elbows will be pointed down the bench in external rotation, and the bar will be locked out over your shoulder joints, as in a bench press. Your chest should be up, butt in contact with the bench, feet in a stable position on the floor, and eyes looking at the ceiling for the whole rep ( Figure 7-62 ).

    Figure 7-62. The lying triceps extension.

    Unlock your elbows while keeping your upper arms vertical, letting the bar arc backward behind your head and toward the floor. When your elbows get to about 90 degrees, let your shoulders rotate back to drop the bar down just above your head, touching your hair, down to about the level of the bench. This motion will stretch your triceps, deltoids, and lats, and when the bar is just below the level of the back of your head, let the stretch turn the rep around and start back up. Pull the bar back up with your elbows, and as they approach the top, extend them to lock out the bar in the start position.
    Keep the bar as close to the top of your head as possible while stretching down to the bench, and lead up with the stretch reflex, like you’re throwing the bar at the ceiling and using your elbows to start the throw. The stretch reflex adds a lot of range of motion – and power, if you move explosively – to the movement, making the LTE much more useful than the standard “skullcrusher.” If you keep your elbows too straight and let the bar go back too far away from the top of your head, you lose some of the ROM around the elbows. A big breath at the top inflates the chest and makes the stretch reflex at the bottom more effective. When the LTE is done in this way, both shoulder extension and elbow extension are used, and more triceps mass is stressed over a longer ROM. Do sets of 10–15 reps with this exercise.
    Barbell Training: There’s Just No Substitute
     
    There are lots of useless assistance exercises which contribute nothing to the performance of the major exercises or of sports activities, and which might do worse than merely waste time. Exercises that use only one joint, and that usually require machines to do, are non-functional in the sense that they do not follow a normal human movement pattern. They also quite often predispose the joint to overuse injuries, and the vast majority of weight room injuries are produced by these exercises. This is true not only by default, since it is obvious that in a world where most people only use machines, most of the injuries will occur on machines. Isolation exercises cause tendinitis because human joints are not designed to be subjected to the stress of