Great advice...thanks. I'l be incorporating the decline variation on the skulls/close grip into my routine starting tomorrow. Your a good SFW'er!

Well, I probably mislabled the lift. Not really skullcrushers, as those are different than extensions. With extensions, you keep the bar farther up (comes over the top of your head) and keep a larger angle w/ the elbows. Whereas, with skulls, you bring the bar down to your forehead/skull (duh) and the elbows are at a much narrower angle, putting a LOT more strain on the joint.

When you do pressdowns, do you stand really close to the cable w/ your elbows really close to your body? Or, do you stand farther back and have your elbows out in front of your body?

I've never had a problem with skulls, mind you I see guys load up the bar and force out like 6 ugly reps of an unreasonable weight.

Find a weight that you can do 5 or 6 proper form, concetrated reps with...if you have to force out the last 1 or 2 then so be it...just keep form dont transfer stress to the shoulder or elbow when you reach the end of the motion...a big mistake a lot of people make, and then cry about how they cant do skulls because it hurts their elbows...its BS.

Form over ego!

That sounds like a pretty narrow elbow angle. You should try stepping a away from the cable a little, keep your elbows out in front of you, so that the tension is on the tris at the bottom of the lift.

The "bottom" tri is the long head. It attaches to the shoulder and the elbow, whereas the "side" or outer head attaches to the upper arm and the elbow.

This means that you can activate the long head by stretching the joint... elbows away from body as in an incline ext. or overhead ext.

Can you really feel the long tri head when doing overhead DB ext? I can... really close to the armpit.

If that is the area you want to focus on, make it your first tricep lift. Also, keep your elbows pointed forward as much as possible, don't flare them if you can help it.

Yup. I grasp a DB (we have the round plate-loaded ones at my gym) and rest the edges in my palms by the thumbs. Also, try to keep the weight back away from your head... this is easier by keeping the elbows in and tight and not flared.

But, keeping the elbows tight and the weight back, if not already doing that, will probably drop your ego down a big as you will most likely have to drop the weight a little.

Sounds good. I keep w/ a given weight until I can get 12 reps on the 1st set. Then, I bump up to a weight that I can get 6-8 reps on the first set. I keep w/ that until I get up to 12. Repeat.

I wouldn't drop down in weight because of being tired, though. Keep with the weight you are currently working with and just push as many reps as possible. If you get a couple less cause you are worn out, so be it. You don't want to "detrain" aka lessen the load on the muscles.

If anything, extend your rest periods a bit if you are feeling tired.