Well im a relative new comer to skullcrushers anc close-grip benching. In the past, i only engaged in tricep pull-downs with the cable and over head dumbell extensions with the occasional kick-back. Ive gotten rid of all that in favor of heavy compounds.

These boards obviously opened a whole new door to bodybuilding exercises. Id say ive only been using close-grip benching and skullcrushers for the past 5-6 months with good results and put a LOT of isolation exercises to the side.

So, my question is, should i perform 2 seperate 5x5's while doing tri's or not?

say, 5x5 close grip
10 minute rest, ingest some dextrose/maltodex.
and 5x5 skullcrushers w/ez bar.

is this overkill? when they say 5x5 is that 5x5 per exercise or 5x5 per muscle group?

if your joints can handle it then yeah that sounds good

Per exercise.... been doing this shit for over 2 years now and haven't looked back. 5x5 has worked the best for me as for as both size and strength. Lately, I've been hitting decline skulls followed by closed grip decline dumbbells and my tri's are blowing up.

I wouldn't do 5x5 for skull crushers. But for close grip bench, or reverse grip bench, sure why not.

Why 10 mins rest? I hate resting too long, once I lost that "pump" or feeling of good blood flow, its over for me...I may give this a tri

The 10 minutes rest is to maximize power output per set. Many times powerlifters and weightlifters, lifting at or near 1 RM will wait 5-10 minutes between sets.

This is typically only done by athletes getting ready for a competition. In the last microcycle they typically will drastically decrease volume, and increase intensity. Then the week leading up to the competition they will typically do little to no training.

I like to rest for 10 because the lactic acid and pump is usually debilatating on heavy 5's. After some sugar and the lactic acid dissipates, im good.

I try and stay in the zone with the stims and music. The Joints can handle it...i usually icyhot my elbows and wrap em in an ace bandage.

AZ, why would 5x5 for skulls be a bad idea? Are skulls better suited for higher-volume/lower weight in your opinion?

and declining on skulls sounds good jacob, i may try that out.

Probably because you should do 5x5 with bigger compound movements.

I would say skulls are isolation. You're only working the triceps.

At least with close grip you are working some of the chest, and delts to some degree.


Yeah try dips. Use a weight belt if you can do more than 12 reps.

Javy's probably got the biggest arm's on this forum and he's asking for advice with tri's

I've been doing decline skullcrushers, close-grip bench, seated overhead DB ext, and pushdowns. I was doing 8-12 reps for everything but once I switched to 4-6 reps on skullcrushers and close-grip, my tri's have been growing like weeds

LoL theres ALWAYS room for improvement. Im gonna def try out the decline for skulls.

ive never used a weighted belt. maybe i can improvise one. i have a length of chain i could attach to a normal weight belt, then affix a 25lb plate to the end of the chain? that might work.

I switched over to no more then 6 reps per heavy set no matter what exercise I do. I have had some great results using this method. I usually end my exercise with one high rep set of 15-20 with like half the amount of weight started. Give it a try and see how it works for you

Good call bro that makes perfect sense and you're absolutely right. im gonna reduce weight/up volume on these and incorperate more dips into the mix.

good luck bro'