JM Press: An Exceptional Triceps Builder

You will never have a big bench press unless you have very strong triceps. You should aim to find an arsenal of the most effective triceps exercises and hit ‘em hard. If you’ve never tried the JM press before, you are in for a treat, and they are sure to become one of your favorite exercises to really blast your triceps. To those who already do bench presses and laying barbell triceps extensions, JM presses won’t be too unfamiliar as they are actually a hybrid movement of both.

Like all new exercises, I recommend practicing with an empty bar first and always start with light weights so you don’t bite off more than you can chew.

JM presses go like this:

• Position yourself on the bench as you would for a bench press grabbing the bar with a grip of around the same width as you would for a laying barbell triceps extension.
• Unrack the bar and bring it over your chin at lockout.
• Slowly and carefully lower the bar down towards your chin in a straight line, keeping your wrists neutral, bringing your elbows downwards but keeping them pretty tucked.
• Stop when your biceps touch your forearms (this will usually mean the bar is a few inches above your chin) and press back up in a straight line. (Important:  At the bottom your hands should be a fair bit higher than your elbows, which is the opposite of how you will be positioned if you were performing triceps extensions. The hands-above-elbow position gives much greater leverage thus allows you to handle more weight than with triceps extensions.)

Check out this video of Elite power lifter and Westside Barbell legend Dave Tate demonstrating and talking you through the JM Press:

 

Keep the shoulders out of the movement as much as possible whilst maximizing the tension on the triceps. Once you have familiarized yourself with the movement you will find that you should be able to use a weight much heavier than you can for regular triceps extensions.

Just as the close grip bench press is one of the most effective triceps builders because of a combination of favorable structural positioning enabling big weight to be used, JM presses are extremely effective for similar reasons.