I went over to train my dad a few weeks ago.
Before we even started he had a question. “What’s the best exercise for triceps? I’ve been doing overhead extensions.”
I had him try skull crushers instead.
Started him lighter than he thought he needed. He looked at the weight like I’d insulted him.
It crushed him.
Here’s the thing: he’d been using a weight on the overhead extension that felt manageable. Kept adding more over time. Felt like he was working. He was. Just not in his triceps.
That’s kind of the whole point.
Your Shoulders Are Stealing Credit From Your Triceps
The overhead extension isn’t a bad exercise. It’s just limited by your shoulder mobility before your triceps get anywhere close to their limit.
Your shoulder has to be in full flexion overhead and stay stable through the whole movement. For a lot of people, that position is already a stretch. So as weight goes up, the shoulder becomes the weak link. Set ends there. Triceps never really got pushed.
Skull crusher? Triceps are the whole show. You can isolate them in a position your shoulder can actually handle. Less weight, way more tricep.
Same goal. One exercise gets you there. One doesn’t.
This is the mistake I see constantly: people confuse “heavier” with “working harder.” Sometimes that’s true. A lot of the time, heavier just means something else broke down first.
Research on muscle growth is pretty clear on this. What drives it is proximity to failure in the target muscle. Not the load on the bar in general. Whether the right muscle is getting close to its limit. Load is just the tool to get there, and sometimes a lighter exercise does it better because you’re not fighting your own body in the process.
When the Setup Becomes the Workout
I had a client we kept progressing on hip bridges.
Started with bodyweight. Added a dumbbell on her hips. Kept adding weight until we maxed that out. Moved to single leg. Then we even started talking about rigging up a barbell.
That’s when I caught myself.
The setup had quietly become the workout. Finding the right bench height, positioning the weight, getting stable enough to actually brace. By the harder versions she was managing a small project before each rep, not training her glutes.
One session she looked up mid-set and said “I don’t even know if I’m feeling this anymore.”
Yeah. That’s the problem.
We backed way off. Found a version that challenged her glutes hard and took ten seconds to get into.
She got more out of it. Not less.
The best exercise isn’t the most loaded version of a movement. It’s the version where the right muscle is actually working in a position you can hold without three other things fighting for your attention.
[Video: simple glute bridge progression showing how a well-loaded easier version can outperform a complicated harder one]
Common Exercises Where This Goes Wrong (And What to Do Instead)
This isn’t just a tricep and hip bridge problem. Here are a few places it shows up all the time.
Barbell bench press vs. dumbbell bench press
Barbell bench can load heavy. Feels productive. Numbers go up.
But for a lot of people, especially with any shoulder history, the barbell locks your hands into a fixed position through the whole movement. That can put the shoulder in a spot it doesn’t love, and over time you either feel it in the wrong places or quietly stop loading it as hard as you could.
Dumbbells let your hands move naturally through the press. Most people feel their chest way more. They can’t load as heavy but the pecs actually get challenged. That’s the point.
Barbell back squat vs. goblet squat or safety bar squat
Barbell back squats can load a ton. But they also require solid ankle mobility, hip mobility, thoracic mobility, and the ability to brace hard with a bar on your back, all at the same time. When any of those are limited, you end up feeling it in your lower back, your knees, your hips, everywhere except your legs.
A goblet squat forces an upright torso, keeps you honest on depth, and most people feel their quads and glutes significantly more. Less weight. More work where it matters.
Safety bar squat is another good one. Easier on the shoulders and upper back, stays more upright than a standard back squat. A lot of people can squat heavier and feel it better with a safety bar than they ever did with a barbell.
Lat pulldown wide grip vs. neutral or close grip
Wide grip pulldowns look like they should be the move. Bigger range, hits the lats more, right?
Except for a lot of people the shoulder position at the top is uncomfortable, and they end up using momentum and upper trap to finish each rep. Narrow neutral grip keeps the shoulder in a better spot and usually means the lats are doing more of the actual pulling.
Overhead tricep extension vs. skull crusher or cable pushdown
Already covered this one. Overhead position puts the tricep in a stretched position which can be useful, but if your shoulder is the limiting factor the tricep never gets there. Cable pushdown or skull crusher lets you load the tricep directly without the shoulder being a problem.
Leg press (heavy) vs. split squat or Bulgarian split squat
The leg press is popular because the numbers feel impressive. 300, 400, 500 pounds. Satisfying.
But past a certain weight you’re often not training your legs harder. You’re just making the logistics more painful. The sled handles a lot of the stability work for you.
A split squat with 30 pounds in each hand will wreck most people because there’s nowhere to hide. Balance, stability, quad, glute, all of it has to work. Less weight, more honest training.
[Photo: side by side of leg press loaded heavy vs. someone doing a split squat with light dumbbells, both working hard]
I Did This to Myself (Eight Exercises Deep)
I’m not exempt from any of this.
Every time something felt off in my training I’d add another mobility drill. Back tight, add something. Knee acting up, add something else. Feet bothering me, add that too.
At some point I had eight mobility exercises in my warmup. Doing all of them, none of them well, and the warmup was longer than the actual training session.
Nothing was really improving because I was spreading everything too thin and never being consistent enough with any single thing to know if it was working.
Turned out I needed two drills done consistently. Some hip internal rotation work and shoulder internal rotation. That was it. Two things, done well, over time. More progress than the previous eight-exercise circus.
Same principle. The more complicated you make it, the harder it is to tell what’s actually working.
This Isn’t Just a Gym Problem
Once you start looking for it, this pattern is everywhere.
The person doing 45 minutes of cardio who could get the same benefit in 20 because they’d actually be working instead of just moving. The person who added five supplements when the thing limiting their results is sleep. The person with six mobility drills when one of them is doing most of the work and the rest are just eating time.
Doing more feels like progress. It feels responsible. But if the thing you actually need isn’t getting targeted, more of the wrong approach is still the wrong approach.
One mobility drill that’s actually helping? Do that one. Don’t add more until you know it’s working.
Twenty minutes of cardio where you’re genuinely improving? That’s your dose. An hour of going through the motions isn’t better just because it’s longer.
Losing weight steadily at the calories you’re eating right now? Don’t touch it. The “optimal” deficit is irrelevant if what you have is already working.
The trap is always the “should.” You should be doing more, going heavier, being more consistent. If what you’re doing is actually accomplishing the goal, the should is just noise.
The Only Question That Matters
Before every exercise, or before you add weight, or before you make anything more complicated:
Is the right thing getting challenged?
Feel it during the set. What’s actually getting tired? Is it the muscle you’re trying to train?
If yes, you’re good. Keep adding weight over time, track it, let the progress build.
If no, find a simpler version. Better position. Less interference. The version where you actually feel the right thing working, even if the weight is embarrassingly light compared to what you were doing before.
My dad’s triceps are getting worked harder now with less weight than he was using on overhead extensions.
He didn’t get weaker.
He just stopped letting his shoulders take credit for what his triceps were supposed to be doing.
[Photo: clean, simple gym setup — light dumbbell, flat bench, nothing complicated]
Want help figuring out if your exercises are actually doing what you think they are? Book a session here.
Thanks Josh. I appreciate your wisdom here.
I am glad you found it helpful!