EZ Bar Skull Crusher
The EZ bar skull crusher is a lying triceps extension where you lower an EZ bar toward your forehead and extend it back up. It isolates your triceps, especially the long head when your arms angle back. The angled grip is easier on wrists than a straight bar, making it a go-to triceps builder.
Muscles worked
The ez bar skull crusher trains the triceps.
Primary
Weekly sets for triceps
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for triceps, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the ez bar skull crusher
- 01Lie on a flat bench holding the EZ bar on the inner angled grips with arms straight above your chest.
- 02Tilt your arms slightly back toward your head so the bar sits over your eyes.
- 03Bend only at the elbows, lowering the bar toward your forehead or just behind your head.
- 04Keep your elbows pointing up and roughly shoulder width apart as you lower.
- 05Extend your elbows to press the bar back to the start, squeezing your triceps.
Coaching cues
- Elbows point to the ceiling
- Move only at the elbow
- Lower slow, extend hard
Common mistakes
- Flaring your elbows outward shifts work to the chest, so keep them tucked and pointing up.
- Turning it into a press by moving the shoulders reduces triceps tension, so keep your upper arms fixed.
- Lowering too fast near your head is risky, so control every inch of the descent.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers isolation work toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
EZ Bar Skull Crusher alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your ez bar skull crusher free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.