triceps with other equipment
21 exercises for triceps you can do with other equipment.
Triceps make up roughly two-thirds of total arm size, yet they're often trained too narrowly and too lightly. With alternative equipment — parallel bars, rings, sleds, chains, and sandbags — a whole new world of loading variations opens up.
This page brings together 21 exercises that target the triceps from different angles and with different character: heavy compound movements, chain resistance exercises with progressive loading, sled-based variations that spare the joints, and technically demanding movements like Muscle Ups and Pin Presses.
Choose based on your level, but pick exercises you can actually push harder each week — that's what determines results.
The foundation: dips and hanging exercises
Dips at the parallel bars and Ring Dips are classics for a reason. They're scalable — add weight to a belt when bodyweight alone isn't enough — and they deliver a powerful stretch at the bottom that isolated exercises rarely match. The ring variation adds stabilization demands that drive muscle activation even higher.
Chest-Lean Dips work more of the upper chest, but triceps do plenty of work either way. Hanging Pull-ups and Weighted Bench Dips are related movements that deliver similar stimulus with slightly different angles and equipment needs.
Otis Ups are an unusual exercise that rarely shows up in standard programs, but they train the triceps in a lengthened position and make a solid complement when you want variety without overhauling your whole program.
Chains and sleds: constant tension, easy on the joints
Chain Extensions with handles and Chain Presses take advantage of the chain getting heavier as you extend — the resistance increases at exactly the pace you'd normally lose strength through the range. This creates resistance throughout the movement that barbell exercises can't replicate.
Sled Pushes and Overhead Sled Extensions train the triceps without the joint compression that heavy barbell work demands. That makes them useful both for building foundational strength and for anyone with tender elbows who still wants to train hard.
Hammer Chest Press and Svend Press are complementary alternatives you can program in when you want some variation without sacrificing progress on your main lifts.
Explosive and technical movements
Muscle Ups and Kipping Muscle Ups demand strength, timing, and mobility — they're not beginner exercises. But once you master them, they build triceps, shoulders, and back in a way isolated movements can't touch. Pin Presses are similar: technically demanding, high-reward loading.
Drop Push-ups and Depth Jump Push-ups add the explosive dimension. They train power and reactivity rather than max strength, and work well as finishers or in their own dedicated explosiveness block.
Sandbag Throws and Tire Flips are more unconventional additions. They don't fit a classical strength program, but for those training functional strength or mixing in more athletic work, they're a concrete way to load the triceps under real-world demand. Circus Bells fit the same category — specific, but effective when the context suits.