Dumbbell Skull Crusher

About This Exercise

Lying triceps isolation with dumbbells. The defining motion is an arc of the dumbbells toward the forehead with elbows fixed; each arm works independently.

1Setup

Lie on a flat bench holding a pair of dumbbells with a neutral grip (palms facing each other). Press the dumbbells up so your arms are vertical above your shoulders, dumbbells touching or close together. Keep your elbows tucked and pointing forward. This is your starting position.

2Execution

Keeping your upper arms stationary, slowly lower both dumbbells in an arc by bending only at the elbows. The dumbbells should travel down toward the sides of your forehead. Stop just before they reach the forehead, then reverse by extending the elbows to return to the start. Exhale through the press up.

Pro Tips

• The defining motion is the forehead arc, not lowering behind the head — that is a different exercise.
• Keep elbows tucked toward each other; flaring elbows moves load off the triceps and onto the shoulders.
• Dumbbells let each arm work independently — useful for catching and correcting strength imbalances.
• Lighter loads than the barbell version; great for learning the skull-crusher pattern before progressing to a barbell.