Cable triceps pushdown muscles worked

Every role here is for this technique: standing at a high pulley with a rope or bar, elbows kept at the sides, from bent to straight.

What muscles does the cable triceps pushdown work?

The prime mover of the cable triceps pushdown is triceps brachii. It produces elbow extension. No muscle assists as a synergist. Nine stabilizers hold joints and segments still, among them latissimus dorsi, teres major and the posterior deltoid. The roles follow Kendall et al. (2005) and Neumann (2017).

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Joint actions and their prime movers

The joint actions of the cable triceps pushdown and the prime movers that produce each
Joint action	Prime movers
Elbow extension	Triceps brachii

Every muscle by role

A prime mover produces the lift’s main joint action against the load; a synergist assists that action, or adds a secondary action the lift needs; a stabilizer contracts mostly isometrically to hold a joint or a segment still. A role describes what the muscle does in the technique above, not how hard it works or how much it grows.

Prime movers 1

Prime movers in the cable triceps pushdown, with what each does
Muscle	What it does here
Triceps brachii	Elbow extension, all three heads The long head also crosses the shoulder, which is held still here.

Stabilizers 9

Stabilizers in the cable triceps pushdown, with what each does
Muscle	What it does here
Latissimus dorsi	Holding the upper arm down at the side
Teres major	Holding the upper arm down at the side
Posterior deltoid	Keeping the elbow from drifting forward
Wrist and finger extensors	Holding the wrist straight
Wrist and finger flexors	Gripping the handle
Rectus abdominis	Bracing the trunk against the load
External oblique	Bracing the trunk and resisting rotation
Internal oblique	Bracing the trunk and resisting rotation
Transversus abdominis	Raising abdominal pressure to stiffen the trunk

Lowering and lifting

What the prime movers of the cable triceps pushdown do in each half of a rep
Phase	What the prime movers do
Returning	Triceps lengthen as the handle rises
Pushing down	They shorten to straighten the elbows

Where these prime movers also work

Triceps brachii: prime mover in the flat bench press, incline bench press, push-up, parallel-bar dip and standing overhead press.

Sources

Kendall et al., Muscles: Testing and Function, 5th ed. (2005)
Neumann, Kinesiology of the Musculoskeletal System, 3rd ed. (2017)

The cited studies that measured muscle activity used electromyography, and a larger signal need not mean more force or more growth (Vigotsky et al. (2018), Front Physiol 8:985). The roles draw on those studies for which muscles a lift involves and how two lifts differ, never to rank one muscle against another.

See these muscles in 3D

Visualiser · Biology Muscles Worked by Exercise 3D Explorer Choose a lift and a real body lights its prime movers, synergists and stabilisers, front and back, with the same muscles in 3D. Visualiser · Biology Muscle Origin, Insertion and Action Explorer Paint a muscle’s origin and insertion on real 3D bones, or click a bone to see what attaches to it.