Skull Crusher

Muscles worked by the Skull Crusher

Primary

TricepsTriceps Brachii

Also called: tricep, triceps, triceps brachii, horseshoe, tris.

Equipment

Barbell

Also called: bar, olympic barbell, straight bar, olympic bar, power bar.

How to do the Skull Crusher

1. Lie on a flat bench holding a barbell over your chest with a narrow grip.
2. Lower the bar toward your forehead by bending at the elbows.
3. Extend your arms back to the start.
4. Repeat.

Form tips

• Keep upper arms vertical throughout.
• Lower slowly to protect the elbows.

At a glance

Skull Crusher in German & Spanish

Descriptions, instructions and tips ship in all three languages in the JSON.

Related exercises

• Dumbbell Skull Crusher
• Lying Tricep Extension
• Banded Triceps Stretch
• Bench Dips
• Cable Tricep Kickback
• Cable Tricep Pushdown
• Close-Grip Bench Press
• Close-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press

Exercise data (JSON)

The record below is exactly what exercises.json ships for this exercise — names, descriptions, instructions and tips in English, German and Spanish.

{
  "id": "skull-crusher",
  "name_en": "Skull Crusher",
  "name_de": "Skull Crusher",
  "name_es": "Skull Crusher",
  "description_en": "A lying triceps extension using a barbell to isolate the triceps through a full range of motion.",
  "description_de": "Eine liegende Trizepsstreckung mit der Langhantel zur Isolation des Trizeps im vollen Bewegungsumfang.",
  "description_es": "Una extensión de tríceps tumbado con barra que aísla los tríceps a través de un rango de movimiento completo.",
  "category": "strength",
  "force_type": "push",
  "mechanic": "isolation",
  "difficulty": "intermediate",
  "equipment": "barbell",
  "body_part": "upper_arms",
  "primary_muscles": [
    "triceps_brachii"
  ],
  "goals": [
    "hypertrophy"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "arm_day",
    "knee_safe",
    "shoulder_safe",
    "no_axial_load",
    "lower_back_safe",
    "requires_bench"
  ],
  "variation_group": "skull-crusher",
  "is_unilateral": false,
  "is_bodyweight": false,
  "instructions_en": [
    "Lie on a flat bench holding a barbell over your chest with a narrow grip.",
    "Lower the bar toward your forehead by bending at the elbows.",
    "Extend your arms back to the start.",
    "Repeat."
  ],
  "instructions_de": [
    "Lege dich auf eine flache Bank und halte eine Langhantel mit engem Griff über der Brust.",
    "Senke die Stange zur Stirn, indem du die Ellbogen beugst.",
    "Strecke die Arme zurück in die Ausgangsposition.",
    "Wiederhole."
  ],
  "instructions_es": [
    "Acuéstate en un banco plano sosteniendo una barra sobre el pecho con agarre estrecho.",
    "Baja la barra hacia la frente flexionando los codos.",
    "Extiende los brazos de vuelta a la posición inicial.",
    "Repite."
  ],
  "tips_en": [
    "Keep upper arms vertical throughout.",
    "Lower slowly to protect the elbows."
  ],
  "tips_de": [
    "Halte die Oberarme die ganze Zeit senkrecht.",
    "Senke langsam ab, um die Ellbogen zu schonen."
  ],
  "tips_es": [
    "Mantén los brazos superiores verticales durante todo el ejercicio.",
    "Baja lentamente para proteger los codos."
  ],
  "met": 5.0,
  "images": {
    "flat": {
      "start": "images/flat/skull-crusher-start.webp",
      "peak": "images/flat/skull-crusher-peak.webp"
    }
  }
}

Fetch just this exercise

const { exercises } = await fetch(
  "https://exercise-dataset.com/exercises.json"
).then(r => r.json());
const ex = exercises.find(e => e.id === "skull-crusher");

Free for personal and commercial in-app use with attribution (“Exercise data by RepDB”) — see the license and ready-made attribution snippets. Redistributing the data as a dataset or API is not permitted.