Ring Triceps Extension

This is the most common complaint on this exercise by a long way, and the usual cause is an angle that is too aggressive for where you are. A deeply bent elbow under load, with the arms travelling overhead, puts a lot of torque through the elbow and the triceps tendon, and the lean angle loads that far more than it looks like it does. Raise the rings, bring your feet closer in, cut the volume right back and rebuild the lean over weeks. Pain at the back of the elbow that lingers is not soreness to train through, tendon problems there can take months to settle, so stop the exercise and let it calm down before you go near it again.

No, that is normal, and it is one of the honest limits of this exercise. Holding a straight line while you lean into the rings is an anti extension core exercise stacked on top of a triceps exercise, so the abs, obliques and glutes are often the first thing to fail. Squeeze the glutes and keep the ribs down instead of bracing the abs alone, and end the set while the line is still solid. If you want more triceps work after that, take a step in towards the rings and do another set from the easier angle, with the hip still in extension. Piking the hips up to squeeze out extra reps does the opposite of what it looks like, it shifts your weight back over your feet and takes load off the triceps as well as off the core.

Both are used and both work. Two rings, roughly shoulder width apart, is what Malin uses in the video, and it makes it easier to keep both elbows pointing forward with the arms moving in the same plane. Some people grip a single ring with both hands, like a steering wheel, and find their elbows track better and the whole thing feels steadier because there is only one thing to balance. Try each for a couple of sessions and keep the one where your elbows stay tucked without you having to think about it.

There are two dials and they do the same job. Higher rings with your feet close in is easier, lower rings with your feet further back is harder. Chest height is a sensible place to set them, which is roughly where Malin has them in the video, and from there foot position is the dial you actually use. Walk your feet back a step at a time while the reps stay controlled, and step back in as soon as the elbows start to flare or the hips sag. When walking back has nothing left to give, slow the lowering phase down and pause in the bottom stretch before you consider adding any weight, because extra load lands on the elbow long before it challenges the muscle.

A little upper arm travel at the bottom is normal, and it is part of what puts the long head on stretch. What you do not want is the shoulders driving the rep. If you shrug or swing at the shoulder to get out of the bottom, the movement turns into a front raise and the triceps stop being the thing that finishes it. Cue it as the elbows pushing you back up. If the only way out of the bottom is to lead with the shoulders, shorten the range or take a step in until you can own it.

Yes, and that is the main reason to do it. The long head is the only one of the three heads that crosses the shoulder as well as the elbow, so finishing with your hands beside your head stretches it over both joints at once. That does not make it a long head only exercise. In the study comparing overhead and arms down elbow extension, the overhead position also grew the lateral and medial heads more. You cannot isolate one head of the triceps, and changing your grip will not do it either, shoulder position is the lever that actually matters.