What are your philosophies on this?

Any kind of tricep work (skull crushers/overhead extensions, even ohp to a degree) has been bugging my elbows a bit. Had been keeping them as tucked as possible, but I've been flaring them more and feeling better lately. Elbows still kinda meh though, and skullcrushers have never really felt great.

You using the ez curl bar? I suffer from this, but some hand grip angles feel a lot better than others.

otherwise, go lighter/don't use full contraction

Yeah, that's what I usually use for skullcrushers at least. Lifting rn and the wider grip does seem to feel a bit better than the narrower. Will give that some time and see how it goes.

Lighter/less ROM is probably a pretty good solution for the near future at least. Have kinda just been avoiding tricep isolations, which I'm sure is the worst idea.

Flared elbows 99% of the time because it felt more natural but pretty sure just weak form and lowers engagement always keep elbows tucked now feels like I get better engagement and better growth and pump.

Try starting your workout with a few sets of lighter weight rope pushdowns to warm your elbows up.

Hmm. Maybe worth working with lower weights/ROM for a while and building up to tucket then.Have tried that for my CGBP stuff but not my isolation really, will give it a shot.

That's how I start every arm day. If I go straight to french press or skullcrushers I can get some elbow discomfort too.

Interesting. Maybe I just have to be more diligent about it then. I appreciate the tips.

I think it depends on exercise to skull crushers not that I do them but flaring is without a doubt bad form and can cause injury and limits engagement and isolation since you're not relying solely on your triceps may end up using more biceps or not even having muscle engaged period with overhead extension flaring isn't as bad but you are only hitting the exterior part of your tricep not the interior port so tucking elbows again is good in my opinion for regular OHP I think that is another one were flaring is okay since it would be pretty hard to do that motion with tucked elbows in my opinion in my opinion and this will probably be an unpopular opinion but I think all of those motions are trash for tricep building / isolation in my opinion rope push downs are best for strength because you can go heavy due to machine and pulley allows you to have more leverage making it easy to lift and with good form the tension keeps your muscles engaged the whole time were as in my opinion with tricep kickbacks are much better for isolation because much better range of motion but can't go as heavy in my opinion and only tension and the bottom when flexing I think it is also important to be able to tell when your tricep is fully engaged before contracting makes yuuuge difference for me helps with biceps curls too since triceps need to be engaged to contract biceps.

Lol, rope pushdowns have actually been my one reliable tricep exercise. Can't say I've ever been too into kickbacks though, just seem bothersome to get right and not too special in comparison to other tricep exercises with how they hit my triceps.

Sounds like focusing on figuring out the tuck is the move though. Did finish my workout with skullcrushers with the wider grip and elbows tucked, and they felt pretty good, so hopefully that's a good sign for going forwards.

I flare with some exercises and keep them strict and in with others. I think in general if you work everything with different focuses/angles you should be able to keep everything balanced

If it's helping you and relieving some pain then do it, gotta find what works for you

Interesting to hear you mix em.

I'm gonna try some of what I've discussed ITT and tuck more, but if things aren't going great after a few weeks, going for more flare will be the backup plan.

Yeah, I have generally always been able to do tricep push downs for some reason it just feels like a natural movement and has always felt like I was able to engage my triceps easily because of the constant tension due to the cables if you do them with proper form and you aren't bouncing the weight off the pulley and cheating with moment nice slow and controlled pause at the top and bottom usually and I like how with it being a machine you can go heavier due to the pulley and the leverage it gives with building strength and you can focus more on lifting opposed correct form because it not a "free" weight were you gotta be really careful with your movements in my opinion and can't go as heavy since you don't have that constant tension from the cables I usually can't go as heavy and really gotta focus on the extension and making sure I am contracting and full tricep engagement and not cheating with my forearms and swinging the weight around for me personally I don't like doing most movements standing I feel like its hard to not lock out your knees and sometimes its hard for me to keep my balance and even with a strong core I find sitting down works alot better for me since I feel alot more solid through the motion opposed to some of the swaying or leaning to one side or hunched over that happens with standing for instance I only do should press for shoulders besides front raises and rows and the occasional reverse pec deck I think the range of motion gives me a much better and deeper stretch and I feel like I am engaging my muscles in a more balanced way especially with tricep kick backs I always felt really weird doing them because its an awkward weird position to be in I almost feel vulnerable but once you get used to it I feel like have way more control then with tricep pushdown opposed to being in a more rigid range of motion due to the machine I always felt like above head extension and skull crushers where just way to awkward to be beneficial I just can't seem to get good engagement but everybody is different for skull crushers you should have your elbows tucked if you notice trying to do the extension with elbows flares makes your palms want to rotate outwards having the backs of your hands facing each other if you tried doing the motion with no weights in hand elbows tucked keeps your wrist from wanting to rotate outwards if that makes sense.

Try skull crushers with dumbbells and a neutral/hammer grip?