Image credit: auntsmack4u
Dips are better than Push-ups. Your whole body is moving & you can do them weighted more easily. Like Pull-ups & Chin-ups, Dips force you to lift your own body-weight. Stressing your upper-body & thus building muscle.
All strength training exercises have a technique to master. Dips are no different. Here’s how to perform Dips with proper technique.
What are Dips? Raise yourself on 2 supports with elbows locked. Lower your body until your shoulders are lower than your elbows. Push yourself up by straightening your arms. Variations for Dips:
- Parallel Bar Dips. Parallel bars that are 55cm/22″ apart. My Squat Rack has 2 removable parallel bars I use for Dips.
- Rings Dips. Dips using rings are harder than parallel bar Dips: you need to stabilize yourself more.
- Chair Dips. Put 2 chairs back to back & dip in between. Make sure the chairs are stable enough so you don’t fall.
- Bench Dips. Feet elevated, hands on a bench. Avoid. The torso position is unhealthy for your shoulders, especially when you do them weighted.
Benefits of Dips. Push-ups have your feet planted. Dips move your whole body through space. Dips are harder and thus superior to Push-ups because you have to balance your body. Other benefits of Dips:
- Build Strength. Dips build lockout strength: straightening your elbows. This helps the Bench Press & the Overhead Press.
- Build Muscle. Dips will develop your triceps & chest muscles.
- Rehab. Try Dips if you can’t do the Bench Press because of a shoulder injury. Dips work similar muscles, do them if your shoulders can take it.
What If You Can’t Do 1 Rep? Stay away from Dip Machines. The strength you build on machines doesn’t transfer. Dips are harder: you have to balance yourself. If you can’t do 1 rep, try one of these:
- Ask for Help. Ask someone to help you on the way up by grabbing your side with his hands and squatting up & down.
- Partials. Get on the 2 supports with locked elbows. Unlock your elbows, lower yourself slightly & push back up. Gradually increase the range of motion as you get stronger until you can break parallel.
Weighted Dips. Switch to Weighted Dips once you can do 10-15 reps with proper technique to keep the exercise challenging.
- Dumbbell Between Legs. Hold a dumbbell between your feet while doing Dips. Doesn’t work well with weights above 10-15kg.
- Rucksack. Wear a rucksack & put plates in it. Make sure you use a strong rucksack so it doesn’t break.
- Belt + Chain. Wear a belt. Attach plates to a chain and to your belt. I recommend this method for Weighted Dips.
Weighted Parallel Bar Dips. Image credit: Beast Skills.
Dip Technique. You might not be able to lean forward & go as deep as James on the picture above. If your shoulders or sternum hurts, stay more upright with your chest up. But always apply the following rules on Dips.
- Squeeze The Bar. Put your thumbs around the bar & squeeze it hard. The more force you apply to the bar, the stronger you are.
- Look Forward. Don’t look straight forward, don’t look the floor. Look to a point slightly in front of you.
- Breathing. Take a big breathe while hanging with locked elbows & hold it. Lower yourself & come back up. Breathe at the top, not during reps.
- Chest Up. Don’t let your shoulders roll forward. Keep your chest up & shoulders back. It’s easier on your shoulders.
- Bend Your Legs. And cross your feet. Letting your legs hang means less strength in my experience. Squeeze your glutes on the way up.
- Break Parallel. Your shoulders must go lower than your elbows. Deeper stretches your chest more, but your shoulders might not agree with it.
- Lock Elbows. Drive out of the bottom until your elbows are locked. Squeeze your triceps. No partial Dips.
Common Problems. Break parallel on each rep just like with Squats. Use a complete range of motion from start to finish.
- Not Hitting Parallel. Don’t cheat by doing partial Dips. Your shoulders must go lower than your elbows on each rep.
- Not Locking the Elbows. Lock your elbows at the top. Squeeze your triceps & keep your chest up.
- Shoulder Issues. Don’t go too low. Stop when you break parallel, keep your chest up & torso upright. Try shoulder dislocations.
- Torso Pain. Don’t let your shoulders roll forward & don’t let your torso shift forward too much. Keep your chest up.
From what I have read.. Dips are bad for your shoulder due to awkward angle of shoulder. so these should definitely be not used as rehab, and if shoulders hurt doing dips then these shouldn’t be performed at all…for people with healthy shoulders this shouldn’t be the case.
And those who can do multiple dips w/o problem can try muscle up for challenge
You see the picture above of James? A lot of people’s shoulders can’t take that. I don’t go to low. If you stay parallel & don’t do them on a bench, you should be ok.
Would using parallel dip bars be any different than the ones that are angled inward?
Angled inward allows you to use a wider/narrow grip depending on your build. I use parallel bar dips.
Sorry man, but the dip form in that picture is awful. Hire a good personal trainer who’s ACE, C.S.C.S., or NASM certified before you damage your hips, shoulder, neck, and posture.
Feel free to provide us with a picture of a good Dip Kian.
Mehdi,
Sorry if I came off abrasive, that was not my intent. I’ll be happy to find a picture of a good dip for you, I would take it myself but I have a rugby injury that prevents me from preforming dips. One thing that would fix most of the problem is imagining a plumb line starting at the top of the head and traveling through the shoulder, hip, and knee joints. Obviously it will be impossible to maintain that posture throughout the entire movement, but if you attempt it your body is in a better position anatomically.
@Kian
Don’t worry, I’m used to it. James from Beast Skills is doing a 4 plate dip on that picture. Your shoulders might not be ok with the depth he’s using, but it’s correct technique. Check his site if you need an authority on body-weight exercises.
When I do dips, my left shoulder seems to “pop” on the way up. Any thoughts?
First, get it checked out by a doctor.
Second, need more information, does it hurt when it pops, were you injured on that side before, what kind of activities do you do outside the gym that may cause an imbalance, does your shoulder pop during other activities etc.
@John
Kian is right, need more info. Could be lack of flexibility, could be previous injury, could be bad posture, could be bad technique, etc.
It doesn’t hurt, and it only happens during dips. I think it may be due to lack of flexibility because when I don’t go down as far, it doesn’t pop.
Mehdi,
Could you please post or link to a video showing proper form? I slightly hurt my left shoulder yesterday while doing these. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.
@Niels
You probably lowered yourself too much. Why don’t you post a video in the forum, I’ll tell you what you’re doing wrong.
My gym doesn’t have any dip bars. Any suggestions for an alternative exercise almost as good as dips? There is a cable machine, I thought maybe I could figure something out on that.
I just did some dips but without the proper equipment. we used a bench press machine. And I think that is the bad way to do it. But he made me do it so I did. While I was doing dips I felt very sharp pain in my shoulder muscles. He told me it was just in my head but it really really hurts. I can barely move my arm all the way up without feeling pain. Should I stop doing dips and tell him I can’t do it no more or just suck in the pain and keep at it? Can some who has more knowledge of doing dips help me? Thanks.
I’ve been working out on and off for about 5 months now. I’ve seen vast improvement in upper body strength mainly shoulders, biceps, triceps. But I have been working out my chest muscles mainly through bench presses and inclines but I have yet to see any gains. It’s mind boggling because I’ve been able to lift nearly double the weight that what I started with… however I have no muscles gain in my chest. And no matter how hard I try to work out my chest muscles, it just doesn’t seem to work.
I know that I am doing something wrong… so I recently started this month to scrap the bench press and focus mainly on dips to improve chest mass. Fortunately, I have seen some improvement and I feel the ache and fatigue finally in my chest area which I didn’t get before from bench presses.
My question though is… can dips be used as a substitute t for the bench press to improve chest mass? And also… what do you think I am doing wrong with the bench press? I feel like I am doing it correctly, but i guess there are definitely some things I need to fix.
Hey Ryan, I am not expert… but I think I know what your problem might be.
I think you are going down too far when dipping which puts a lot of strain on ur shoulders. Also don’t relax when you are all the way down and make sure you have complete control over your body weight. If your shoulders are hurting it probably means you are putting too much strain on them stretching them on the way down.
Also make sure you do warm up stretches and exercises before putting a lot of stress on your body.
Hi Mehdi,
What are the alternatives for building triceps if I dont have access to a parallel bar?
Thanks
Thanks for the helpful information. I have decided not to do anymore of the dips. It just hurts too much. I still have the pain. I think the dips aren’t just meant for certain people like me! I will try some alternative way to work out lower pecks. Is there any alternative ways to do dipsand work out your lower pecks? Thanks!
I was doing dips yesterday with a 25 plate around my hips. I usually do this about 12 reps. During the middle of my set the center of my chest started to hurt. Nothing popped or tore but it was pretty painful. Today my chest doesnt really hurt but sometimes when I bend over, there is a sharp pain on the inside of my chest-more towards the left pectoral muscle. Any ideas what this might be?
I am following the 5×5 beginner’s program for a month now and am able to do 5×3 dips with my body weight (145 lbs). When should I start doing weighted dips?
@Karthik
Read the article, under Weighted Dips it says
Hello,
Do you recommend elbows close to the body or let them go wide when you lower your body on dips? I’ve seen info related to elbows in = more triceps development, elbows out = more chest development.
Thanks very much,
Chris
I’ve been experiencing collar bone pain, and pain where the pectoral muscles attach to the sternum, and I haven’t rolled my shoulders forward.
seriously, what could be the problem? should i stop doing them?
wat f i cant do dips because i had a fracture in my left shoulder? wta may b the best alternative for it?
Could you please explain 3xF for dips for me? Does it mean “Do a set of three dips as many times as possible”?
I have to disagree with the above article because dips place your shoulder in an unstable and awkward position and therefore put undue stress on the rotator cuff. Also, pushups are a better exercise because if you try to maintain good form you activate almost your whole body. If the body is kept rigid you are working you neck/trapezius, shoulders, upper back, your entire core, chest, triceps, glutes, and your quads. I think this exercise is even better than the squat because it works more muscles and it requires moving your body through space as in everyday activities.
@ Marty
You said push ups are better than squats, i have to disagree there.
After a while push ups become easy then you have to gravitate towards the bench press, squats work the entire leg region and in theory is a different exercise than push ups. Dips is called th eupper body squat and should be done nice and slow with correct form, time and time again i see people in the gym doing dips way too fast its no wonder they have “shoulder issues”. Perform dips nice and slow get a mirror from the side to watch your technique trust me dips are amazing and help out alot with the bench press also. I currently dip with 10kg weight on a dipping belt and the same principle applies if your shoulders hurt don’t go to low its quite simple really. Build up slowly with dips as its an un-natural position for your body to be in.
Peace