Dips are an excellent exercise to tighten up your triceps, beef up your delts, and improve your overall upper body stability. When you take the time to slot in some dips, you’ll be working on auxiliary muscles that are key to supporting your upper body.
If you’ve been stuck on top of a plateau for a while, and you’re looking for a way to break through, then dips will help you along your way. They work on a lot of tough to reach places that will pay off more than you would have initially thought, and they’re easy to fit into a routine without too much fuss.
The most important part of learning any new exercise is understanding which muscle groups you’re working on. Dips in particular focus on your triceps and several muscles on the uppermost section of your upper body that deal with imparting stability to your lifts, especially on the anterior side of your chest. Your anterior deltoids and your pecs are going to get taking on a major supporting role, while your upper back, abdominal muscles, and biceps are going to provide most of the stability necessary to allow you to make the dipping motion throughout this exercise.
Your tricep muscles, or more formally, your triceps brachii is a set of muscles located on the back of your upper arm. They have three heads that originate from your scapula and come together into one thick body on the back of your upper arms. Those three heads end up providing a lot of structure and stability to your lower arms and allowing for the finer motor skills you need to write and type during your daily life.
They’re primarily responsible for the extension of your arms, making them the antagonists to your biceps. Whenever you need to push something away from yourself or extend your arms after flexing them, thank your triceps. The three heads of your triceps work together to provide the force your arms need for exercises like skull crushers, bench pressing, and, of course, bodyweight dips.
The long head is probably the head of your triceps you’re most familiar with. The long head fascicle is engaged when your body is generating a sustained force. It’s going to be the part of the muscle you use when lifting a barbell away from your chest or when you’ve dipped your body down towards the floor and you’re going to push yourself back up into an extended position. The long head of your triceps is also going to be responsible for allowing your shoulder and elbow to work together and provide stability across your arm. They work together with your biceps and deltoids to provide stability when you’re holding a weight out in front of yourself or above your chest.
The triceps aren’t just for generating and sustaining explosive force, they stabilize your arms when you’re writing. By creating a synergy between your elbow and shoulder, you can use your triceps to make fine movements with your lower arms. This is why clean legible handwriting involves more than just your wrist. When you bring your triceps into the picture you can get smoother lines and more reliable results.
Dips take advantage of all aspects of your triceps. You’re going to be moving the bodyweight of an entire human being, so the amount of weight you’re managing during a dip is substantial, meaning that you’re going to need the explosive power that all three heads of your triceps will generate together, but you’re also going to need the stability to lower yourself with enough control to get any meaningful exercise.
The deltoids are your shoulder muscles. They’re the muscles that are responsible for holding your shoulders in place, rotating your arms internally, and adduction away from your body. They’re the antagonist muscles to your pecs, so you’re going to be getting work in on your delts and pecs while supporting your body weight during dips.
Dips for your deltoids are excellent because they’re going to put a strain on them in amounts that are manageable without running so much of a risk for dislocation or injury due to improper rotation. This exercise doesn’t push your body so far that your shoulders are at risk for injury, but they’re getting the kind of exercise that will build strength in your deltoids over time and direct that growth towards breaking through your bench press plateaus or helping master pull-ups.
Your pecs, abs, traps, and obliques are all going to be recruited for additional stability. Stability is one of the key aspects of executing a good set of dips. Your core needs to be tight so that your torso and lower body are all under control when you’re dipping yourself. If you’re flailing about and unable to focus on your upper body, then you’re not going to be getting much out of the exercise.
Your posture is also important during dips. Your upper back needs to be straight while you’re dipping. Keeping your upper back and chest engaged when you’re dipping. This is going to engage the muscles in your upper back like your traps because you need to be fighting against gravity and your body’s tendency to lean forward, but your pecs are going to be engaged throughout this exercise, which is going to put more strain on your traps, making this a great exercise for building up stability and endurance in your upper back.
Your forearms are often forgotten when talking about the muscles an exercise will target, but the health and strength of your forearms will make or break your ability to progress in a specific lift. Your forearms are far from being the stars of the show here, but you’re absolutely going to need decent grip strength if you want to get anywhere with your dips.
The grip you use is going to engage your wrist strength as well as your forearm flexors. If you’re not used to engaging your grip and wrists, then prepare for an early butt kicking the first few times you set out to dip yourself.
Dips aren’t a very difficult exercise to pull off, once you’ve learned the intricacies of the exercise, you’re going to be a dipping pro. Just watch your posture, keep your elbows in, and remember to engage your core.
There are all sorts of ways to work dips into your routine. If you’re struggling with a standard dip or you’re not getting enough of a challenge, then there are several alternatives you can mix into your repertoire to get the most out of your workout.
There are several ways to weigh down your dips, and they accomplish different goals. If you think you could push your stability further or you want to build on the amount of weight you can dip slowly, then you could add chains to your dips.
Bench dips are going to be a great way to do dips anywhere you have a chair.
They’re also going to be one of the best variants for anybody struggling to dip their full body weight. Even though you’re reversing your grip, you’re still primarily targeting your triceps, you’re sacrificing a little bit of the involvement from your muscles across the front of your upper body and the muscles in your forearms in exchange for versatility and portability.
All of the same rules apply here, keep your shoulders engaged and don’t dip further than the effective range of your triceps. You want to keep your movements controlled and deliberate in order to maximize the involvement of all of your muscles.
Plyometric dips are a fancy way of saying “jumping dips” these dips are identical to bench dips except you’ll be pressing yourself back up into your starting position with enough force to launch your hands a few inches off of your bench. Plyometric exercise is an excellent way to push the explosive power of your muscles, and they’re incredibly challenging. If you’re looking to get your dips done wherever you can squeeze in the time, and you’re worried about bumping up against a challenge level ceiling, then you should work plyometric dips into your routine.
Dips are one of the best exercises for working out some tough areas of your body. You’ll be tightening up a lot of the muscles responsible for imparting stability and pushing through your plateaus, but if you’re not careful about keeping your form tight and getting the exercise done right you’re not going to get the incredible benefits that dips can grant you. There are several common mistakes that you should be keeping an eye out for if you don’t want to waste your time on the dip station.
If you’re looking for an exercise that will feed into your routine and pump you up enough to blast through your limits, then you’re looking for dips. These are an exercise that will solidify your triceps. You’re going to get great arms, balance out your biceps, and increase your overall stability in the gym.
They’re easy to work on, and you don’t really need any specialized equipment to pull them off.
As long as you’re dedicated to adding them into your workout routine and careful about your form, then you’re going to see a huge payoff all over your weightlifting. They’re a simple way to redirect when you’ve hit a wall in your progression without uprooting your routine. Skip the dumbbells when you’re looking to strengthen your triceps, and take the time to get them right and you’ll be delighted that you did.
