The Right Way To Do A Dip

It’s been called the “upper body squat.” It works all of your pushing muscles at once. It can increase your performance on the bench press enormously. Oh and did I mention it can leap tall buildings in a single bound?

It’s the Dip. We’ve all done them at some point (I hope) and we’ve all done them wrong at some point (I know). Just because you’re doing them wrong now doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to. Just follow my instructions and the dip will become your favorite exercise for building both size and strength in your upper torso.

How do I start

If you have done dips before, but have yet to really get anything out of them, start here. As most of you know, the dip is an exercise that is done on dip bars, parallel bars that can be from shoulder width apart to much farther apart.

The beginning of a dip is set up very simply by placing your hands around the parallel bars and pushing your upright body all the way up so that your arms are straight. You want to feel your triceps flexing, trying to keep your arms locked under your body’s weight.

Performing the rep

Now that you are in the starting position (hopefully not while reading this) you are ready to start doing reps of dips. First thing I want you to do is to forget how you usually do them (if they have never worked for you at all) and ditch your ego (we’ll talk about adding weight later).

After getting into position to start your set, begin to descend, keeping your body tight. DO NOT drop your body. I see guys all the time that look like they are on a fucking trampoline instead of performing an exercise. Don’t do it. Go nice and slow on all of your reps, especially if you suck at them to begin with.

The bottom of your rep should feel like you are stretching your chest and shoulders out really well. If it hurts, though, you’re doing it wrong. As soon as you feel the stretch push your body up and back to the starting position. You will most likely feel this the most in your chest at first but then in your triceps as you get to the lockout. I like the way this guy does his dips. He keeps his body in the same position the entire time and has really good form. You can also watch all of his muscles working correctly.

Making your chest work hard and your triceps work even harder

Dips will kill your chest. They will make you pumped up and engorged in blood. You won’t have any other choice but to puff your chest out, but if your doing your dips correctly you should have another body part just as pumped and worked: your triceps. Your triceps don’t get enough recognition when it comes to dips and I think they deserve it. If you are doing your dips correctly you’ll feel your triceps much bigger and much more sore than usual the next day. Add dips into your schedule and please focus as much as possible on working them (especially at lock out) and you’ll see an enormous increase in tricep strength.

Doing dips will cause you to build muscle in your upper body much more efficiently.