Chest Dip
Lower yourself between two bars and press back up, leaning forward to bias the chest.
- Chest
- Bodyweight
- Reps
What it works
Lower chest primarily when you lean forward, with the triceps and front shoulders taking a large share. Staying upright shifts the emphasis to the triceps instead, so the lean is what decides which exercise you are doing.
Setup
- Set the bars to roughly shoulder width. Much wider is harder on the shoulders.
- Jump or step up to support yourself with straight arms and your shoulders pushed down away from your ears.
- Cross your ankles behind you and bend your knees, which makes it easier to hold the forward lean.
- Lean your torso forward by about 30 degrees. This is what makes it a chest exercise.
The movement
- Brace, and lower yourself under control by bending your elbows and letting them travel back and slightly out.
- Keep the forward lean the whole way down. If you drift upright, you have turned it into a triceps dip.
- Descend until your upper arms are roughly parallel to the floor, or a little lower if your shoulders are comfortable there.
- Press back up to straight arms without shrugging at the top.
- Keep your shoulders pulled down away from your ears throughout.
Common mistakes
- Going too deep: dips reward range of motion right up until they do not. Below parallel puts the shoulder in a vulnerable position and there is little to gain.
- Shrugging at the bottom: let your shoulders rise up around your ears and the joint takes the load instead of the muscles. Keep them packed down.
- Losing the lean: an upright dip is a triceps exercise. Both are fine, but pick one on purpose.
- Bouncing out of the bottom: control the descent and press out of a paused position rather than rebounding.
- Persisting through shoulder pain: dips are the lift most likely to aggravate a shoulder. If it hurts, this is one to skip rather than work around.
Dips put the shoulder in a deep, loaded position at the bottom. Plenty of people do them for years without trouble and some cannot do them comfortably at all. If yours are the second kind, a press variation covers the same muscles with none of the risk, and you are not missing anything essential.
Variations and alternatives
The bench press and push up train the same muscles in a more controlled position. Assisted dip machines and bands let you scale the weight down. Adding weight with a belt is the standard progression once bodyweight sets of ten are easy.
If a movement causes pain rather than ordinary training effort, stop and speak to a qualified professional. Programming context for this lift is in how training programs are built.