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| Dips Tips
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| Fitness pros love the dip for its overall intensity, for its unparalleled
success developing the triceps and because, when it comes to challenge and
technique, it’s a thing of rare beauty.
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Ask most personal trainers and fitness experts to identify their favorite exercise and “Dips!” is the invariable ecstatic response.
No surprise, given their simplicity, effectiveness and intensity, to say nothing of the strength gain derived from a well-executed dip, which develops explosive triceps.
“Unlike so many other exercises that I’ve tried, dips actually lived up to their advanced billing,” comments Marty Gallagher, a world power lifting champion, author and fitness expert who resides in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania (www.martygallagher.com)
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“They are the absolute finest exercise I’ve come across for building the triceps; they also infuse the pectorals and the front deltoids if they’re done correctly. The reason dips are so important is that they are compound multi-joint prime movers that require groups of muscles to work together in coordinated synchronization. They give you integrated power as opposed to isolation power. I love dips. They’re one of the few resistance exercises I advocate.”
The most familiar and commonly executed dips are parallel dips and tricep dips.
Parallel dips require bars; tricep dips can be done from a chair or bench. In both cases the motion is the same, you move straight up and down like a piston.
Gallagher identifies two distinct ways of performing dips: The first and most common is to lower yourself until your upper arms are parallel to the floor, hold and then push back up—this is strictly a tricep muscle builder.
The second and far more difficult technique involves a deeper drop, as far as you can possibly go. By employing a more exaggerated range of motion you exercise the pectoral muscles as well as the triceps.
“You have to be a fairly advanced trainee to do dips well,” says Gallagher, “but once you’re able to, they’re magnificent.”
Poor technique can cause injury to the rotator cuff, so it’s important to concentrate on form.
People have a tendency to move their hips forward when doing tricep dips, which increases stress on the shoulder joint.
Keep shoulders aligned over the top of your hips. Monitor your elbows, which may flare to the side. You want them pointing backwards.
Personal trainer Steven Oberfest, owner of Underdog Fitness in New York City (www.underdogfitness.com) emphasizes the need for proper technique:
“You can put all the weight in the world on your waist and hips, making it harder and harder, but unless your alignment is proper, you’re not doing anything more than just stretching your front deltoids. When you sit down on the bench you should be seated with your thumbs almost beneath your butt. Your fingers should be facing forward, and your elbows pointing straight back. When you look at someone doing a tricep dip properly, you’ll see they’re going directly up and directly down. As soon as your butt leaves the bench you’re stretching out your front deltoid. You want to be connected to the bench. It’s elevation and depression, no forwards, no backwards, just straight up and down.”
Once technique is mastered the true nature of dips becomes apparent—they’re extremely challenging, especially parallel-bar dips.
Oberfest warns that you may be incapable of executing more than a couple of dips in the beginning.
He advises you advance by degrees, reaching only a quarter of the way down for the first week, and then gradually dropping farther down until finally positioning biceps parallel to the floor.
Dips Stick
Dips call for very precise movements, but that doesn’t preclude variation. Work more muscles with the following exercises:
- Chest Dips. Simply lean your body forward while doing a parallel-bar dip. Upright positioning puts the stress where it belongs, on the triceps. The transfer of body weight from the shoulder to the triceps will humble all but the fittest. All the same rules apply, a straight back and elbows close to the body, shoulders over top of the hips, but the torso is positioned on an angle.
- Dipping Belt. Increase resistance by suspending weight plates from your waist. Use for parallel-bar dips.
- Dip Machine. Exercises are performed from a seated position. No upward or downward body movement. Motion is restricted to arms only, while grasping the handles of parallel bars. Enables you to select the level of resistance you want, instead of relying on your body weight.
- Power Rings. If you really feel the need to challenge yourself try dips on this gymnastic apparatus.
Individual personal trainers have their own specific reasons for recommending tricep dips.
In the case of Calgary, Alberta fitness pro Michelle Cederberg, who also doubles as a motivational speaker (www.liveoutloud.ca), it’s the exercise’s functionality that appeals most:
“Tricep dips are a good quick way to get muscle burn. They’re functional and beneficial.”
And difficult to perform, so if you’re not capable of doing them from a raised position, Cederberg suggests you begin seated on the floor.
The rudiments of a floor tricep dip are the same as those used with a chair: Body weight is concentrated on the arms; keep your back tall, and elbows in.
“Tricep dips have a lot of application to our daily routine,” says Cederberg. “When we lift ourselves from a chair or lower ourselves into a hot tub, we are essentially doing a tricep dip. They conform well to every day living.”
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