Chest Dips: Form, Benefits, Variations, What to Avoid

The chest dip is a common exercise that targets the chest, shoulders, and triceps. The chest is one of the most trained muscles in the body. Your pecs help stabilize the shoulder joint and impact posture and breathing. It’s important to understand how to perform the chest dip and how to maximize the benefits. Here’s what you need to know.

How to Perform the Chest Dip

The chest dip exercise is generally executed with a dip bar, although there are other dip exercise variations. 

With your body in between two bars, place both hands on the dip bar. Position your body so that your feet are off the ground and arms are straight. Begin the chest dip by bending at the elbows and lowering your body down. Maintain a slight forward lean to emphasize the strain on your chest. Keep your core engaged and press your body back up to the starting position. 

Many clients avoid adding chest dips to their workout plan because they’re heard that dips could be bad for their shoulders. However, if you focus on performing the chest dip with proper form and build your strength then you shouldn’t have any shoulder issues.

Try these shoulder exercises to reduce injury.

Muscles Worked During the Chest Dip

The pectoralis major and minor are the main muscles targeted with a chest dip. The pectoralis major makes up most of the chest. The pectoralis minor is located under the pectoralis major. 

The chest dip works more than just your chest muscles though. This bodyweight upper body exercise targets the chest, triceps, shoulders and back. Each variation will target different muscles more than others. For example, the bench dips will target more of the triceps because of the body position. The straight bar chest dips will target more of the chest, shoulders and upper back.

The shoulder muscles targeted are the anterior deltoids. The back muscles targeted include the trapezius, rhomboids and lats. The triceps brachii and teres major are also targeted. 

Benefits of the Chest Dip 

The chest dip exercise builds strength and muscle mainly in pushing muscle groups. These include chest, triceps and shoulders. They are a great exercise for increasing total upper body strength. The chest dip targets multiple muscle groups at once, making it a compound movement for the chest muscle.

Not only are dips great for working the entire upper body, but they are also effective at building muscle mass. In addition to these well known benefits, you can also use dips to build core strength and grip strength. They can be included in all exercise routines. 

Take a look at push/pull workouts so you can plan your next workout routine. 

Chest Dip Variations

The dip exercise can be modified based on fitness level and goals. Novice clients can use a modified bodyweight dip or assisted dips. Advanced clients seeking more of a challenge can use a dip belt for extra resistance or weighted chest dips. 

Different pieces of equipment can be used to perform dips, like a bench, box, dip bar or dip machine. These could result in a tricep dip. This depends on the dip alternative and different muscles that might be targeted.

Here are four popular dip alternatives:

1. Bench Triceps Dips: If you’re a personal trainer with a novice client, this is a great variation to begin with. It will target the chest, but also more of the triceps. Start by sitting on a bench and placing your hands on the outside of your thighs. Walk your feet out, lift your body off the bench and extend your legs. Lower your body down by bending at your elbows and press back up.

2. Assisted Dip Machine: If your personal training client is ready to work up to a full chest dip without assistance, the dip machine is great. The machine allows clients to perform regular chest bar dips without having to move their entire bodyweight. This allows them to build up strength to perform a full unassisted dip.

3. Negative Dips: Performing negative dips are a great way to increase strength and mobility. Clients should start in the top position and slowly lower down. Then jump back up to the top position and repeat. 

4. Straight Bar Dips: Start the dip by lowering your body down until your upper arm is parallel to the ground. Then press back up to the starting position. 

It is important to try different dip variations to find the best one for your client. Keep in mind most clients starting out will need to start with assistance and work up to regular dips using the negative dip variation. 

What to Avoid When Performing Chest Dips

Just like any exercise, chest dips should be performed with proper form and technique. This will optimize results and minimize the risk of injury. The most common mistakes during dips are going too low, not going low enough, leaning back, and going too fast.

Oftentimes, clients will start doing dips before they can actually do dips. This leads to incorrect form, injury and lack of results. Some clients will go too far down, putting excessive strain on the chest and shoulders. While other clients will not go down far enough due to lack of strength.

To get the most out of chest dips and avoid injury, focus on building that foundation of strength before doing them unassisted. Then be sure to have a slight forward lean when performing dips to emphasize the stress on your chest and less on the shoulders. Start your client out building strength with a variation of dips they can perform without compromising form. Then work up to the full straight bar chest dip.

Increase Your Expertise

Check out ISSA’s Personal Trainer course to learn how to design a workout program for your client. Expect to learn how to help your clients gain strength and build muscle based on their fitness level.