Old Forum Can Parallel Bar Dips give Drooping, breast-like pecs? Pavel?

[NonStop]

Hi all,

I posted this over on dragondoor a long while ago, but never heard from Pavel himself his thoughts.

After having read in Beyond Bodybuilding how decline bench pressing (and potentially even flat bench press) can lead to dropping, breast-like pecs, I was wondering whether doing dips (on parallel bars) could lead to the same problem, as they primarily work the lower part of the pecs?

I ask as have been thinking of making dips a staple on my program alongside overhead pressing, but don't care to start work on doing lots of other presses just to make sure I don't get droopy pecs. I know that a lot of gymnasts out there who do lots of dips who don't have said problem, but they also train their pecs through a lot of different ranges of motion (levers etc).

So can a program of dips and overhead presses eventually lead to droopy pecs like decline presses? Or is a surefire way of avoiding such problems is to skip dips altogether? Thanks in advance!

 

[Stefan]

Hello NonStop,

Don't worry so much about it. I've done a lot of dips in the past as my main pressing movement, working up to 150% for reps, and I've never had any such problems.

Good luck.

 

[NonStop]

Thanks for the reply, I'd like to think you're right. I love it as an exercise simply as you need so little equipment compared to say the bench press. I do wonder as to whether it is a movement best trained with lighter weights though.

 

 

[Pavel]

NonStop, if you are overweight, possibly.  Otherwise, extremely unlikely.

 

[NonStop]

Thank you Pavel, excellent news to hear