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Bodyweight School Me on Dips?

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Wyanokie

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Training background: 50 years old, 5'11", 178 lb, lean and trying to continue building strength and muscle. No existing shoulder injuries at this time. Years ago had shoulder impingement and AC joint injuries, as well as partial tear in bicep tendon but these are all history with nothing currently bothering me.

A coach programmed dips 2x/week for me (Mon and Thurs) with 3 sets each day (autoregulated but expected to add a rep or two regularly as I progress). I've been doing them for a few weeks so far, no major issues but am feeling a little residual stress in the joints. I haven't done dips in 10 years and realized that when I did them years ago, I didn't pay too much attention to technique, just powered through them without thinking. I'd like to include dips because they allow me to work in another plane of movement but don't want to do anything that unnecessarily creates excessive risk. For the record I realize that every exercise carries risk of injury, but want to be clear on how much risk vs. how much benefit I'll get from them.

My questions:

1) I've been doing lots of overhead pressing over the years, with some horizontal pushing in the way of pushups and dumbbell bench press, with no issues. Are dips worthwhile to round things out, or are they unnecessarily risky for 50+ crowd (or just outright unnecessary)?

2) If dips are a yea, are there any technical pointers you can offer to minimize risk?

Thanks,

-W
 
I'm 52 and I do a lot of overhead work (snatches, jerks, overhead squats, presses, push presses) and I do dips about once a week.

They don't cause me any issues.

But they're also not a "must do" exercise.

Pavel likes them and apparently also does them as an "man of a certain age", but also admits they're not for everyone.

As for technique pointers, I wouldn't be saying anything you can't already find in a dozen other sources on the internet.
 
watchnerd said:
As for technique pointers, I wouldn't be saying anything you can't already find in a dozen other sources on the internet.
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Thank you for the input @watchnerd , also regarding the above, I do agree with this but found some of the info on the net to be contradictory in terms of leaning, elbow position etc. I'll continue to cross-reference.
TobyC said:
I like dips, but find that a lot of parallel dip bars are too far apart for me, and hurt my shoulders. I find either the tapered dip bars or ring dips to be more shoulder friendly
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Yes I've found that too. The best dip bars at my gym are actually on the assisted dip machine, I just fold the platform down so I'm doing them without the assistance. The other bars are too far apart.
 
Wyanokie said:
Thank you for the input @watchnerd , also regarding the above, I do agree with this but found some of the info on the net to be contradictory in terms of leaning, elbow position etc. I'll continue to cross-reference.
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It's contradictory because individual anthropometry and the shape of the dip station matters.

Don't get hung up on chest vs triceps dips. All dips work both, and if you're not a body builder, you don't need to hyper optimizing for one vs the other.

Generally, more forward lean is more chest, and vice versa for triceps, but that's secondary to whatever is comfortable.
 
i.e. you have to try things out for yourself, your body, and your equipment and fine what works for you
 
For whatever reason, the thicker the bars on the dip handles the less cranky my shoulders are about it regardless of width.

Ring dips are king of dips tho, easily adjusted and you get the stabilization down pretty quick.
 
I do DIPS on crossfit RINGS. That way you can adjust the width and the hand position will just go where it wants. But they are more difficult because of the instability. I'm no spring chicken so I warm up with pushups before doing Dips.
 
This guy might be the most hated trainer on the internet, but the way he does dips has made them a productive, pain-free exercise for me;



I noticed bar dips always felt pretty good for me, but never realized I should do all dips as though I'm on a bar. It feels good.
 
Another 50+ year old with a history of shoulder problems (rotator cuff, AC joint, etc), fortunately in the rear-view mirror as well. I have a tip that helped me do dips pain-free going on 5 years now. Get up on the dips bars, then push your chest as far-forward, and shoulders as far back, as is reasonably possible. Lean forward (20-30 degrees?), then perform your dips. I do dips, sometimes with weighted, several times a week without any pain.
 


With this technique, 47 year old stiff untrained sedentary guy went from barely holding myself to 7 legit dips, without any injury, despite the problems in my left shoulder. And I was stupid enough to go to technical failure all the time since I did not know SF yet back then.

That experience, although I was scared of dips and found them intimidating in beginning, made dips as a “safe” exercise in my mind.

Trying to go failure, or not watching the SF stop signs are the cause of all my injuries so far. But not with dips.

I was able to tear my meniscus not once but twice and had an operation with bodyweight box deep single leg squats and then after the operation. I thought ground work is safe to go to failure, and while doing stupid Monkey walks, I have managed to tear it again. If you train to failure you can hurt your self with any exercise…. Follow SF principles to stay injury free as much as possible.
 
Another vote for Red Delta Project dip videos here.

RDP's advice works great with suspension trainer/rings, which is easier on the joints than a straight bar or even parallel bars. For my shoulder and elbow issues, keeping my thumbs out in particular works great, combined with the RDP cues - shoulders rolled back, lats and other back muscles engaged, etc.

As for whether they're worth doing if you're already pressing overhead and doing pushups - hard to say. I do dips as part of Easy Muscle, Schedule C, and this schedule is for people like me who are uncomfortable with overhead pressing, whether it's because of a shoulder issue or other problem. I guess it depends on your training goals. I notice several respected coaches include dips in programs focusing on hypertrophy or GPP. If the priority is strength over hypertrophy, I've seen some argue that barbell bench press or progressing from pushups to planche pushups would give you free gains on your dip performance.
 
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65yrs 183lb 6’
I am a dip (no joke) but I also enjoy doing them. I have been doing dips and chins constantly for 8 yrs. Only 2yrs with kettlebells. Recently I asked a popular bodyweight YouTuber what I should do for the medial head. He said forget about ‘em and then said he has never seen someone who was good at chins and dips lack shoulder development.
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This is MY list of thoughts concerning dips.

1. Squeeze shoulder blades together grab the bars a walk in until you feel the shoulders load up. It’s the back stabilizes the shoulders and prevents the shoulders from flaring you don’t want to flare the shoulders. Sometimes you can get a pump in your traps and that’s a good thing. Do not force someone’s method or mine on your anatomy everyone is different.

2. The above Seedman video is good but I do them vertically with a straight torso. Either version hits chest, delt’s and tri’s. I do not recommend straight bar (muscle up) dips.

3. I do not recommend weighted dips (yes Marvin Eder did dips with 400lbs and some young people and power lifters do them) especially if your over 50. There a better exercises if you want size, strength or both.

4. Don’t be a rep chaser it’s better to do clusters of 3’s, 4’s or 5’s . . every rep should be a perfect rep.

5. Dips are good to superset with chin ups for time, say 50/50 reps in 30 minutes. They also sometimes (for me) allow for easy recovery and don’t get in the way to much if I want to press “light” load the next day.

Final thought if all you ever did was dips and chins you would have a pretty snappy upper body but with kettlebells or barbells you can get bigger, stronger or both.
 
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Used to do them with Incline Presses and found them pretty effective. I used to do one set to near failure, then follow it with 2 sets at half that amount... minimal rest. Very time efficient.
 
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