Are Dips enough to build and maintain chest and triceps?

[FromNYC]

What's going on everybody. My exercise program consist of mostly bodyweight exercise and a little free weights for biceps and squats. Since a kid i did push ups so my chest is quite develop. My goal isn't to get a bigger chest but to maintain or get it more lean and at the same time develop my triceps more. Are 3 sets of 10 reps of dips good enough to get a good chest and tricep workout? thanks

[Heisman2]

This doesn't exactly pertain to what you said, but my bench press has gone WAY up since I started focusing on dips.

[mightymouse37]

What's going on everybody. My exercise program consist of mostly bodyweight exercise and a little free weights for biceps and squats. Since a kid i did push ups so my chest is quite develop. My goal isn't to get a bigger chest but to maintain or get it more lean and at the same time develop my triceps more. Are 3 sets of 10 reps of dips good enough to get a good chest and tricep workout? thanks

If you have access to free weights for squats and curls, why not just use them for every muscle group? I'm kinda confused about that, but nevertheless, here's my two cents:

I think after a while you may need to either bump up the reps, or add some weight, ie w/a dip belt or maybe just somehow hanging a weighted backpack from your legs, or a similar method. Progressive resistance is what's gonna help develop those triceps - you have to force them to grow w/harder and harder workouts. For 3 years in high school I was a gymnast and the only workouts I got were from bodyweight exercises; I grew a heck of a lot and my chest/tri's were became a lot more impressive. As far as hitting the triceps, concentrate on keeping your elbows directly behind you, and keep your body as upright as possible [as opposed to leaning forward w/flared elbows, which will emphasize the chest more].

PS make sure you throw in some push-ups too, and vary them - do decline push-ups, wide-grip, narrow grip [great for the triceps], etc.

[tnubs]

i noticed my bench goin up when i used to do dips too. thing is, i can dip so much more than i can bench. im set up wierd. i can do 200 on dips (me + 45) but i can only max like 170 on bench. and the way the pecs are designed is to push the way a bench would, so im wierddddd. but yea, its a good workout for tricepts, but not really pecs. add a inclined dumbell bench to this and it'll hit both the pecs and the tricepts wonderfully.

[A-rod]

What's going on everybody. My exercise program consist of mostly bodyweight exercise and a little free weights for biceps and squats. Since a kid i did push ups so my chest is quite develop. My goal isn't to get a bigger chest but to maintain or get it more lean and at the same time develop my triceps more. Are 3 sets of 10 reps of dips good enough to get a good chest and tricep workout? thanks

Absolutely, dip (specially weighted) are one of the best exercises you can do for chest and tris.

[SDFlip]

Absolutely, dip (specially weighted) are one of the best exercises you can do for chest and tris.

^^^^

read my sig

[gymratluke]

Absolutely, dip (specially weighted) are one of the best exercises you can do for chest and tris.

AGREED!

[G_Train]

Hell yeah they are. I know what you mean Heisman, my BB bench is making huge gains since i've been doing weighted dips more often. My favourite exercise.

[MrSinister]

garauntee your chest is small, no such thing as not wanting it to get bigger.. u cant build and get leaner, leaner = lower bodyfat.
dips are good for HELPING to build it up, if you are maintaining then you are stagnant and if you're not going forwards then your going backwards. trust me, work on building size and the triceps will come with it.. if your bodyfat is too high and u wanna get definition then yeah cut up but the diet will dictate all that. dips alone tho imo would not maintain a chest in size or strength for very long

[spirit3530]

garauntee your chest is small, no such thing as not wanting it to get bigger.. u cant build and get leaner, leaner = lower bodyfat.
dips are good for HELPING to build it up, if you are maintaining then you are stagnant and if you're not going forwards then your going backwards. trust me, work on building size and the triceps will come with it.. if your bodyfat is too high and u wanna get definition then yeah cut up but the diet will dictate all that. dips alone tho imo would not maintain a chest in size or strength for very long

Agreed


Too big of a chest... useless without pics. No way possible. Tell me you have a huge chest at 8% bodyfat. Dips are great for maintaining and increasing size.

Diet creates a lean body, exercises provide stimulation.

[FromNYC]

damn! i didn't expect all these replies this quick. Thanks.
MrSinister, Believe me when i say my chest is big. It's probably not proffesionaly big but it's bigger than many that I see going to the gym. If anything I would love to get it as lean/cut as possible. my goal is to get rip and lean. I don't want to get that big. I'm only 5'9 and looking to big will make me look shorter. my opinion.
mightymouse37, another reason why I choose not to use free weight for every other body part is because it's time consuming. I do use it for my biceps since it's the body part that needs more work on. I also do pull ups, chin ups, I also do wide, close, and shoulder grip push ups and for my lower body and back I do squats with free weight. I have genetic of looking big as it is, all I want is just to get as lean as possible.

[aiwass]

Unless you want to give the upper chest some special attention (in which case you'd want to do some incline pressing), dips are definitely enough, yes.

[EoR]

For your goals, the answer would be yes.

Try variations on them aswell, like different grip widths, pauses, leaning back [hit tris more] or leaning forward [more emphasis on chest] and so forth.

One of the best upper body exercises you can do tbh

[MassIsAhead]

Dips are the upper body squat

[G_Train]

Dips are the upper body squat

Couldn't have said it better myself

[Dominik]

What's going on everybody. My exercise program consist of mostly bodyweight exercise and a little free weights for biceps and squats. Since a kid i did push ups so my chest is quite develop. My goal isn't to get a bigger chest but to maintain or get it more lean and at the same time develop my triceps more. Are 3 sets of 10 reps of dips good enough to get a good chest and tricep workout? thanks

Unless you've got great chest genetics, I think you'll need to include some incline work for the upper chest. Dips are a fantastic exercise for the tris (my personal favorite) and they'll hit the chest much like decline bench.

[Doenitz79]

I have seen people who can bench their bodyweight for reps and yet can't do more than 5-6 strict full ROM BW dips....

Anyway,read that if your bodyfat is high,you can do resistance exercises(eg. pull downs and benchs) but you can't do BW movements(eg chins and dips)

Why is this so?

[rainman777]

a little off topic but are regular dips and bench dips the same?

[gymratluke]

a little off topic but are regular dips and bench dips the same?

No, regular dips are far superior!

[the_contender]

A little off topic, but I switched my workout routine yesterday to triceps and biceps, as oposed to triceps and chest, and I'm doing dips in my tricep workout. I'm just wondering, is this okay? I made the switch because in the last 8-9 months, I haven't seen much development of my triceps and biceps (probably because they've been overshadowed by back and chest).

So will it lead to overtraining of my chest? When I do dips, I generally feel it alot more in my chest than in my triceps, any way to switch the ratio also?

[G_Train]

I feel dips are very good for OVERALL development, for a long time dips and incline db presses were all I did.

[gymratluke]

A little off topic, but I switched my workout routine yesterday to triceps and biceps, as oposed to triceps and chest, and I'm doing dips in my tricep workout. I'm just wondering, is this okay? I made the switch because in the last 8-9 months, I haven't seen much development of my triceps and biceps (probably because they've been overshadowed by back and chest).

So will it lead to overtraining of my chest? When I do dips, I generally feel it alot more in my chest than in my triceps, any way to switch the ratio also?

Keep your body straight up and down as opposed to leaning forward if you want to target the tri's more then the chest...

[md3sign]

i noticed my bench goin up when i used to do dips too. thing is, i can dip so much more than i can bench. im set up wierd. i can do 200 on dips (me + 45) but i can only max like 170 on bench. and the way the pecs are designed is to push the way a bench would, so im wierddddd. but yea, its a good workout for tricepts, but not really pecs. add a inclined dumbell bench to this and it'll hit both the pecs and the tricepts wonderfully.

That's not really weird. I wouldn't count bodyweight as part of the calculation for weighted dips though. By that token I'd be in the same boat as you. I do 210 for reps on bench and bw + 65 for dips, which is 255 if I count bw. Now if you did dips with bw + 170 and your bench was 170, then I'd say there was something wrong with you

[Dominik]

That's not really weird. I wouldn't count bodyweight as part of the calculation for weighted dips though. By that token I'd be in the same boat as you. I do 210 for reps on bench and bw + 65 for dips, which is 255 if I count bw. Now if you did dips with bw + 170 and your bench was 170, then I'd say there was something wrong with you

A little off topic but I remember we were throwing numbers around here once out of curiosity trying to gauge what people were dipping in relation to their bench press and it's probably close to what you can decline press, give or take a few lbs.

So using your example, the difference is 45lbs and given you could probably press 30lbs or more on decline (or with more of an arch on flat bench), I don't think there would be much of a difference between them.

[SDFlip]

A little off topic but I remember we were throwing numbers around here once out of curiosity trying to gauge what people were dipping in relation to their bench press and it's probably close to what you can decline press, give or take a few lbs.

So using your example, the difference is 45lbs and given you could probably press 30lbs or more on decline (or with more of an arch on flat bench), I don't think there would be much of a difference between them.

i agree.

i was up to bw+100lbs so that would be about 295lbs for 3 reps. but i did flat bench the other day and only got 245*4.... it was my first time doing flat bench in quite awhile so i'm sure once i got the feel for the movement again my bench will be a little closer to my dip numbers

[spirit3530]

A little off topic but I remember we were throwing numbers around here once out of curiosity trying to gauge what people were dipping in relation to their bench press and it's probably close to what you can decline press, give or take a few lbs.

So using your example, the difference is 45lbs and given you could probably press 30lbs or more on decline (or with more of an arch on flat bench), I don't think there would be much of a difference between them.

Interesting theory.

[G_Train]

I see where you're coming from Dom but I don't find it's the case with myself. I might be an exception, but my decline is about 30kg off my weighted dip total. In saying that, I think that dips are one of the best assistance exercises to Flat BB Bench. But then again, with the decline bench it depends on a lot of variables - degree of decline, grip width etc etc - so you're probably right

[FromNYC]

Thanks 4 all the replies. For my chest and tricep workout instead of doing close grip and wide grip I will keeping doing 3 sets of 20 reps of slow shoulder grip push up and then 3 sets of 10 reps of dips. I honestly don't want to get my chest any bigger. All I want is to get it as lean as possible.

[Dominik]

I see where you're coming from Dom but I don't find it's the case with myself. I might be an exception, but my decline is about 30kg off my weighted dip total. In saying that, I think that dips are one of the best assistance exercises to Flat BB Bench. But then again, with the decline bench it depends on a lot of variables - degree of decline, grip width etc etc - so you're probably right

Good point, the decline angle and grip are going to vary so it's not going to be the case for everyone. Even on flat, benching more like a powerlifter with an arch will also bring them a little closer by making it more of a decline press. They still should be reaosnably close. I haven't benched or done decline for a long time so I wouldn't know how they compare for me these days.

To me they're very similar exercises however I like dips a lot more because with decline all the blood is rushing down to your head and it's an awkward position to lift weight from whereas dips are a more natural movement.

[gymratluke]

A little off topic but I remember we were throwing numbers around here once out of curiosity trying to gauge what people were dipping in relation to their bench press and it's probably close to what you can decline press, give or take a few lbs.

So using your example, the difference is 45lbs and given you could probably press 30lbs or more on decline (or with more of an arch on flat bench), I don't think there would be much of a difference between them.

I dont think I can Decline 340 for reps, but I can Dip BW + 140 for atleast 4. I guess if I really worked at it I could Decline 340, i just prefer doing dips...