If you want to step up your upper body workouts and improve strength and muscle development, dips may be your new favorite. Recent data has shown that dips and advanced dip variations can provide more benefits than traditional bench pressing. Keep reading to see why this might be the workout you’ve been looking for, and how it can improve your physical health.
1. Comprehensive Upper Body Engagement
Dips don’t just benefit one muscle group. The exercise targets several, including the chest, shoulders, triceps, and even stabilizing muscles in the core and upper back. This way, you can enjoy a rounded out workout that improves several muscles and doesn’t overuse one in each rep. Bench presses, on the other hand, often rely on stable back support instead of using a combined effort of muscles to complete the task.
2. Enhanced Shoulder Health
Shoulder health is more important than you think, and it is a major joint in the body. By doing dips, you can increase scapular control and shoulder stability. When applying these strengths to other workouts, mobility exercises, or overall health, they can help reduce injury risk. The risk could come from improper pressing or other strenuous shoulder workouts.
3. Optimized Chest Activation
When doing dips, to get the most out of each movement, make sure to adjust your grip and body positioning to engage the chest muscles. For instance, using an inverted grip moves the elbows just enough to increase the stretch and contraction of the pectorals. Plus, if you add in a 45-degree body angle, it reduces shoulder strain and boosts chest usage. The exercise is transformed into a workout for both arms and chest.
4. Versatile Progression Options
If you want to start adding dips to your workout, the best way to do so is through progression workouts. You will want to start with foundational push-ups, then upgrade to deficit push-ups, and finally graduate to assisted dips. Instead of diving fully into the workout, a more gradual approach ensures you’ll do the workout correctly and safely. Plus, you can add weighted belts or vests when the difficulty is no longer there with regular dips.
5. Improved Functional Strength
While some workouts can help build muscle quickly, sometimes they aren’t very transferable into everyday life. Unlike bench presses, dips provide a greater range of motion and muscle recruitment. By engaging several muscle groups, including stabilizers in the back and core, the training can translate to real-life movement. So, once you start doing dips, you may see an improvement in overall coordination and perception of your body’s movements.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, dips can offer a lot of health benefits to those willing to give them a try. They provide better development and preserve your body’s health better than bench press exercises, and can be customized to fit any level of difficulty. Starting with the basics and moving to advanced techniques like the Gironda dip, you can improve strength, muscle growth, and mobility all in one go. So what are you waiting for? Try some dips now!