dips

[dawong]

FIRST POST!

my question:

ive heard when you lean forward on dips it will hit your chest muscles more. but will taking a wider grip on dips w/o leaning foward hit the chest muscles the same?
which one is more effective?

and also how bad is it on your shoulders to do dips?

[JoshDunn]

not sure on how bad it for your shoulders but if done right there usually isn't any problems.

i do dips but the bars are pretty wide so it does chest and i can't hit the tri's

not sure what its like on narrow bars

sorry can't help

[quaribc]

if you do dips, then you really don't need to work your shoulder. with proper load dips can actually work your shoulder as equal if not greater than direct shoulder work.

also, dips works your traps as well. if you look at the basic motion of the dip, then you can see that it's the same motion your traps move when doing shrugs. at least it is true for me.

as far as chest work. you have it correct. leaning forward and having wider grip works your chest more. working with intense load can actually be more effective then bench. besides, dips are excellent upper body, workout. my favorite.

[Newlife]

wait a minute. When you shrug, you pull the weight upward, we you Dip, you press the weight downward. How can they work the same muscles?

[quaribc]

sorry it's not the same motion, but you do work the same muscle groups.

[Matthew]

im not sure of the explanation behind it, but i find that it works my shoulder and traps too. plus if you go to http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/.../ASTriDip.html it says that the traps are stabilizers, and dips also work some other muscles in the upper back/neck area. newlife, i noticed you said that when you dip you press the weight downward.. i agree with that, but then i dont understand how a dip can be called a horizontal movement. ive asked this before in this forum but i never got an answer. do you know why it isnt a vertical movement?