Tricep dips: Benefits, tips, technique, precautions

While the exercise remains the same, two different techniques employed helps in putting more pressure on either the chest or the triceps.

• Chest dip: Parallel bar
• Triceps dip: Parallel bar or between the bench

The tricep dip is a thorough bodyweight exercise that can be added to a workout without the use of any additional weights, or even play a part in a usual workout in the gym as well, and has several benefits.

• Compound exercise: A compound exercise lets you train multiple muscles at the same time. The tricep dip works almost all of the upper body muscles as it strengthens the muscles in the shoulders, chest as well as triceps.
• Solid chest workout: Leaning the upper body forward while doing the tricep dip targets the chest muscles unlike any other exercise as it is surprisingly effective and efficient. You don't need to do hundreds of bench presses to develop your chest muscles; the triceps dips is an excellent exercise for this purpose.
• Defined triceps and shoulders: The bodyweight resistance created by this exercise with the help of only the arms directly impacts the shoulders as well as the triceps. The triceps are impacted even more when the movement is performed by keeping the body straight and directly over the arms.
• Functional strength: The tricep dips is extremely useful for building overall strength as it trains your body to perform other athletic exercises like push-ups, pull-ups as well as farmer walks.

Warm-up your body before performing strenuous exercises as it helps increase the body temperature and loosens up the muscles. Performing any intense exercise straightaway can lead to injuries like muscle strains and cramps. Stretching exercises for the chest by extending your arms, lateral raises, shoulder rotations and stretching the arms.

Muscles worked

• Primary: Chest, shoulders and triceps
• Secondary: Abs and back

Equipment required

• Parallel bars shoulder-width apart
• A bench or two benches, if available

Intensity

• Intermediate (trainee)

Sets and reps

• 3 sets of 10-15 reps each

Technique (on a bench)

• Plant your both palms on the edge of a park bench or in the gym behind your body and feet on the floor, with the knees almost straight.
• Slowly bend your elbows to lower your body as much as you can, keeping the back straight and heels planted.
• Lift yourself up with a powerful movement until your elbows are fully straightened. This is one rep.

Tip: This movement specifically trains the triceps muscle and is a simpler technique to begin with. Once you have gained enough strength, you can proceed to performing this exercise on parallel bars.

Technique (for chest)

• Grasp the parallel bars and straighten your arms to lift yourself off the ground. You can tuck your legs in by folding the knees behind you.
• Lean your upper body forward and start lowering your body by bending the elbows.
• Ensure your elbows are slightly behind your shoulder blades.
• Go as low as your arms would allow. 
• Lift yourself back up until your elbows are straightened. This is one rep.

Tips: Try to lean forward as much as you can to target your chest muscles. This will also help take the pressure off the triceps and shoulders, and focus more on the chest.

Technique (for triceps)

• Assume a similar stance as that of a chest dip, but without leaning forward.
• Keep your body straight and lower yourself as far as you can.
• Lift yourself back up by straightening the elbows. This is one rep.

​Tip: Lifting your entire bodyweight with just the help of your arms isn't the simplest movement. Some gyms also have assisted machines for pull-ups and tricep dips, where you can also start by adding some external resistance to help you get accustomed to the movement.

As a bodyweight exercise, the tricep dip is a tough movement for many to master it early on. Along with pull-ups, tricep dips are amongst the hardest bodyweight exercises to perfect. To avoid workout injuries do ensure:

• To keep the elbows close to the body: The entire movement depends on your elbow joints, and allowing them to flare outwards can make the movement easier, but it will not impact the muscles you want to target.
• Avoid half-reps: Half-reps is an easy way out without making the most of the movement. Try to perform full-motion reps as much as you can. This will give you the desired results and quickly at that.
• Stabilise the body: Swinging in order to complete the full range of movement, one can injure their elbows or cause other injuries. It is important to complete the full range of motion, but by following the correct technique and form.
• Take it slow: Slow repetitions lead to better results as it ensures proper contraction and stretching in the muscles.

Parallel bars may not be available in every gym to be able to perform tricep dips with ease, or you may not have access to one even in a park, but one can definitely continue training their triceps and chest muscles by doing the following exercises:

• Push-ups
• Flat bench press
• Cable cross-over
• Tricep kickbacks