Dips are a compound exercise for the:
- Triceps
- Shoulders
- Chest
In THT, we will perform them with parallel bars and also lean forward to really bring the chest into play. Furthermore, once you get past a certain level of strength you need to add weight in order to progressively overload the muscle and keep growing.
So this is a specific variation on the dip that we want to use in our THT workout.
How To Do Weighted Dips
If you require more weight than your body provides to reach positive failure before 90 seconds, add this before you start. The most common method is the belt and chain, but you could always throw a plate or 2 into a backpack and wear it.
* Most gyms have a dip station but parallel bars that are about shoulder-width apart will work also.
* The starting position is with your arm fully extended, knees flexed and feet crossed.
* Lower yourself under muscular control.
* In order to involve the pecs more, lean forward as you lower your body
*Again, in an effort to really hit the chest, bring your body to a point where your upper arms are BELOW parallel to the floor. However, you shouldn’t go really deep as this can cause injury.
* Push back up to a point of locking out of the elbows but do not hold in this position. There is no real Peak Contraction Point in Dips because locking out transfers the load to the skeleton to a large degree.
* In this exercise, simply keep the movements continuous and under muscular control.
* Personally, I like to finish this movement on a negative. Most people (even those that train to failure) will finish dips at the top of the rep. My advice is to go to positive failure then lower yourself once more slowly. At the bottom, simply let your feet touch the floor and stand up. Why? The negative portion of the rep contributes more to growth stimulation than the positive, why not have 1 extra? So end on a negative.
Stay Motivated!
Mark
P.S. I did shoot a vid for this one but because I use improvised equipment for dips, it looked terrible on camera.
