Chest Dips – The Best Chest Exercise For Men?

Chest Dips – The Best Chest Exercise For Men

The best chest exercises for MEN focus on growing chest muscle as quickly and efficiently as possible and at the same time, widening the chest to give you that unstoppable masculine look.

When it comes to burning chest fat and losing man boobs, while at the same time, growing muscle and sculpting an unstoppable manly chest, chest dips are perhaps the best I've ever known. They're far better than the bench press, pushups, cable crossovers, and dumbbell flys.

I was first convinced about using this exercise when I learned about a guy called Vince Gironda. Now let me tell you a little about Vince. Vince was a bodybuilding legend who was known as the ‘Iron Guru', and known for getting his clients big and ripped in record time.

For 50 years, he trained more champion physique competitors than anyone in the business. He trained some of the most famous bodybuilders, as well as some of the world's best actors and actresses. He was also known to get great results with regular Joes like you and me.

Vince was the “go-to” guy for absolutely anyone who wanted to get into shape. Now you could argue that there were and are plenty of other guys around who know a lot about training, but Vince was different.

Back in the day, Vince came up with a lot of weird and controversial ideas about exercise and nutrition, a lot of people thought he was crazy and avoided taking his advice, or even going to his gym. But what we're finding now, is that new scientific research is showing us that Vince was right all along!

One of Vince's most controversial ideas was that the bench press is a poor exercise for the chest. In fact, he threw out all the benches in his gym and replaced them with dipping stations.

Vince believed that when it comes to developing the chest, the chest dip is a far superior exercise to the bench press, and guess what? Electromyogram (EMG) studies today, reveal that he was right!

Why Chest Dips Are The Best Chest Exercise For Men

If you could do just one chest exercise to carve out a set of pecs that you see on the statue of a Greek god, the Hulk or a mythological beast, it would be chest dips. Not the bench press, not pushups, and certainly not dumbbell flys.

Chest dips work the entire upper body, and really give you that hormonal boost you need to grow muscle, tone your chest and lose those man boobs. They work your arms, your shoulders, your chest and your upper back.

Chest Exercises For Men

Chest dips are a powerful exercise for building a muscular chest. They also work your entire upper body including your back, arms and shoulders.

When it comes to both performance and sculpting your body through muscle-growth and hormonal stimulation, bodyweight exercises always come on top.

This is largely because unlike weight-training, which tends to isolate one particular body-part, bodyweight exercises require you to stabilize your entire body as it moves through space.

When you use your core stabilizers and other muscles throughout your body, not only do you get a bigger testosterone boost from the workout…

…you also lose more fat, and gain a more even distribution of muscle throughout the body, which means better posture, less injuries and a better more attractive appearance.

The testosterone boost you get from activating so many muscle groups, is one reason why chest dips are the most powerful chest exercise for men in particular.

Since most guys rely almost completely on the bench press for building chest muscle, let's discuss…

Why Dips Are FAR Better Than The Bench Press For Building A Hurculean Chest

Disadvantages Of The Bench Press

1. A Poor Exercise For The Chest

Now don’t get me wrong, many bodybuilders DO use the bench press to build some huge muscles. But did you ever stop to think how many people fail with the bench press?

Almost every guy that goes to the gym spends time on the bench press – but how many of these guys end up getting a huge, wide, stone-slab-like chest that gets women weak at the knees?

See, the trouble with the bench press is that it is more an exercise for the front deltoids of your shoulders, than it is an exercise for the chest. EMG studies reveal that the front deltoids receive the same stimulation as the pectoralis major of the chest during the flat bench press.

Deltoids vs. Pectoralis Major

The front deltoids are very small in comparison to the pectoralis major muscle of the chest.

Since the front deltoids in your shoulders are tiny compared to the huge pectoralis major muscle in your chest, during the bench press your shoulders will fatigue way before your chest even starts to get a proper workout.

So you will end your workout before fully involving your chest.

2. The Most Common Cause Of Shoulder Injuries In The Gym

Due to the rising popularity of the bench press, rotator cuff surgery is at an all time high.

The bench press places too much strain on the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulders, and very commonly leads to injury, damage and wear & tear of the rotator cuff over time.

For this reason, the bench press is widely reported as being the most common cause of shoulder injuries in the gym.

3. Kills Shoulder Flexibility, Leading To More Injuries

The bench press puts massive strain on your shoulders, which makes your rotator cuff muscles tighter and tighter over time.

The first sign of this is when you start to find it difficult to reach behind your back as if to do up a bra (not that I have ever tried one on, but you know what I mean ;) ).

Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t having big muscles that makes you inflexible, but rather, incorrect training. If you have read ‘Stretching Scientifically’ by Thomas Kurz, you’ll know that big muscles actually make you MORE flexible.

4. Torn Pecs (Pectoralis Major Rupture)

Yet another common injury with the bench press. Here’s a video of a guy tearing his left pec during a set of bench presses. Warning: this video is NOT for the faint hearted.

Pec tear on bench press not for the faint hearted.

Watch as this guy tears his left pec with the bench press… Youuch!

With this injury, the tendon that attaches your pectoralis major muscle to your upper arm bone, is torn right off the bone. It can be extremely painful and in most cases requires surgical repair. It will take many months before you are lifting anything again.

Advantages Of Dips For Developing The Chest

1. Faster And Better Development Of The Chest

When doing dips, you are moving your arms in a downward motion. This downward motion ensures that you bypass the shoulders and isolate the chest muscles far better than any other compound exercise for the chest.

Although your shoulders are still involved to a large extent and get an excellent workout, they are not as engaged and overloaded as they are during the bench press.

Studies have shown that the deltoids are much less involved during the decline bench press, compared to the horizontal bench press.

Since chest dips are the bodyweight version of an extreme decline bench press, this means that dips put more focus on the chest than on the shoulders compared to the bench press.

2. Wider Chest Development

I’ve seen guys with 6-pack abs who look like scrawny wimps when they have a shirt on. The key to looking like an unstoppable alpha-male is to work on widening that upper body, namely your chest and upper back.

Chest dips performed with a wide grip and the elbows flared to the sides, target the outer chest better than pushups, bench presses, or any other exercise. In doing so, they give you that huge, wide chest that resembles a set of stone slabs set on your chest sideways.

Wide Chest

Chest dips give you wider chest development than the bench press.

Developing a wide chest is yet another reason why chest dips are the best chest exercise for men.

3. Increased Shoulder Flexibility

At the bottom of the movement your shoulder muscles are both strengthened and stretched, giving you improved flexibility.

Do be careful however, since if you already have inflexible and/or weak shoulders, you can still suffer shoulder injuries while doing dips, especially with weighted dips.

The key is to only go as low as you feel comfortable. Over time, your shoulders will get stronger and you'll be able to descend write the way down, thereby fully stretching those pecs.

4. Dips Are Functional – They Give You Strength That You Can Use

Dips require you to lift and move your entire body through space. You need to keep your body tight so you maintain your posture, and as a result you not only involve your chest, upper back, shoulders and arms, but also your legs, abdomen and lower back.

It is a true whole-body workout that trains your body to function as a unit as opposed to targeting individual sections of the body.

By working your entire body in this way, dips will help you to lose weight, look better and build strength all round. They will help make you a better athlete, better able to handle yourself in a fight, better able to manage your body weight, and even help you bench more.

5. Hormonal Stimulation – Better For Weight Loss And Man Boob Reduction

Because dips engage your entire body, they result in a greater release of testosterone and growth hormone both during and after the workout. Increased levels of these hormones help to reduce man boobs, burn fat and pack on extra muscle.

How To Do Chest Dips The Right Way

Dips can be modified to focus on the triceps, upper back or chest. Here I will tell you how to do chest dips.

Place your hands on two parallel bars on either side of you.

If you don’t have access to parallel bars, you can also use two tables, or the back-rests of two chairs facing away from each other.

  • Prop yourself up with your arms straight and your elbows locked out.
  • Bend your knees so your feet are behind you. This helps to balance your weight as you lean forward. Leaning forward is necessary to target the chest.

Chest Dips Upper

  • Bending at the elbows, lower your body in a slow and controlled fashion, without ever touching your feet or knees to the ground. Breath in while doing this.
  • Stop when your shoulders are level with your elbows, then while breathing out, slowly raise yourself back up to the starting position.
  • Repeat steps 3-4, always making sure to maintain good posture and a forward-leaning position.

Chest Dips Lower

In case that ain't clear enough, check out the following video:

Blast Away Chest Fat With Chest Dips

Incorporating Dips Into Your Training

Changing The Resistance

The only real problem with bodyweight exercises is unlike with weights it isn't easy to change the level of resistance. But not being easy doesn't mean it's impossible. All you need is a little creativity and you can change the resistance all you like.

If you're not accustomed to training, or you are a little on the heavy side, you may find it difficult to perform even one repetition of dips. If this is the case with you, then all is not lost since there are many things you can do to work around the problem.

This includes getting someone to help you, letting your feet touch the ground and aiding the lift with your legs, doing static holds at the top position or doing partial reps and negative reps to condition yourself until you are strong enough to do full reps.

If you find dips to be too easy, you can do weighted dips by wearing a backpack and throwing some weight plates into it, or using a weight belt with weights hanging off it, holding a weight plate between your knees, or getting your buddy to jump on your back.

Combining Dips With Other Exercises

If you just did dips and nothing else, your chest and upper body would look phenomenal. You will however get better results if you combine dips with other exercises that target different portions of your chest – like incline and decline pushups and, in the gym, cable crossovers and the pec dec.

Muscular Back

If you are working on your chest, it's also important to work on your upper back for good posture, symmetry and that wider look.

In order to get that truly wide, masculine and unstoppable upper body physique, it's important also to do upper back exercises like bent-over rows, pullups and lat pulldowns.

If you only worked out your chest, your shoulders would be pulled forward in a hunched position. If on the other hand you work out your chest and upper back equally, your shoulders will be in a neutral position in the middle and to the sides, giving you a wider appearance.

It is also important to throw some whole-body training and leg training into the mix, to help get rid of those overlying layers of fat.

Dips may be a good exercise for building muscle and burning fat, but it is well known that nothing gets rid of excess fat than whole-body training and a good diet.

“Won't Dips Make Your Man Boobs Stick Out?”

I'm yet to see this happen. It is theoretically possible that in a minority of guys, dips will stimulate more of the lower chest than the upper chest.

However, EMG studies have shown that, surprisingly enough, the decline bench press stimulates the upper portion of the pectoralis major muscle, better than it does the lower.

I'm willing to bet that dips (again, dips being like an extreme decline bench press) stimulate the upper chest just as well as the lower, since all of my clients who only do dips, end up getting perfectly even chest development.

But hey, EMG studies also show that the incline bench press does isolate the upper chest more, so if you are for whatever reason, afraid that your lower chest will get bigger and your man boobs will stick out if you do dips, then you can always do both dips and incline presses to even things out.

How To Use Dips To Get Rid Of Man Boobs

Dips can help you build a powerful chest, but when it comes to losing man boobs, dips are just one piece of the puzzle.

Man boobs are caused by a hormonal imbalance–too much of the female hormone estrogen and too little of the male hormone testosterone.

Though dips help do boost testosterone levels, you'll see far better results if you combine dips with other powerful exercises as part of a whole body training system.

The following link will take you to a free video where I reveal some unusual methods you can use to get rid of your man boobs:

Click Here To Watch A Free Video On How To Lose Man Boobs Naturally

340 thoughts on “Chest Dips – The Best Chest Exercise For Men?”

  1. Great article. Great dip instructions. Bought a dip stand and try to do dips 3-5 days a week. Been doing it for over six months now . I can’t do the dips without using a wide resistance band for assistance. I guess my shoulders aren’t strong enough.  I do 4 sets to failure. I work with weights twice a week (mostly db presses, flyes and cable crossovers). When will I be able to do chest dips without the resistance band helping me?  My chest is really sculpting nicely.
     
     

    Reply
    • Keep at it Wally, your chest and shoulders will eventually strengthen to the point where you no longer need those resistance bands to help you (how are you using these bands by the way?).

      Another thing you could do is to do full body-weight partial reps without resistance bands, where you start at the top position with your elbows fully extended, and only descend by say an inch or two. Do this over multiple reps and sets, and over time you’ll be able to descend more and more. Eventually you’ll be doing full dips, and wondering why you found it difficult when you started. This is how I personally got started with dips.

      Reply
      • Thanks for the tip Garry . I’ll certainly try it and let you know how I’m doing.  I was using a 5 inch wide fitness gear resistance band draped over the top of the dip stand. I’d put my knees on it to help me lower and  raise myself.

        Reply
  2. I got to this article as a link within another article. You said in this one that the bench press isn’t optimal, but in another article you said the neck press is a great chest exercise. Would I be correct in saying that combining Gironda’s neck press (to replace my regular flat bench press) with chest dips would be a great start to building and sculpting my chest? What else could I add to compliment these two?

    Reply
  3. I have been following your recommended diet and starting to see results. However I do have some concerns about a exsisting injury. I tore my left major Pectoral back in 2005. I manage to still lift weights, however the left side fatguies very quick. therefore do you still recommend I do dips, and other chest exercises? 

    Reply
    • Hi Jeremy

      If you tore your pec in the past, I highly suggest you work closely with a physical therapist to help identify the exercises that are best for you. If you do decide to do chest exercises, then be sure to start with a light weight and to build up gradually. I wouldn’t advise you to start with dips, because it’s difficult to reduce the weight to anything lower than your body weight.

      Reply
  4. I don’t have men booba I simply have a flat chest and I have a hard time getting bigger chest. So far I have been doing bench press and dumell press and I see results bur not as much as I want to while my shoulders and back are making more progress during last year than my chest. Should i do more od dips aswell?probable with some weights? Thank you

    Reply
    • Hi Tiki. Yes, you should most definitely do dips! Be careful about overtraining though. If you do too many exercises for the chest too often, then the muscles of your chest won’t get a chance to grow. Ditch the bench press and do dips instead.

      Let us know how you get on.

      Reply
  5. Your article seems a wonder in body building . I got fat deposition at the lower side of the chest  will this dips help to reduce it … Or is it diet will help me overcome this problem . I live in Bhutan and have ill idea abt  diet. As diet consist of varieties of food which is quite not available in our country. Pls help

    Reply
    • Hi Saroj. Yes, diet is far more important that exercise when it comes to fat reduction. Dips will help to improve the appearance of your chest, despite the overlying fat. Whole-body weight training will better help to reduce the fat than dips.

      Reply
  6. hi Gary,
    Thanks for this article.  I would like to include chest dips in my workout, however, am sort of afraid to do it as I fear my shoulder would give up easily.  If I still have a week shoulder, would using the ‘dip machine’ to assist me in doing chest dips be helpful to start?  Also, I read in another website to have chest dips as workout finisher for chest.  Would that be good?  Thanks.

    Reply
    • Hi Albert, thanks for the comment

      If you have a previous shoulder injury, then I highly advise you work one on one with a qualified professional to make sure you don’t end up doing yourself more harm than good.

      Otherwise if you have normal shoulders, then the best way to acclimatize your shoulders to dips is to do dips. Start by doing partial reps, where you start at the top of the movement and only lower yourself by a few inches. Over time, go lower and lower until you are doing full dips.

      Though the dip machine CAN be helpful, it won’t get you to doing full body-weight dips nearly as quickly as the above method will. With the shoulder press and handstand pushups for example, I was stuck on lifting no more than 85lb on the shoulder press, progressively increasing the weight by half a pound here and there for YEARS! It would be DECADES before I got to the point of being able to lift my body weight at the time of 190 lb…

      So what did I do?

      I started doing partial reps on handstand pushups. Within a few months, I was doing full range of motion handstand pushups, which for me was the equivalent of lifting 190 lb on the shoulder press.

      Regarding the thing about chest dips as a workout finisher… Chest dips are tough, so they are far better as a workout starter.

      Reply
      • Hi Gary,
        Thanks for the immediate reply.  Usually for chest, am only doing dumbbell bench press (inclined and parallel), dumbbell flyes (inclined and parallel), chest press, and flyes using machine.  Am doing 12-15 counts for 3 reps on each.  Would it still be okay to include chest dips?  If not, what routine would be best to complement chest dips?
        Thanks.

        Reply
        • Hi again Albert.

          Sounds like overkill for the chest. Dump all of those exercises and just do chest dips. In the beginning, all you need is one good chest exercise to build good overall mass. Then later, if you want to shape things up by say adding some more upper chest mass, or working the inner pecs for that separation line, or the outer pecs for width, then later you can add in some additional exercises while cutting back to a maintenance level of training with chest dips.

          Reply
  7. Hi Gary!great article!I love dips and only do bodyweight exercises myself to supplement my martial arts!my question is: I do dips with wide grip and I don’t really lean too much forward as I am doing them on two chairs!will I still be hitting a lot of chest and also does this type of dip I do hit the triceps also?also I cross my legs behind me and just come straight up and down!thanks Gary
     

    Reply
    • Hi. Dips will hit your chest no matter how you do them. Leaning forward simply emphasizes the pecs a little more, but it isn’t entirely necessary. All forms of dips also hit your triceps really well.

      It was Arthur Jones that said the following:

      “One of the best pair of arms that I ever saw on a man belonged to a guy that I knew about fifty years ago in New York, and he never performed any sort of exercise apart from chins and dips, and damned few of them.”

      Good going with the body weight exercises to help you with martial arts. Especially dips. I remember when I first started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I was doing dips at the time, and though every opponent I faced was far more advanced than me, they almost all complemented me on my strength.

      Reply
  8. Thanks Gary for the useful article! I’m going to focus on this from now on in order to improve my upper body and chest development. What i’ve been doing all these time was simply doing push-ups but only it shows chest thickening not widening. Now i got good method to widen my chest pretty quickly, i would use it. Thanks man!

    Reply
  9. Nice article! So simple yet results oriented. I have been reading for awhile now how bench press is overrated! I don’t understand why all the Muscle and Fitness and all those body building magazines they tell you to do like like 4 muscle exercise in one session. Like benchpress, then incline, then decline , then dumblell flyes. It’s too much right??

    Reply
    • Hi John, yeh, it’s ridiculous. For many years, I got nowhere by following the advice on these muscle magazines. They love to show you exotic new ways of doing multiple different exercises, simply because it looks sexy, and it sells.

      If you are a beginner or intermediate trainee, you need to find one or two good chest exercises that work well for you, and stick to those exercises until you are happy with the size of your muscle. Then, if you want to shape the pecs by say working on upper pec thickness, or that mid separation line, you can start to add in different exercises that target different portions of the pecs.

      If you start off by doing all the different exercises that hit the pecs (or any other muscle group) from every different direction, then it’ll simply lead to overtraining, too much muscle trauma, and very little (if any) muscle hypertrophy. Your body will expend too many resources on recovery, and have none left for hypertrophy.

      The old classic bodybuilders would spend most of the year doing whole-body workouts, where they use just 1 (maximum 2) exercise per muscle group. It was only just before competition that they would start doing split-routines, where they do multiple different exercises per muscle group, in order to improve the appearance of the muscle by hitting it from all different angles. But it was well known that bodybuilders would lose overall muscle mass during this period.

      Reply
  10. Nice. I am an avid follower of Mike Mentzer and in one of his conferences he discusses the four essential exercises that one needs in order to grow stonger and bigger. The said exercises include squats, deadlifts, pull downs and dips. These four exercises are the only ones I do, sans the pull downs as I have terrible tennis elbow. The only thing is that I have been doing dips with my legs in front of me as I understand it to be better for your spine, I have seen the vids on the strengthcamp youtube channel and I feel that their version works my chest much more than when I have my legs behind me…your thoughts…

    Reply
    • Hey Moso

      I used to be a fan of Mike Mentzer’s HIT, I was allured by the promise that I could just train for a few minutes and get all the muscle growth and fat loss results I wanted. I won’t go into a detailed discussion about it here, but his methods go against all the latest science, and against the way all successful natural bodybuilders of note have trained. They even go against the way he himself trained when he was in his prime.

      Mentzer’s methods are more focused on strength training than they are on hypertrophy training. They are not good for growing muscle, nor are they good for reducing body fat. That’s my opinion anyway :p.

      However, I totally agree about the part on squats, deadlifts, pull downs and dips being essential exercises for mass and strength. I’d like to add a shoulder exercise though. Handstand pushups will really add to your whole-body development.

      Just took a look at the Strength Camp dips video here:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa5BEaQ9T6Y

      Here are my notes on this video:

      1. Firstly, having your legs behind you has no negative impact on the spine that I’m aware of. There is no load on the spine while doing dips, so I don’t know why they even mentioned that.

      Putting your legs in front of you is a good way to increase the focus on the pecs, but you DON’T do it the way the guy did it in that video. You need to put your legs in front of you a lot more, and keep them there throughout the movement. Your legs and torso need to form a V-shape. This is how Vince Gironda advised you do dips, and it’s VERY effective. The only reason I didn’t mention it in this article is because it requires strong abdominal and hip flexor muscles. It’s very difficult for beginners to maintain this position through multiple reps and sets of an already difficult exercise.

      2. Flaring of the elbows is a GOOD thing if your shoulders can handle it. Dips with your elbows flared works your pecs from a much more efficient angle. The same applies to the bench press with elbows flared.

      Flaring your elbows in these exercises puts your shoulders in a week position, and can lead to injury if you overtrain, push yourself too hard, or use too heavy a weight. But just because it leads to injury when you overtrain, doesn’t mean it’s bad for you. The very fact that it puts your shoulders in a weak position, means your shoulders and pecs will become stronger as your body adapts to the exercise.

      Vince Gironda actually advised doing dips on a V-bar, for the sole purpose of flaring your elbows. Here’s an image that demonstrates how it’s done:

      Vince Gironda V-Dips

      Reply
  11. So glad to have found this page. Thank you sir.

    I exercise regularly and I look fit, 40 year old now. I can do handstand push ups – 7 to 8 reps – too even now.
    I work out for chest once in a week, do three sets each of declined, flat and inclined dumbell press, cables and recently also started doing dips at the end. I only do 6 to 8 reps of dumbell press, and 5 -6 reps for dips, thrice. Since I do dips at the end, by then I will be quite tired. I do my sets with least rest too – 15 – 30 sec max. Finish the whole thing in 25 – 40 minutes, depending on the mood.
    My chest is fine, except that I am not happy that I cant see that lower line on the chest. May be my bodytype isnt supposed to have that line?. Do you think, I should start with the dips, doing 3 sets with 10 – 12 reps, before I do anything? Am I over doing?
    I want to thank you for this site.

    Reply
    • Rajesh. It looks like you are overworking the chest. I wouldn’t do any more than two, maximum three, exercises in any one workout. As a beginner, I would advise only one exercise, maybe two. Once you have built the right amount of mass, you can then chisel and shape the muscle using multiple different exercises that target the chest from different angles, but even then you need to be careful about overtraining the same muscle group.

      Secondly, I would highly suggest you do dips as your very first exercise. This is because dips are by far the most challenging, and there is little benefit to be gained from dips if your triceps are already exhausted.

      Thirdly, your rest intervals are too short. There are a lot of texts that suggest a short 30 second rest interval is best for muscle hypertrophy, but in my experience, 30 seconds is too short a time to recover. I’d give it anywhere from 1 to 2 minutes.

      The inability to see the lower line is down to two things: not enough development of the lower pecs, and having excess chest fat. The flat bench press, decline bench press, pushups, and dips are all good for developing the lower chest. To lose chest fat, you need to focus on your diet.

      I discuss all of this in detail in my advance training program, the Chest Sculpting Blueprint. You can learn more about this program here:

      https://chestsculpting.com/how-to-lose-chest-fat/

      Hope this helps.

      Best wishes,
      Garry

      Reply
  12. Sir, Thank you so much for your answer, which is most appreciated.
    I would definitely change certain aspects. I would start with dips and then try declining dumbel press to hit the lower pecs. I had a shoulder injury so, I am quite light on doing inclining press.
    I have to say, I do not have , or have hardly any chest fat. I might have a bit fat only around my navels. My waste is about 28.5 inches, and chest 93 cms.

    Reply
  13. Sir, I have strength to do only 6 or 5 dips max per set. I do 5 sets. So do I do dips 5 days a week instead of 3 times? The other exercise for chest I do is pushups. Do I ditch that and only do dips? Since I only do bodyweight exercise I have no weights or gym access atm. Please advise.

    Reply
    • Hi Moorthy

      The pectoralis major of the chest being predominantly composed of fast-twitch fibers, 5-6 reps per set is actually quite a good range to be in. I generally recommend 3-4 sets of 10 reps for hypertrophy protocols, but with fast-twitch muscles like the muscles of the chest, triceps, and hamstrings for example, lower reps also work very well. In fact, some people find 5 reps for the chest works better for hypertrophy than 10 reps. In the end it’s something you need to experiment with yourself.

      However in your case, since you are not able to do more than 5-6 reps, then it’s perfectly fine to stick to this rep range. As I discuss in the Chest Sculpting Blueprint, rather than try to increase how many reps you do over time, try to use micro-loading by progressively increasing the weight over time. Add say 0.5kg to your dips (by shoving weights into a backpack or wearing a dipping belt) every workout, and eventually you’ll be doing 5 reps with +10kg. Then when you try doing dips with no added weights, you’ll find you can easily do say 8-10 reps.

      Don’t work out 5 days a week, stick to 3 days a week. Ditch the pushups for now. You can bring pushups back into your regimen once you have achieved good development with dips. Pushups will then help shape your chest by attacking it from a different angle.

      Reply
  14. Sir, thanks. The thing about weights rather than reps makes sense. But I have two doubts. Since I have no access to bars, bench, or weights, dips is the only exercise I can do… so do I add pushups at least on days when I am not doing dips?

    Second, I know diet is vital for good abs…but…. if dips can shed fat in chest is there an equivalent of dips that can do the same for abs? Some sort of ab exercise that can melt fat in ab region while also building it, much like chest dips.

    Reply
    • Hi Moorthy

      For now, you don’t need to add pushups. All you need is dips to initially build good chest mass. Once you have a good amount of size, you may then add in pushups and other exercises to better shape the muscle.

      For losing chest fat and abs, diet is crucial, and far more important than any exercise. The reason dips can help reduce chest fat, is because it is a highly compound exercise that involves the entire upper body. This helps to stimulate the metabolism, which helps reduce body fat. The abdominal muscles on the other hand, are a very small muscle group, and no direct ab exercise will help you much in the way of body fat reduction.

      If you want to lose belly fat, focus on your diet, combined with a good whole-body resistance training regimen. At the same time, if you like, you can do separate ab exercises to help grow the abdominal muscles from underneath. But don’t count on these exercises to reduce belly fat.

      I go into detail about abdominal training in my new program, Paleolithic High Intensity Interval Training.

      Reply
  15. Good to see someone finally mention dips as a chest exercise. Everywhere I look people keep saying it works the triceps and that pisses me off. Anyway thanks a lot for the clarification. I used to do dips in the past and had a significant amount of muscle on my pecs. Worked perfectly well at the time before I got serious shoulder injuries (not related to doing dips though).

    I recently decided to start working my chest again with dips but I can’t help but notice a sharp pain in my left clavicle. so I’m forced to stop. Sometimes I’m able to wiggle my clavicle and almost hear it click after doing dips. Can you please tell me what I’m doing wrong? Thank you

    Reply
    • Hi Tolu

      I’m afraid I can’t, without physically examining your shoulder and clavicle. Before you do any more chest exercises, I highly suggest you see your doctor.

      Reply
  16. Hi Garry,
    first want to say thanks for the great article. Having watched a strength camp video where Elliot talks about only needing the 4 exercises of deadlifts/front squats/dips and pull/chin ups to achieve a strong athletic body, I’ve made them my sole gym workout. Researching the dips exercise has brought me to this very informative page. I must say that after only doing dips as my chest exercise for the last few months, I’ve sculpted really nice and wide looking pecs. My upper body has been transformed. Much more manly looking.

    I’ve just a couple of questions if you don’t mind:
    1. I’m currently managing 4 sets of 8 chest dips with good form. How do you suggest I change that up to maximise my gains and development? Drop the sets/reps, add weight?
    2. Seeing as I do deadlifts as part of my routine (which targets my back) I do chin ups instead of pull ups in my workout. I’m also unable to do chins and pull ups in the same workout. Well, I can but im not able to do 3 full sets of both in the same workout. So my workout is essentially: deadlifts-front squats- dips and chins. Do you believe that to be a balanced workout? Neglecting the pull ups that is?
    Cardio wise- I also run 3 or 4 days a week. Short 5km runs.

    Do you see any glaring errors in my workout or do you think its ok?

    I do feel really fit and strong I have to say.

    Thanks,

    Con

    Reply
    • Hi Con

      Glad to hear dips are working well for you. Too many guys waste their effort on the bench press and get no-where. In my experience, only a small minority of people respond well to the bench press, while almost everyone responds well to dips.

      1. 4 sets of 8 dips: whether you increase the reps or increase the weight next is up to you. Try each and see which works best. Don’t do any more than 4 sets of 10 dips though. From my experience though, I’d say you’d do a lot better by increasing the weight at this point. This is largely because the muscles of the chest are mostly composed of fast twitch fibers, which respond better to lower rep ranges and heavier weights, than do, say, the muscles of the back.

      Be sure to use microloading, where you add a very small amount of weight every workout or every week. I go into detail about this in my program, the Chest Sculpting Blueprint.

      2. I wouldn’t advise doing both chinups and pullups in the same workout, as you would tire your biceps out and only really benefit from the exercise you did first. Both exercises work your biceps and back very well. The main difference is that chinups are better at increasing the thickness of your back, while pullups are better at increasing the width of your back. For aesthetics, pullups generally work better, but both exercises will still give you a great looking back.

      If you find pullups difficult, then you can always start with chinups and change over to pullups later when your biceps and back muscles are stronger from doing chinups.

      3. It’s OK to do some cardio, just as long as you don’t overdo it. Make sure you do your cardio either on days you are not doing weights, or if you do cardio on the same day you are doing weights, that both sessions are separated by a good 4-5 hours to allow for recovery. Also, it’s better to do HIIT than steady state cardio, since HIIT will better preserve your muscle mass, and will better enhance your heart-lung capacity, which will help improve your performance in weight training. I go into detail about how you can use HIIT to transform your physique and improve your weight training performance, in my program, Paleolithic High Intensity Interval Training.

      Reply
  17. When I do dips, whether vertical or leaning forward, I feel it in my upper back (plus delts and tri)…not feeling it in my chest….is the chest even being worked out?

    Reply
    • Hari. Given you are using correct form, the main reason you may not feel it in your chest is because your triceps are probably weak compared to your chest. Keep at it with the exercise. As your triceps get stronger, you’ll find it working your chest more and more.

      Reply
  18. I agree that dips is a powerful chest exercise but what shocked most is that it also led to my muscle imbalance. My left pec is bigger than my right but somehow I manage to find a solution (doing one handed bench press to my right pec that is light weight until I can feel my chest pumped then moving on to dips.) Incline Dumbbell bench press works well with dips to give you that manly solid chest. :)

    Reply
    • Yes, you’ve gotta be careful to push equally with both arms whenever doing a barbell exercise or an exercise like dips or pushups. It’s easier to know that both arms are working equally when using dumbbells, but you can’t unfortunately do dips with dumbbells, or do single-arm dips in the same position. Glad to hear you found a solution Joshua.

      Reply
  19. Hi Gary, I think you’re right.

    But in the last month or so when I have been doing dips, my arm size has increased….but not my chest. Does that mean my arm is getting stronger….if so, do I continue and hope that chest size will also increase? Because so far, only my arm has gotten bigger.

    Reply
    • Hi Hari. Sometimes that’s exactly what happens – your arms need to get strong first before your chest can start to respond. Keep at it, and make sure you are using a full range of motion with the correct form.

      Reply

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