Last Updated On September 14, 2023
Looking to build your chest and triceps? – Dips are a fantastic exercise to add to your workout. But, what's best between chest dips or tricep dips?
The debate has been around for as long as the exercises. In this article, I’ll be putting chest dips vs tricep dips head to head to answer all the questions you have about the two exercises and which will benefit you the most.
Chest Dips Vs Tricep Dips (Differences Explained)
1. Muscles Worked
When it comes to chest vs tricep dips for muscles worked, they are pretty similar but have some differences which set the exercises apart.
Tricep dips mainly target your triceps (no surprises there), but the movement also works your delts, pecs, lats, levator scapulae, and rhomboids [1]. While most of these muscles act as stabilizers to help assist you during the movement, they’re still working hard.
The movement primarily targets your triceps, making the exercise one of my all-time favorite tricep-building movements. All three heads of the triceps are activated, giving your arms the stimulus they need to grow.
However, during the chest dip exercise, the movement shifts the focus from your triceps to your chest muscles.
Along with your pec major, secondary muscles such as the pec minor, delts, triceps, lats, rhomboids, levator scapulae, and teres major play a massive role in keeping your body stable [2].
While the chest dip can be effective at developing the chest, I’ve found it doesn’t develop as much muscle as other popular chest exercises.
When it comes to dips for chest vs triceps, I’ve always opted for a combination of the two exercises in a workout. Using the two together helps you develop a strong upper body without lagging in certain areas.
But, if you really must choose one, you’d get the most muscle development from tricep dips.
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2. Execution & Technique
Initially, chest dips and tricep dips look relatively similar. However, there is one key difference between chest and tricep dips. It changes how your muscles act... it’s the angle of your torso.
To work your triceps more (tricep dips), your body remains upright during the entire movement. This places more emphasis on your triceps, increasing muscle activation and giving you the stimulus you need to grow a god-like set of triceps.
But, on the other hand, you’ve got the chest dips. To adjust the dipping movement to be more chest-focused, you should tilt your body forward so your shoulders are no longer in line with your hips. Doing so targets your chest muscles and changes how your muscles are loaded.
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3. Equipment Needed
When it comes to the difference between chest and tricep dips, the equipment you need doesn’t change.
During either movement, you require a dipping station or some form of parallel bars. Some power racks, pull-up frames, and squat racks have dipping station attachments and are excellent additions to any home gym.
Most gym-goers can get away with performing bodyweight dips as the exercise can be challenging for all gym-goers.
But, if you’re a beginner, you might find the exercise too difficult to perform and will need some assistance. One of the best options for you would be to use a selection of resistance bands to help you during the dipping movements.
Most resistance band sets have multiple resistance levels, so you can progress until you can perform bodyweight dips.
If you’re an advanced gym-goer who can perform multiple sets of dips with ease, you might want to consider adding weight to your chest and tricep dips.
You can add weight easily by using a dipping belt. A dipping belt looks like a weight lifting belt, but it has a chain around the front where you attach weighted plates.
Other than this small list of equipment, you don’t need much to perform this exercise.
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4. Variations & Other Versions
If you’re looking at these two dip variations and thinking they aren’t for you, there are some others you may want to look at.
Gironda Dips
Gironda dips are a far more challenging version of the dip, which involves reversing your hands, so your knuckles are facing the side of your body and placing your legs out in front of your torso.
While this movement does increase pec activation, I find it can place far too much stress on your joints, and it is easy to get the movement wrong. If you’re a beginner, stay away from this variation.
While this exercise might increase your chest activation, I feel the Gironda dip has far too many risks. There are plenty of other chest exercises you can try instead of this variation.
However, if you’re an advanced gym-goer looking for a new challenge... by all means, try it out; but be aware of the risks and use the best form you can.
Bench Dips (knees bent)
The bench dip is the typical type of dip you see being performed in movies and is one of the easier options for you to perform.
It uses more triceps than it does chest but is an excellent place for beginners to start. Having your knees bent helps remove some of the stress from your arms, making the movement easier to perform.
Bench Dips (legs straight)
This is a progression of the above exercise. By placing your legs out straight, you put more load on your triceps, making the movement more challenging to perform. Only move on to this if you’ve mastered the knees bent variation.
Bench Dips (legs raised)
Again, this is a progression on the previously mentioned “legs straight” variation. By raising your legs, you’re increasing the amount of work your triceps need to do during the exercise.
I’m a fan of this variation, as you can add some weight to your legs to make the bench dips tougher.
5. Hand Grip Options
On most dipping stations, there are two handle width options. The wider handle option allows you to activate more chest muscle fibers, while the narrow handles are best suited for tricep dips.
While there is a lot of overlap when it comes to triceps vs chest dips, both variations can be changed by adjusting your hand position and the angle of your torso.
Note: Some dipping stations have rotating handles which can be turned to adjust the width of your hand positions. While the most common a “v-shaped” hands, which are wider at the front and narrower in the middle.
6. Safety & Injury Concerns
Like with any exercise, there are some safety and injury concerns you should consider when you’re performing chest and tricep dips.
Firstly, if you have a shoulder injury, you should swap these movements for another exercise that doesn't place your shoulders in an awkward position.
While this won’t affect everyone, many gym-goers experience some level of discomfort when performing the tricep or chest dips. You can help remove this discomfort by performing resistance band rotations and other shoulder activation exercises.
By loosening and warming up your shoulders, you’re less likely to have shoulder tightness and mobility issues. But, if you do develop shoulder pain, maybe give dips a miss for a few weeks.
Another consideration is your wrists. As your wrists will be supporting your entire body weight, it’s vital to ensure they aren't hurting you. If you feel discomfort, look at performing bench dips and work your way up through the variations, or use a resistance band to help remove some of your body weight.
Lastly, don’t dip too low. This places too much stress on your shoulder joint with zero benefits. Dipping to 90 degrees is deep enough and significantly lowers your risk of injury.
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Chest Dips Overview
Chest dips are an excellent alternative to performing horizontal pressing exercises such as the bench press, incline press, and decline press.
It's a bodyweight movement that involves moving your body up and down by bending your elbows and forcing your chest and triceps to do the work. As your chest is the primary muscle during this exercise, it moves through a wide range of motion which is ideal for muscle growth.
While most gym-goers can perform this movement, if you're new to working out or to the exercise, you might struggle to perform it correctly. It's a tough bodyweight exercise that involves a strict movement pattern; failing to control the movement results in poor form and a higher risk of injury.
To perform this movement, you need minimal equipment, making it ideal for your home gym.
How To Perform Chest Dips
1. Place your hands on the dipping station handles.
2. Remove your feet and place the weight on your arms.
3. Tilt your body by leaning your upper body forward.
4. Lower your body towards the ground by bending your elbows.
5. Stop at 90 degrees.
6. Push up to the starting position and repeat.
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Pros And Cons Of Chest Dip Exercises
Pros
Cons
Tricep Dips Overview
Tricep dips are very similar to chest dips in regards to the way your body moves during the exercise. However, during this variation, the emphasis is placed on your triceps rather than your chest.
Tricep dips are a brilliant exercise for developing all three heads of your triceps, and it’s capable of giving you the “horseshoe” shaped triceps muscle many gym-goers desire.
One benefit of the tricep dip is that there are multiple variations that can be performed, such as bench dips, chair dips, and even a dip machine. It’s a versatile movement.
Like the chest dip, this exercise doesn’t require much equipment. All you need is a dipping station/dipping bars.
One consideration to make is if you’re new to exercising, try using resistance bands to help make the exercise easier while you learn the movement. The better you get your form, the more muscle you’ll be able to build.
How To Perform Tricep Dips
1. Place your hands on a set of parallel bars or dipping station handles.
2. Remove your feet, placing the weight on your arms.
3. Keep your body upright and allow your elbows to bend.
4. Lower yourself until your arms reach 90 degrees.
5. Push up to the starting position and repeat.
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Pros And Cons Of Tricep Dip Exercises
Pros
Cons
Frequently Asked Dip Questions
While dips can help you develop a well-rounded chest, there are many other exercises to give you more bang for your buck. To grow your chest, you need to overload the muscles with large amounts of weight to stimulate the muscle fibers. Unless you’re performing heavy-weighted dips, this will be difficult to achieve with dips alone.
On the other hand, dips are fantastic for tricep development.
Tricep dips are hard to perform, especially for beginners. You need to have complete body control to perform the exercise safely, and it requires a lot of upper body strength.
Now, I’m not saying they aren’t suitable for beginners, but most beginners will struggle with this exercise. If you’re a beginner, I recommend using a resistance band to help assist you during the movement.
If you don’t have resistance bands available, you can perform bench dips instead. Bench dips are a brilliant variation of tricep dips and will develop your upper body strength.
Tricep dips help develop your triceps and are an excellent exercise to help you with push-ups. However, if you’re struggling to perform push-ups, you’ll generally struggle with tricep dips as it’s a tricep-focused movement.
In the past, I’ve used a combination of dips and push-ups to develop my upper body with great success. Try adding them to your routine and see how your body responds.
I’m a big fan of performing weighted dips to help develop your upper body strength. However, you need to be careful when introducing additional weight as you don't want to "run before you can walk."
Personally, once my clients can perform 10-12 reps with excellent form, we will start introducing weights.
Tip From A Trainer:
Take it slow; you'd be surprised how heavy a 5.5lb plate can feel. I always recommend small regular increases over time. For example, increasing the weight by 5.5lb each week can yield a 22lb increase in a month.
Conclusion
When it comes to chest dips vs tricep dips, there are many aspects to consider. The debate has always been an interesting one. However, I believe the best exercise will depend on your goals.
If you’re looking to develop a barrel-like chest, then chest dips are the best variation to use during your workouts. But, if you’re looking for t-shirt popping triceps, you should perform tricep dips.
Try both exercises and see how your body reacts to the new muscle stimulus.
References:
1.https://www.physio-pedia.com/Levator_Scapulae
2.https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/teres-major-muscle
Last Updated on September 14, 2023
