Chest Dips Vs Tricep Dips: Difference Between These Workouts

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. 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.  

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.

How to perform tricep dips: 

How to perform chest dips: 

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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.  

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 Explained

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.

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Pros and Cons Of Chest Dip Exercises 

Tricep Dips Explained

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.

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Pros and Cons Of Tricep Dip Exercises 

Frequently Asked Dip Questions 

Will dips give you a big chest? 

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.   

Are tricep dips good for beginners? 

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.

Do tricep dips help push-ups? 

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.  

When should weights be introduced to dips? 

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.  

Garage Gym Pro Tip: 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.