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Dips for Beginners: Bench Dips, Bar Dips and Which First
A dip lowers and raises your body between two supports using the arms and chest. Start on a bench with your feet on the floor, move to parallel bars when that is easy, and expect the triceps and chest to do most of the work. Bar dips activate the triceps more than bench dips, which is why the bench comes first.
Say where you stand. CaliRep sets the target. coming soon What is a dip?
A dip lowers and raises your body between two supports, with your arms doing the work and your torso staying upright or leaning slightly forward. It is the third of the 3 movements in how to start calisthenics, alongside a pull and a push, and it is the one that leans hardest on the triceps.
There are 3 common versions, in ascending order of difficulty.
- Bench dip. Hands behind you on a bench or chair, feet on the floor in front. Your legs carry part of your weight, and you decide how much by how far out your feet are.
- Bar dip. Between parallel bars, feet off the floor, carrying your whole body weight.
- Ring dip. Same as the bar version on gymnastic rings, which move.
What muscles do dips work?
Dips work the triceps and the chest hardest, with the shoulder stabilising. McKenzie et al. (2022) put 13 experienced men through all 3 versions with motion capture and surface electromyography and measured peak triceps activation at 0.83 millivolts on the bench, 1.04 on the bar and 1.05 on the rings. Their summary of the bench version is that it “predominantly targets the triceps brachii but requires greater shoulder extension range”.
A second study by the same group had 15 men do a single set of bar dips to exhaustion and found that as fatigue set in, peak activation rose in both the chest and the triceps along with 3 stabilising muscles, while the peak joint angles did not change. Their conclusion was that the bar dip targets the pectoralis major and triceps effectively.
| Version | Peak triceps activation | Load on the arms | Shoulder extension needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bench dip | 0.83 mV | Part of body weight, set by foot position | Greatest of the 3 |
| Bar dip | 1.04 mV | Full body weight | Less than the bench |
| Ring dip | 1.05 mV | Full body weight, unstable | Less than the bench |
All figures from McKenzie et al. (2022). For comparison, Youdas et al. (2010) measured the triceps at 73 to 109 percent of a maximal contraction during an ordinary push-up, so the dip and the push-up are close cousins that split the work differently: the push-up gives more to the chest, the dip more to the triceps.
Should you start on a bench or a bar?
Start on a bench, because your feet let you choose the load, and move to the bar when the bench version stops being hard. McKenzie et al. (2022) put it in those words: the bar dip is “an appropriate progression from the bench dip due to the higher peak muscle activations”.
Choosing the load on a bench is simple. Feet close to the bench with the knees bent is the easiest version. Walking the feet further out, until the legs are straight and the heels are on the floor, shifts more weight onto the arms. Putting the heels on a second chair at the same height is the hardest bench version and a fair step before the bar.
How do you do a bench dip correctly?
A bench dip has 4 parts, and the third is where shoulders get unhappy.
- Set the hands. Palms on the edge of the bench beside your hips, fingers pointing forward over the edge, arms straight.
- Set the feet. Knees bent for the easy version, legs straight for the hard one. Hips stay close to the bench, not drifting forward.
- Lower. Bend the elbows straight back, not out to the sides, until the upper arm is roughly parallel with the floor. Stop there. Deeper is not better on a bench.
- Press. Back up to straight arms, keeping the hips close to the bench the whole time.
If you feel a stretch across the front of the shoulder, you have gone too deep. That is the shoulder extension McKenzie’s group flagged, and it is the reason the bench version is the one to be careful with rather than the one to do forever.
How do you do a bar dip correctly?
A bar dip has the same 4 parts with the feet removed from the equation.
- Get up. Jump or step to the top position, arms straight, shoulders pulled down away from your ears.
- Set the torso. Upright for more triceps, leaning slightly forward for more chest. Both are correct.
- Lower. Elbows travelling back, to roughly parallel upper arms, under control.
- Press. Back to straight arms without locking the shoulders up toward the ears.
If a full bar dip is not there yet, the same bridges as everywhere else work: a band looped across the bars to stand on, or negatives from the top position taking 5 seconds to lower, the same technique described in negative pull-ups.
How many sets and reps, and how often?
3 sets of 8 to 12 reps, 2 or 3 times a week, is the starting scheme, and the set count is a rule of thumb. The rep range is the American College of Sports Medicine position stand’s recommendation for novices, and on a bench you choose the load by where your feet are rather than by adding plates. The frequency comes from Grgic et al. (2018), who pooled 22 studies and found strength gains rising from an effect size of 0.74 at 1 session a week to 0.93 at 3.
Progress by making the version harder rather than by adding reps forever. Kotarsky et al. (2018) showed the principle on the push-up: 4 weeks of progressive bodyweight variations raised bench press strength as much as barbell training did, and the word doing the work is progressive. Feet further out, then heels raised, then the bar. The week those sets sit in is the beginner calisthenics workout plan, and the pressing standard they share with every push-up is in how to do push-ups for beginners.
Where do dips lead?
Dips lead to the ring dip and, with a pull-up on top of it, to the muscle-up. Walker et al. (2023) measured the push phase of a muscle-up on rings and on a bar in 10 men and found the ring version demanded significantly more triceps and biceps activity, which is why rings come after bars and the muscle-up comes after both. Where that sits among the other things a pull-up can become is in pull-up variations.
The dip is 1 of the 3 movements I built CaliRep around, with the pull-up and the push-up, and it is in there for the reason this article opens with: it is the pressing pattern a push-up does not cover. You enter your current rep count for each of the 3, 0 included, and a goal workout is 6 sessions ending in 1 attempt at a target computed from those numbers and held fixed until you reach it. A bench dip count is a legitimate starting number. The first goal workout, Foundation, is free.
Questions people actually ask
What muscles do dips work?
Mainly the triceps and the chest, plus the front of the shoulder as a stabiliser. McKenzie et al. (2022) measured peak triceps activation at 0.83 millivolts on a bench, 1.04 on a bar and 1.05 on rings, and a second study by the same group found the bar dip targets the pectoralis major and triceps effectively even under fatigue.
Are tricep dips and dips the same thing?
Tricep dip usually means the bench version, with the hands behind you on a bench and the feet on the floor. Dip on its own usually means the bar version between parallel bars. Both work the triceps hardest; the bar version does it with more load and a more upright torso.
Should I start with bench dips or bar dips?
Bench dips, because your legs carry part of the weight and you can adjust how much by moving your feet. McKenzie et al. (2022) described the bar dip as an appropriate progression from the bench dip because of its higher muscle activation, which is the order this article uses.
Are dips bad for your shoulders?
The bench version is the one to watch. McKenzie et al. (2022) found the bench dip requires a greater range of shoulder extension than the bar or ring versions, which is the position that bothers an unhappy shoulder. Keep the descent shallow, stop when you feel a stretch at the front of the shoulder, and prefer the bar version once you can.
How many dips should a beginner do?
3 sets of 8 to 12 at a height where the last rep is still clean, 2 or 3 times a week, as a rule of thumb. The ACSM position stand puts novice loads in the 8 to 12 repetition range, and on a bench you set that load by where your feet are.
How deep should a dip go?
Until the upper arm is roughly parallel with the floor, as a rule of thumb, and no further than a range you control. Going deeper adds shoulder extension without adding much useful work, and McKenzie et al. (2022) found fatigue changes where in the rep the bottom position falls, not how deep the joint angles go.
Can I do dips at home without equipment?
Yes. A sturdy chair, a bed frame, a low wall or the edge of a sofa works for bench dips as long as it cannot slide or tip. Two kitchen counters at the same height, or the arms of a solid chair, work for a short bar dip. Test the surface with your weight before you trust it.
References
- Bench, bar, and ring dips: do kinematics and muscle activity differ? (McKenzie et al., Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2022)
- Fatigue increases muscle activations but does not change maximal joint angles during the bar dip (McKenzie et al., Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2022)
- Comparison of muscle-activation patterns during the conventional push-up and Perfect Pushup exercises (Youdas et al., J Strength Cond Res, 2010)
- American College of Sports Medicine position stand: progression models in resistance training for healthy adults (Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2009)
- Effect of progressive calisthenic push-up training on muscle strength and thickness (Kotarsky et al., J Strength Cond Res, 2018)
- Effect of resistance training frequency on gains in muscular strength: a systematic review and meta-analysis (Grgic et al., Sports Med, 2018)
- Comparison of muscle activity during a ring muscle up and a bar muscle up (Walker et al., Int J Exerc Sci, 2023)