How to do the tricep dip

Dips are one of the few bodyweight exercises that keep working as you get stronger. You press your whole body up from parallel bars, which puts a heavy load on the triceps with your chest and front shoulders helping, and when bodyweight gets easy you strap on a plate. Pick dips over another round of pushdowns when you want a compound move for your arms, and over push-ups when push-ups have become a high-rep endurance test. The catch is shoulder position: dips are safe for most people when the depth is sensible and the shoulders are set, and rough on them when they're not.

How to do a tricep dip

1. Grip parallel bars about shoulder width apart. Stand between the handles of a dip station with palms facing in. If the bars are adjustable or angled, pick the spot where your hands land just outside your hips.
2. Jump or step up to the top position. Lock your elbows and hold yourself up with your arms straight and your body hanging between the bars.
3. Push your shoulders down away from your ears. Your neck should look long, not buried between your shoulders. Keep your chest up and your body close to upright, with your legs straight under you or knees bent and ankles crossed.
4. Bend your elbows and lower yourself. Your elbows travel straight back behind you, not out to the sides. Take about two seconds on the way down.
5. Stop when your elbows reach about 90 degrees. At that point your upper arms are roughly parallel to the floor and your shoulders are level with your elbows. You should feel a stretch across the front of your chest and shoulders, but no pinch.
6. Press back up to straight arms. Drive your hands into the bars until your elbows lock again, keeping your shoulders down. Finish each rep with your arms fully straight before starting the next.

Staying upright keeps most of the work on your triceps. Leaning your torso forward by 20 to 30 degrees and letting your elbows travel slightly wider turns it into more of a chest exercise. Both are fine; just know which one you're doing.

Cues that help

"Shoulders away from your ears." Keep them pressed down the whole set. It's the fix for the hunched, shrugged bottom position that strains the front of the shoulder.

"Elbows to the wall behind you." Point your elbows back, not out. If that doesn't click, try "brush your arms past your ribs".

"Push the bars into the floor." Think about driving the bars down rather than lifting your body up. It keeps you tight at the top and helps you finish the lockout.

"Stay tall." If you're trying to hit triceps, keep your chest high and your hips under you. The moment you fold forward, your chest takes over.

Common mistakes

Sinking too deep. It looks like the shoulders dropping well below the elbows at the bottom, with the upper arm pointing up behind you. The usual cause is chasing a big stretch or simply relaxing at the bottom. That position puts a lot of strain on the front of the shoulder. Stop at about 90 degrees. Some people with very mobile shoulders go a little deeper without trouble, but 90 degrees is the right default, and if your shoulders ever ache afterwards, deeper isn't for you.

Elbows flaring out wide. The elbows point out to the sides and the upper arms turn inward, which shifts stress onto the shoulders. It's often caused by bars that are too far apart for your frame. Use a narrower spot on the dip station if you can, and point your elbows back.

Swinging and kipping. When the reps get hard, the legs kick and the body swings to bounce out of the bottom. It feels like progress but it's momentum doing the work. Pause for a moment at the bottom, keep your legs still and end the set when you can't press up without a kick.

Shrugging at the bottom. Shoulders creep up toward the ears as you lower, and the neck disappears. That's the shoulders losing their position, and it usually comes with extra depth you didn't intend. Reset at the top, push your shoulders down and lower again.

Half reps at the top. Dipping a few inches and popping back up lets you rack up big rep numbers, but you're skipping most of the range. Go to your 90-degree mark every time.

If you can't do a dip yet

Most people can't do a clean bodyweight dip on day one, and that's normal. Work up through these, roughly in this order:

• Assisted dip machine: a pad pushes up under your knees and takes some of your weight. Set the assistance so you can do 8 to 10 reps, then reduce it over the weeks.
• Band-assisted dips: loop a heavy resistance band across the bars and kneel or stand on it. Same idea without the machine.
• Negatives: jump to the top, then lower yourself over 3 to 5 seconds and step down. Three sets of 3 to 5 negatives, two or three times a week, builds strength quickly.

When you can do 3 sets of 5 clean bodyweight dips, drop the assistance entirely.

Sets, reps and adding weight

Once bodyweight dips are solid, work toward 3 sets of 8 to 12 with the last rep or two feeling hard. Do them early in an upper-body session if they're your main triceps or chest work, or after the bench press if they're a secondary move. Rest about two minutes between sets.

When you can do 3 sets of 12 to 15 clean reps, start adding weight with a dip belt or a dumbbell held between your feet. Start with 10 lb (5 kg), drop back to sets of 6 to 8, and build the reps back up before adding more. Weighted dips are also where warm-up sets start to matter: a set of bodyweight dips and one set with about half your added weight before your working sets is enough.

If you're tracking weighted dips, write down the added weight, not the total. Logging each set in Helthy means you can see last session's reps and aim for one more.

Variations and alternatives

• Assisted or band dips: covered above. Also useful for high-rep sets at the end of a session.
• Forward-leaning chest dip: lean forward and let your elbows go slightly wider. Shifts the work toward your chest.
• Ring dips: the rings move, so your shoulders have to stabilize everything. Much harder; save them until weighted bar dips are comfortable.
• Close-grip push-up: a push-up with your hands under your shoulders and elbows tucked. The best no-equipment swap.
• Tricep pushdown: the easy-on-the-shoulders alternative when dips bother you.
• Skull crusher: trains the triceps through a long range without any load on the front of the shoulder.

We'd skip bench dips (hands on a bench behind you, feet on the floor). The hands-behind-your-back position puts the shoulder at the end of its range with the load pushing it further, and there's no good way to add weight. A close-grip push-up trains the same muscles without the awkward shoulder angle.

Tricep dip questions

Are dips bad for your shoulders?

Not for most people, as long as you stop around 90 degrees and keep your shoulders pressed down. The problems usually come from going too deep, shrugging at the bottom or adding weight too fast. If the front of your shoulder still aches after a couple of weeks of shallower, lighter dips, get it looked at by a physical therapist.

Do dips work the chest or the triceps?

Both. An upright torso puts more of the load on the triceps; leaning forward shifts it toward the chest. There isn't a version that trains only one, and that's part of why they're useful.

How many dips should I be able to do?

There's no official number, but 10 clean bodyweight reps is a solid milestone for most lifters. Heavier people usually find dips harder, which is normal and not a sign you're weak.