Progression of Dips

Jonny303

When is the stage that you should start weighted dips? And is there anything to do before weighted ie. using wider bars

BobbyOLeary

According to Mark Rippetoe, when you can do about 15 of a particular exercise you should add weight, work up to 15 then add more.

Personally I work up to 10 reps, then add weight. I find working up to 10 allows me to add 5kg and still be able to do 3 or 4. Worked pretty well for me, I got up to 7 or 8 reps with 20kg before I left for the states.

On a side note make sure you're going nice and deep and that you're locking out at the top.

rubadub

Well I started once I got over 12, so I was still in the 8-12rep range which most say is best for hypertrophy. I still do unweighted, but am up to around 30 now, bodyweight exercises are weird like that, people tend to go for numbers, i.e. I would never lift a low enough weight to be able to do 30reps of anything else! but I do chinups & pullups for numbers too, but usually this is outdoors cycling around, there are a few places I can do them.

I also do heavy negatives with upto 40kg on a belt. To make them harder you can lean in different ways, also try doing dips in a L-sit position which hits your abs.

I can do far more dips on a 90degree bar, rather than parallel ones. Also I have gymnastic rings, these require a lot more effort due to the stabilisation needed. A guy on here pm'd me saying he could do 35 regular dips but not a single one on the gym rings when he got them! I was able to do just 1 when I got mine, at that stage I think I was at 12-15 regular dips.

Also if you have no belt or other weights, then you can go lower than usual and stall at the bottom, this really hits me hard.

davyjose

Rubadub, I've been meaning to ask, any chance of a photo to show us exactly how you've got your rings set up? I can't seem to figure out how I'd set them up at home, hence the main reason I haven't bought any.

Jonny303

yea im easily doing sets of 10, really nice and deep and well controlled. best thing just to buy a dip like below?

http://www.irish-lifting.com/product_info_equipment.php?cPath=1_3&products_id=138

is it regarded the same for pull ups? always struggled with them but last 2 weeks i can see noticable increases in reps and form.

BobbyOLeary

Save your money and just buy a martial arts belt in elverys for a fiver. Get a 320cm one if you can and you'll have plenty of length to go around your waist a couple of times and allow room for the weight to swing past the crown jewels.

I used one for ages and it never showed any signs of strain at any weights I tried (I did some single reps at 35kg) and it was pretty comfortable on my hips. That Irish-lifting belt will do the job perfectly but I just wouldn't spend €35 on something I can get done for €5.

J.S. Pill

BobbyOLeary wrote: »

On a side note make sure you're going nice and deep and that you're locking out at the top.

Not too deep though as this may lead to shoulder or rotator cuff problems. Don't go deeper than a 90 degree bend at the elbow (or no elbows above the shoulder or anything silly like that) but if starts to feel very uncomfortable even before this don't make matters worse by trying to go to 90 degrees.

BobbyOLeary

Don't go deeper than a 90 degree bend at the elbow (or no elbows above the shoulder or anything silly like that)

Do you have an anatomical explanation for this other than that its what seems right? I've dipped well below 90 degrees for a long time and I've never once had a rotator cuff problem. This smacks of the "Don't squat below parallel or your knees will explode" argument.

rubadub

davyjose wrote: »

Rubadub, I've been meaning to ask, any chance of a photo to show us exactly how you've got your rings set up? I can't seem to figure out how I'd set them up at home, hence the main reason I haven't bought any.

I have an odd shaped bedroom. When you open the door there is a short sort of corridor only for 1m or so, this is the width of the door frame. This allowed me to have a standard argos chinup bar going between 2 walls, rather than on the doorframe. On a doorframe the rings would be too low for my liking. My chinning bar is the same height up as the top of the door, the rings are simply looped over it.

I have also opened my attic up and just spanned some wood or a barbell across the hole, then the rings loop over the wood/bar. I am not sure what you would want to see? You do realise it is a webbing strap that forms a loop and is adjustable?



this photo has one strap going over, while I would have 2


If you had one of those removable bars it would be high enough. The attic is even better. Some put eyelet bolts in the ceiling direct into the rafters above.

BobbyOLeary wrote: »

Save your money and just buy a martial arts belt in elverys for a fiver.

Yep, I have used a bathrobe belt too. I have had up to 100kg on my dip belt, so that would cut into you a bit. I just wanted something decent that I new would not fail. I have the ironmind one, rated to some ridiculous load, I have heard of cheap ones breaking at 30kg or so.

BobbyOLeary wrote: »

Do you have an anatomical explanation for this other than that its what seems right? I've dipped well below 90 degrees for a long time and I've never once had a rotator cuff problem. This smacks of the "Don't squat below parallel or your knees will explode" argument.

All I have read on ring sites is do not go too low if it hurts. It was not saying that it would cause injury, more if you have a previous injury or are just built a certain way then deep dips should be avoided, i.e. if sore. I go quite deep with no problems so far.

BobbyOLeary

All I have read on ring sites is do not go too low if it hurts. It was not saying that it would cause injury, more if you have a previous injury or are just built a certain way then deep dips should be avoided, i.e. if sore. I go quite deep with no problems so far.

Obviously. If you're not flexible enough to go that low then don't. But going deep, if you're flexible enough, isn't going to cause any problems provided you're strong enough.

On a side note, great idea for the rings, the attic thing. I've ordered a set of rings and can't wait to get to use them.

davyjose

That's a great Idea about the attic. I might give that a go, cheers.

J.S. Pill

BobbyOLeary wrote: »

Do you have an anatomical explanation for this other than that its what seems right? I've dipped well below 90 degrees for a long time and I've never once had a rotator cuff problem. This smacks of the "Don't squat below parallel or your knees will explode" argument.

And like the "Don't squat below parallel or your knees will explode" argument we could go on all day about it and still come to the conclusion that some people can get away with it while others will experience mild explosions in their knees. I was merely alerting the OP to exercise a bit of caution on this one.

rubadub wrote:

All I have read on ring sites is do not go too low if it hurts. It was not saying that it would cause injury, more if you have a previous injury or are just built a certain way then deep dips should be avoided, i.e. if sore. I go quite deep with no problems so far.

That's pretty much the jist of what I've read - the 90 degree 'rule' is a guideline at best. I'm just erring on the side of caution here which is something I wish I did in one or two things but that's another story altogether.