BENEFITS: Chest, Shoulders, Arms, Core, Stability, Coordination
START POSITION: Jump up onto the Dip bars and push up until your arms are straight. Cross your feet behind you and lean slightly forwards. Your Chest should be pushed slightly outwards and your head should be facing slightly downwards (not straight ahead).
Ready to start.
NOTES: Difficulty Rating: 82%
Begin lowering yourself down and keep going until your Upper Arms are parallel to the floor. There’s no point in going lower because it increases the risk of injury, but I do see some people going lower.
The return journey back up again is a little harder than the downwards move and so you should be breathing out on the way up and in on the way down.
Your whole body should be suspended in air by your hands at all times and your feet must not touch the ground. If they do then you can try bending your knees a little but this probably means that the machine is inadequate. Sometimes you have to say no to an inadequate machine or when the machine has not been maintained properly, rendering it dangerous and uncomfortable.
Beginners may only be able to do one or two Chest Dips, which is normal because this exercise is very challenging, and probably if you can’t do one perfect Push-up then you wont be able to do any Dips either. Persevere with your fitness journey and keep doing more of the easier stuff until you are ready for these.
There are several variations of the Dip exercise which you might like to explore:
Dip Variations
although most people will be happy with just the one type mixed in with a wider training regime.