Master The Art Of Bodyweight Dips For A Killer Body, With This Guide!

by Aishani Laha · April 3, 2018

If you have ventured into this part of the internet where you are trying to learn more about dips, then chances are that you have already incorporated yourself into the world of workouts and exercise. Before we can proceed to talk at length about the various kinds of bodyweight dips, congratulations are in order. If you know how to do dips, then you are already on your way to build a healthier and sexier looking body.

To be honest, dips are some of the hardest exercises to do. You have to lift your entire body off the ground, using only certain muscles and certain parts of your body, and it only happens after a lot of [practice and training and honing your core strength. Once you have mastered the art of doing a basic or standard dip, you will be able to perform all the different variations of this particular exercise (that I will be talking about shortly).

Before I show you the best bodyweight dips that are do-able, here are the various body parts that are affected when you do dips, and the benefits of doing this exercise.

Benefits and Advantages of Dips

It affects all parts of your body: One of the greatest benefits of dips is that it affects all the parts of your body that need to be trained, for example, your arms, chest muscles, abdomen, shoulders and even your calves (when you add weight to your dips).

It is a CKC exercise: A CKC exercise, or a closed kinetic chain exercise is one where you move your body, without moving your arms and legs. Even though finding exercises like these are difficult, dips are one such exercise that you can do without moving your limbs, and lifting your body at the same time.

You can build upper body muscle mass: one of the best things about dips is that they are especially crafted to create upper body strength and increase your muscle mass in your torso. If you eat the right food for body building and get rid of fat buildup in your chest, arms and shoulder by doing your dips right, then you could build a killer body, just by doing dips.

Improved lockout strength: If you have just started doing dips, then you know that you keep going until your elbows lockout. Often it so happens that the last couple of dips are the hardest, because your arms are unable to support your weight any longer. However, the more you practice, the more your body gets used to bearing your weight, and your body takes longer to lockout. This improves your ability to perform in other exercises such as bench presses, pushups and planks.

It is a buildable exercise: Most exercises exist as they are. You can only increase the number of time you do them, without increasing the intensity with which you do those exercises. Dips are great, if you want to increase intensity as well as numbers. Initially, simply lifting your body may seem like a task. But after a while, you will find it super easy to support your body weight with your arms. In order to make dips more challenging, along with changing up the form, you can also add weights to your back or your feet to increase the intensity. You can hold a dumbbell with your feet, or you can also carry a backpack full of weights, when you are doing dips.

These were the primary benefits of dips. If you think that you can’t do dips without a gym membership, then you are wrong. Fundamentally, dips are a bodyweight exercise, which makes use of your existing muscle mass to build more muscle. However, you don’t need a bunch of fancy gym equipment to help you do this. You can do dips at home, or anywhere else, if you have the right arrangement. Here are a few variations of the dips, that you can do practically anywhere.

1. Bench dips

Effective for: Triceps

For this exercise, you will need a bench that isn’t too high off from the ground. Sit on the bench, with your arms gripping the edge of the bench, palms down. Keep your feet outstretched in front of you. You can even lock your feet by the ankles, so that when you are lifting, your knees don’t bend, or your feet don’t splay apart.

With your hands still on the bench, lift your butt off the bench and lower it towards the ground. You should stop descending while your butt is still a few inches from touching the ground. Once you have descended, go back to the starting position by lifting your upper body with the strength of your arms. Repeat this 10 times, which should complete 1 set.

2. Band-assisted dips on parallel bars

Effective for: Chest muscles, arms

Gyms are usually full of parallel bars that you can do dips on, but you shoud be able to find bars similar to this when you are at home as well. Two tables that are nailed to the ground at a slight distance from each other should also do the trick. Parallel bar dips are a classic exercise that you have to do when you are trying to increase strength in your upper body.

Grab the bars with your hands and lift your bend your knees till your calves are parallel to the floor, and you can support your body weight with your arms. If you are having trouble doing this for the first time, you can also tie a band around the bars, so that you get some extra buoyancy. Lift your body up and then down again, with only the support of your arms. Going up and down completes a rep, and 10 reps complete a set.

3. Korean dips

Effective for: Shoulders, abs, glutes, biceps, lower back

This is possibly one of the toughest exercises ever, so unless you are a pro at doing dips with weights and are very comfortable supporting your body weight, I suggest you skip this one. Find a straight bar that you can hold on to. Stand in front of it, and grab it with both hands with your palms facing backwards, so that your arms make an inverted L-shape.

Lift your body up so as to be able to sit on the road/bar. Use your arms to lift your body again and go down with your feet in the air, and swing back so that you body can swing back and you can lift your body back onto the bar. You don’t have to do this continuously, because it can get tough, but if you are able to do this, then there is no denying that it will give you a killer body.

4. Dips to leg lift

Effective for: Abs, arms, calf muscles

This is another excellent variation of the standard dips. In a standard dip, you keep your legs folded from the knees and you lift yourself up and down with the weight of your hands. The dips to leg lift is also similar, but with a slight modification.

Your starting position should be the same as a normal dip, with your hands holding onto a pair of parallel bars and you standing between them. Lift yourself up with your arms, and instead of keeping your legs folded, stretch them out in front of you when you lift your body up. Then when you go back down again fold your legs back and straighten your body, all the while supporting your torso with the strength of your arms.

5. Pylometric dips

Effective for: Abs, triceps, shoulders

Pylometric dips are another variation of the standard dips. However, you should only be doing them if you are athletic, and your body has gotten used to carrying your weights by doing normal dips first. Unless you are careful, you may end up hurting yourself, if you do pylometric dips without practice or expertise.

That being said, there is no denying that pylo dips are some of the most effective exercises out there, when you want to train your upper body and all its muscles. Your starting position should be that of a normal dip, with your arms clutching two parallel bars. Make sure your hands are in front of you, and you aren’t holding the bars from the back. Bend your legs at the knees and lift your body up. Go back down and then when you go up again, push down on the bars and do a little “jump” with your hands, as shown in the video. This may seem hella intense, but the effect it has on your body is also apparent.

These were some of the variations for bodyweight dips that you can do easily, in order to strengthen your upper body and build core strength. However, make sure that you don’t try all of them at once, and progress one at a time to make the most out of your workout routine.

Featured image source: Google, copyright-free image, under Creative Commons License

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