Bar Dips:
Benefits of the Dip Exercise

Bar dips, also know as chest or tricep dips, are superior upper body exercises because of the unique body mechanics involved in the dip movement.

Dips are one of the few closed kinetic chain (CKC) exercises for the upper body -- That's just a fancy way to say that the exercise involves moving your body through space while your hands are in a fixed position.

CKC exercises are the opposite of open kinetic chain (OKC) exercises, where the hand or foot is fully mobile and the movement is performed by flexing the arm or leg joints.

What does this all mean for you?

Well, it means you'll enjoy some nice benefits if you can get the form right. But before you worry about the benefits, be sure your form is correct by reviewing tricep dip technique and reading these tips on how to do dips...

Benefits of Bar Dips. As closed kinetic chain upper body exercises, tricep dips are so effective at building muscle and strength because they have the following advantages:

• Kill 2 Birds With 1 Stone. Bar dips and other CKC exercises can simultaneously work opposing muscle groups while lifting and lowering – it's a 2 for 1 deal! OKC exercises can only work the agonist muscles while their counterparts (antagonist muscles) are stretched and unstimulated.
• Compound Movements by Nature. Due to their mechanical nature, CKC exercises are compound, multi-joint movements. This means you can consistently increase your dip strength over a long period of time.
• Add Unlimited Weight. Dips are a challenging exercise by themselves. But with the sound weight lifting program and diet plan, you will outgrow bodyweight dips in no time, which brings me to my point: dips are also unique in that it's so simple to add weight if your bodyweight is not enough of a challenge.
• Build Upper Body Mass. Since you are able to continually add pounds to your dipping strength, you're able to continually overload your muscles. And if you are constantly progressing in weight (and eating enough) you will gain muscle mass.
• Superior to Push Ups. Don't get me wrong; the push up technique is a great exercise. But bar dips force you to lift your entire bodyweight (and then some with weights). Push-ups, on the other hand, only require you to lift a fraction of your bodyweight; in addition, it's less practical (but definitely possible) to do weighted push-ups.
• Lockout Strength. A dip repetition isn't complete until you definitively lockout (straighten) your elbows. Sometimes that extra inch in the range of motion is the most difficult part of the rep. By training with this exercise, you improve lockout strength. This is important not only because you improve at dip lockouts, but also because your improved lockout strength directly transfers to other weight lifting exercises like the overhead press and the barbell bench press.

Note that many of these benefits are still possible, even if you're doing assisted dips.

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