Starting Strength, 3rd Edition - Mark Rippetoe [174]
It has long been assumed that the bench press has solved that problem, when in fact it hasn’t. The only thing moving in the bench press is the arms, so in this particular way the bench is to the pushup what the lat pulldown is to the pull-up. But the bench does allow the same approximate movement to be loaded, and has allowed many people to increase their pushup numbers without high-rep pushups. Without adding weight, a fit person will find it difficult to train a pressing motion moving in the anterior direction without using very high reps, which are seldom appropriate for most training goals. Dips address both problems, allowing heavy weights to be used while the entire body moves during an upper-body exercise.
Figure 7-41. “Parallel-bar” dips, performed on an angled dip station. Note that the bottom of the movement drops the shoulders below the elbows.
Unweighted dips are harder than pushups because the whole body is moving, not just the part that isn’t supported by the feet. And for the more advanced trainee, dips are very easy to use weighted, either by hanging plates or other objects from a belt or by holding a dumbbell between the feet (an option which works well only for light weights). The anterior aspect of the movement is provided by the slightly inclined torso position, a function of the fact that the forearms stay vertical during the whole movement. If the body’s mass is to be evenly distributed relative to the position of the hands on the bars – i.e., half of the mass in front of the hands and half of it behind the hands – then the body will have to assume an inclined position during the movement. There is enough angle to provide for a tremendous amount of pec involvement, using primarily the lower part of the muscle belly. And since the arms are operating downward relative to the upper body, the lats are also involved in the adduction of the humerus, adding even more muscle mass to the exercise.
Heavy weights can be used in this exercise, and many powerlifters have used it to maintain bench strength while an injury heals, one that the bench aggravates but that dips do not. Dips can be used unweighted for high reps or weighted, just like the bench would be trained, as a progressively loaded lift. The whole-body effects are felt more as weight increases, with very heavy efforts producing fatigue throughout the trunk and arms.
Dips are best done on a set of dip bars, a station designed for this purpose; most modern gyms do not have a set of parallel bars as might be found in a gymnastics studio or, previously, most gyms.
Figure 7-42. The dip station, shown above and in the previous figure, that permits a variety of grip widths.
Dip-station bars are usually 24–26 inches wide, and the most comfortable ones are made out of 1¼- or 1½-inch pipe or bar stock. They are between 48 and 54 inches high, tall enough to allow the trainee’s feet to completely clear the ground at the bottom of the dip. They really, really need to be stable, either attached to a wall or built with enough base that any possible amount of wobble during the movement will not tip the bars. A non-parallel station, with the bars at a 30-degree angle, allows for a variety of grip widths that can more closely approximate the press, bench press, or jerk grip without adversely affecting the neutral hand orientation. But in a pinch (or a motel room), two chairs can serve as a dip station if they are stable when turned back to