Dips vs ?

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by boards, Feb 10, 2012.

  1. boards

    boards Its all in the reflexes!

    I know when do resistance training you should do exercises for corresponding muscles like dead lifts and squats, bench and row, chinups and overhead press. My question is what exercise corresponds to dips?
     
  2. slipthejab

    slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

    Not every movement will have an exactly corresponding movement. Especially when some movements are compound (eg. multi-joint non-isolation movements that engage multiple muscle groups in a kinetic chain). As dips are a compound movement... they use primarily chest and tricep as primary movers... core is mostly in a spinal stabilization role.

    A good counter movement would be palms-up horizontal/inverted row. Which will hit your middle traps and your rhomboids (so back counters chest). And because your palms are up you are engaging the biceps to a point and then your lats, traps and rhomboids kick in (there will be smaller groups working as well) and again for this movement your core will in a spinal stabilization role.

    Give it a shot. To increase the difficulty on the movement... change the vector. So raise the feet onto a bench you are starting off entirely horizontal from the get go. To scale back the movement to get used to it... start with the heels dug into the ground so your feet are lower (therefore the angle less) than if they were up on a box or bench.

    You might also take a look at the vid that Simon (MAP mod) did. I seem to recall he had some variations. Play with the movement. Off of a horizontal row there are some absolutely brutal compounds you can make. Most are at bodyweight so again... analogous to the bodyweight dip. Once you do these you will fast find out just how weak your core in a stabilization role really is. But with some work you can get picture perfect form... and you have what might be a very nice counter movement for a dip movement.

    Below is an example of a horizontal row... now just do the variation of the palms up (so supinate the hand instead of pronate the hand). Horizontal (or inverted rows) are tough and most people have trouble doing them properly. I have guys who bench healthy amounts or do tons of press ups... but have trouble on horizontal/inverted rows. If you really want to get crazy and add complexity... wrap a larger diameter bar with rubber pipe insulation... get a firm grip and do the palms-up horizontal/inverted rows. Your grip strength will take a beating!!! Build up slowly but overall any of the variations of horizontal/inverted rows are awesome. Many of my clients I train outdoors in parks and there is usually a set of parallel bars... the diameter is much greater than that of an Olympic bar in the gym... so you have to work harder to hold on. Harder still if you wrap it with something to increase that diameter yet again.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvkIaarnf0g&feature=player_embedded"]DeFrancosTraining.com - Inverted rows (feet elevated) - YouTube[/ame]
     
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2012
  3. Dips are squats for the upper body... highly recommended! :)


    Osu!
     
  4. seiken steve

    seiken steve golden member

    awesome post by slip.

    With horizontal rows like that i like to pause and squeeze all the working muscles at the top for a second before the concentric. Gives a really good pump and i'm sure i noticed some increased hypotrophy.
     
  5. Pkhamidar2com

    Pkhamidar2com Panda Member

    Would it not be upright rows? Although i dont do them because i heard stories about it being very bad for the shoulders.

    Dips are pretty awesome though :)
     
  6. boards

    boards Its all in the reflexes!

    Thanks Slip. Great information as always. I'll give them a go.
     
  7. seiken steve

    seiken steve golden member

    simple fact is its very short sighted to work consider movements simpley for the direction they move in.

    like slip said the dips primary movers are pecs and tri's making the antagonists the lower traps, romboids and biceps etc. a good movement to work those muscles is the one higlighted by slip.

    another one i like is wide neutral grip cable rows, but they require specific equiptment.
     

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