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Exercise library · Chest

Chest dips

Horizontal press for the chest with your bodyweight.

How to do it

1 of 3

Straight arms, lean forward

  1. Starting position

    Grip the dip bars with straight arms, lean your torso forward and keep your feet off the floor.

  2. The movement

    Lower your body with your elbows slightly out until your upper arms are almost parallel to the floor, then push back up.

Most common mistake

Don't keep your body fully upright, lean forward and let your elbows move slightly outward to load your chest.

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Muscle group
Chest
Equipment
Bodyweight
Where
Home or gym
Logged as
Reps

Muscles worked

Chest dips train your chest, especially the lower part, together with your triceps and the front of your shoulders. Your triceps work hard throughout. Your lean sets the emphasis: the further forward you lean, the more your chest works, and the more upright you stay, the more shifts to your triceps. The muscles around your shoulder blades and your abs keep you steady between the bars.

Common mistakes

  • You drop and bounce at the bottom. A fast drop pushes your shoulders forward into a vulnerable position. Lower yourself over two to three seconds and turn around while you are still in control. If your shoulder hurts, and does not just feel heavy, stop the exercise and have a doctor or physiotherapist look at it.
  • Your shoulders creep up towards your ears. You then lose the support from your shoulder blades. Press your shoulders down, away from your ears, at the start and at the bottom of every rep.
  • Your legs kick and swing. Momentum from your legs makes the exercise easier than it is. Bend your knees slightly, cross your feet and keep your legs still.

Variations and alternatives

  • Machine dips are a seated version where you choose the weight, useful while you cannot yet handle your own bodyweight, though they put more of the work on your triceps.
  • Triceps dips, with an upright torso, when you want your triceps to do more of the work.
  • The decline bench press trains the lower chest with a bar and is easy to progress in small steps.
  • Push-ups are an alternative at home if you have no dip bars.

Sets and reps

If you can do fewer than five dips with good control, build strength on the machine or with a resistance band for help, aiming for 6 to 12 reps. Once you can handle your own bodyweight, 6 to 12 reps over 3 to 4 sets is a good range for building muscle. For endurance, do sets of 12 to 20. The guide to sets and reps has more.

When you can do more than 12 reps with control, hang a plate from a dip belt and train strength at 3 to 6 reps. Start with 2.5 or 5 kg and go up in small steps, reps first and weight second, which is the basis of progressive overload. Note how much is on the belt, so you know what to beat next time.

Swap for

Taken, or missing the equipment? The same movement with something else.

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